Nashville Fine Dining Recs?

[Mhirby]

Hi Everyone. I haven't posted here before but would appreciate any help. I mostly hang out on the France forum but need some Southeast knowledge.

I'm looking for a great restaurant in Nashville at which to celebrate my wife's Birthday with a group of 6-8. We live in Napa Valley, CA and love great food, and admittedly have gotten a little spoiled. We'd like something very high-quality, great wine list, but not too quiet or stuffy.

We've heard good things about Watermark and The Mad Platter.

Any insights?

Thanks in advance -

Mike

[Gifted Gourmet]

This has some links for fine dining in Nashville:

Restaurants in Nashville

Capitol Grille would be my recommendation ...

reviews of Watermark

Mad Platter reviews

Edited January 27, 2007 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Mhirby]

This has some links for fine dining in Nashville:

Restaurants in Nashville

Capitol Grille would be my recommendation ...

reviews of Watermark

Mad Platter reviews

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Thanks Melissa. Separately, we're having a reception at the Hermitage for a wedding that we're in town for, so we may get to eat at The Capitol Grille anyway.

Thanks for the advice.

[Mhirby]

Has anyone eaten at the Wild Boar?

[Lan4Dawg]

Has anyone eaten at the Wild Boar?

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I do not think they are still open.

There have been a lot of changes in the Nashville dining scene over the past year or so. A co-worker fr/ there recommended a place and I promptly forgot the name but will ask when I see him again next week.

[whifflechef]

Capitol grille and watermark are good but both fall into the stuffy category in my eyes. For a taste of local spots hit www.nashvilleoriginals.com but my suggestion would be tayst restaurant and wine bar. Good wine list, creative quality food, fun atmosphere.

[Mhirby]

I just came accross an article in the Nashville Post.com that staes that the Wild boar went into Chapter 11 in March. Somehow I'm not surprised that they're not open...

Thanks - I'll check out Tayste!

M

[carpetbagger, esq.]

Capitol grille and watermark are good but both fall into the stuffy category in my eyes. For a taste of local spots hit www.nashvilleoriginals.com but my suggestion would be tayst restaurant and wine bar.  Good wine list, creative quality food, fun atmosphere.

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not that you're biased or anything! lol.

i believe radius10 is another place that's supposed to be kinda stuffy like watermark. i haven't gone to either. heck, i still haven't been to mirror...and that's been open for a few years.

[whifflechef]

Capitol grille and watermark are good but both fall into the stuffy category in my eyes. For a taste of local spots hit www.nashvilleoriginals.com but my suggestion would be tayst restaurant and wine bar.  Good wine list, creative quality food, fun atmosphere.

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not that you're biased or anything! lol.

i believe radius10 is another place that's supposed to be kinda stuffy like watermark. i haven't gone to either. heck, i still haven't been to mirror...and that's been open for a few years.

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Shameless self promotion isn't bad is it?

Radius 10 is good but definately not stuffy in the super fine dining way , they are more on the bar side of things. I've heard good reviews on food and mixed on service.

[carpetbagger, esq.]

i'm just messing with you.

i'm all for self-promotion - i'll probably do a little if/when i get my 45 page dining guide to nashville moved from a word doc to a website.

[whifflechef]

i'm just messing with you.

i'm all for self-promotion - i'll probably do a little if/when i get my 45 page dining guide to nashville moved from a word doc to a website.

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I am all about advancing the nashville dining scene and getting some respect for the good restaurants in this town. Let me know if I can help

[BrentKulman]

I went to Radius 10 tonight for dinner and chatted extensively with Jason Brumm, the owner, who is a CIA graduate and alumnus of a variety of Michelin rated restaurants in France.

First let me say that I enjoyed the food and thought that they are doing some interesting things. I had the filet with collards and pork bellies and white beans and thought it was an interesting contrast between the south of France and south of the Mason Dixon. There was a touch too much vinegar but I otherwise enjoyed the context of this dish.

I was saddened to see that the restaurant was not doing a brisk business on a Thursday night and hope that perhaps the weather had something to do with it.

My sense is that Nashville is a chain restaurant town, unfortunately, and restaurants like Radius 10 have a difficult time attracting a clientele.

Perhaps I'm wrong but I also am basing this on the lack of discussion about Nashville restaurants relative to Atlanta and North Carolina on this board.

Comments from others.....

[carpetbagger, esq.]

there are more active posters from the atl and nc areas, which leads to more posts about those areas. nashville restaurant threads seem to come up in the context of people visiting and looking for places to go.

i want to say i have seen some articles in the local papers (the rage, the scene and the tennessean) over the last year or so discussing the changing eating tendencies of nashville. there's certainly been a change in the restaurant landscape over the last year or two. are there a lot of chains in the area? sure, but we're not unique in that regard.

[whifflechef]

Middle tn is the testing ground for all new chain concepts. It is a sad state of affairs. This problem however is not secluded to nashville, it is a national crisis. The chains have saturated all other markets and are now entering the upscale casual / affordable fine dining realm. They are like a giant blob picking off local independants left and right. We are not going down without a fight about thirty nashville restaurants have formed a group called the nashville originals (www.nashvilleoriginals.com). We are a local chapter of a national group called dineoriginals. Promote eating local.

As far as radius being slow on a thursday, your comment is correct. It is very tough for the creative independants to do well. It probably can be said for most cities but being good is not good enough. There are only two places in that genre of restaurant that are consistantly busy in the whole city. Kind of amazing for a city of 1.2 million that all ten local rest., yes I said ten, that do a quality job are not full or close to it every night.

I don't get it?

[Mayhaw Man]

Well, it's not exactly fine dining, but you can't eat this anywhere else.

Don't eat if you are getting on a plane within the next 12 hours. Really. It wasn't a good thing, in that regard. Uggh.

From the SFA Oral History Site...

"Whether you prefer hot or mild, be prepared to wait up to half an hour for your fare because the chicken isn't dropped into the skillet until it's ordered. And it's not for those with a sensitive stomach, Prince's warns. "It's a 24 hour chicken," according to Jeffries. And it sure is addictive."

[carpetbagger, esq.]

i advise anyone going to prince's to just clear their calendar for the rest of the day, and usually the next day as well.

some people made the mistake of going to prince's for lunch and then going back to class afterwards. me? i just went home, where i could rest comfortably until it was time to die. other people would go and get a smoothie or milkshake to try and mitigate the damage. it seems to get a little easier the more you go - but the damage you do to arteries will take days off your life expectancy!

i really feel for you and the other passengers on that plane.

[Lan4Dawg]

Has anyone eaten at the Wild Boar?

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I do not think they are still open.

There have been a lot of changes in the Nashville dining scene over the past year or so. A co-worker fr/ there recommended a place and I promptly forgot the name but will ask when I see him again next week.

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Matt suggests Flyte. Apparently some of the folks from Capitol Grille are in the kitchen. He said the food is excellent and the wine list is first rate. It is on my list for the next time we are in Nash-vegas.

[carpetbagger, esq.]

i'm guessing that would be october 13th, when the dawgs go down...again!

i was at rotier's having a cheeseburger on french bread with a chocolate shake when we kicked that field goal. everyone went nuts...good times.

[Mhirby]

i advise anyone going to prince's to just clear their calendar for the rest of the day, and usually the next day as well.

some people made the mistake of going to prince's for lunch and then going back to class afterwards. me? i just went home, where i could rest comfortably until it was time to die. other people would go and get a smoothie or milkshake to try and mitigate the damage. it seems to get a little easier the more you go - but the damage you do to arteries will take days off your life expectancy!

i really feel for you and the other passengers on that plane.

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That has to be the funniest post I have read in a long, long time!

Guess we won't be going there for lunch on the last day...

Edited February 4, 2007 by Mhirby (log)

[Mhirby]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everybody.

Tayst looks great - a little simpler and straight-forward than some of the other menus, which is exactly what we like: great ingredients prepared simply.

One more question: anyone eaten at the Mad Platter recently?

Thanks -

[carpetbagger, esq.]

Not recently, sorry. I tend to like their lunch menu more than the dinner menu anyway.

I can, however, recommend the following places, which are "nicer" places:

Germantown Cafe, The Acorn, Cabana, F. Scott's

Depending on how much time you have, you should also consider these, cheaper places for lunch or brunch:

saturday brunch - Monell's

breakfast - pancake pantry

sunday brunch - germantown cafe (see above) or The Loveless Cafe

bbq - Hog Heaven (get a regular pork sandwich and a chicken sandwich with white bbq sauce)

burger - rotier's (cheeseburger on french bread)

i hope you have a nice trip!

[Chezkaren]

We ate at Tayst Saturday night and thoroughly enjoyed every last bite of it. I highly recommend it. Karen

[ms. victoria]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Zola off West End. We've been there several times and it has always been wonderful. The wine list isn't huge but they have some nice bottles. Deb Paquette is the chef/owner and one of my local food heroes. She does food with Southern ingredients with a Spanish twist. She also has a salad with beets cooked like fried green tomatoes that is amazing. They also have a martini menu.

In addition to the seriously good food, the service has always been remarkable. We went for our anniversary and I told them that was the occasion when I made our reservation. When we got there we had the best little corner table and it was decorated with some gilt streamers and hearts (not cheesy at all just subtle and only on the table so no one else would have even noticed). We also went with a friend who is an educated wine drinker and had chosen a lovely Spanish red for our meal. There was about a glass left in the bottle when the server with the bread basket caught it and tipped it over. None of it spilled but they brought us another bottle of the same on the house.

I would highly recommend it.

[Lan4Dawg]

i'm guessing that would be october 13th, when the dawgs go down...again!

i was at rotier's having a cheeseburger on french bread with a chocolate shake when we kicked that field goal. everyone went nuts...good times.

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yeah, yeah, yeah....

We let you win every once in a while just to let you have a taste of what you are missing.

I am working on menus for next season and keep coming back to doing a version of Prince's Hot Chicken but do not know how comfortable every one will be sitting in the stadium for several hours after eating. ":^) You are, of course, more than welcome to join us.

HDHD