Downtown Chattanooga Archives - Page 17 of 21

Fresh on Fridays, 5/11/12-Taco Sherpa, Famous Nater’s, Pure Sodaworks, and Monkey Town Donuts

May 12, 2012

Did you know that Chattanooga has a street food scene? If you said no, you’re not alone. If you said yes, you are probably either (a) like me and unnaturally absorbed in the Chattanooga food scene; or (b) someone who works downtown. Food trucks in Chattanooga don’t do a lot of venturing out of downtown Chattanooga at this time, and why would they? Their bread is definitely getting buttered by the downtown crowd, as they sell out of product regularly and are definitely thriving. Right now, the food trucks in Chattanooga are Southern Burger Co. (aka the best burger in Chattanooga), Taco Sherpa (Korean tacos & rice bowls), Famous Nater’s (sandwiches), and A Taste of Argentina (duh, Argentinian food). Supplement that with Monkey Town Donut Company’s donut cart and Pure Sodaworks’ handmade soda cart, and you’ve got a true street food scene.

I’ve been wanting to try all of the above for some time now, but since I both live and work in Hixson and we are not big on crowds (i.e. we don’t care too much for the Chattanooga Market), this amazingness has eluded me to this point. I had a personal day that needed ot be used up before the end of the school year, so I took yesterday off from work and went to Fresh on Fridays, a gathering of all the food trucks and carts plus several other vendors at Miller Plaza. Once summer break hits, I am sure that I will attend many more of these plus some Food Truck Tuesdays at Warehouse Row. Both of these events begin at 11 and end at 2.

We arrived a few minutes early and the only vendor that was open was Monkey Town Donut Co., so we waited a few minutes. I had already decided to eat at Taco Sherpa. They opened promptly at 11 and I walked up and introduced myself as Chattavore (I’m a big dork like that). Whit, the chef, and I had conversed a little bit on Twitter, and he shook my hand….and he knew my first name. And that I’m a teacher. I was quite impressed. That, my friends, is connecting with your consumers. Whit’s wife, Lindsey, gave me a bite of dak galbi (spicy chicken) to taste so I could make sure that it wasn’t too spicy, since I’m a pansy. It wasn’t. I ordered one dak galbi taco and one galbi (pork marinated in sweet & spicy soy-based sauce) taco plus chips and salsa as a side. They also offer Korean banchan (pickled/fermented vegetables) but as I mentioned, I’m a pansy and I was afraid of the kimchi. I’ll wait for Philip to order it at some point, because if my food’s too spicy, I can’t eat it. And nothing is more depressing to me than ordering food and not being able to eat it.

My tacos came out quickly. They are served on double corn tortillas with cucumber, radish, cabbage, cilantro, sesame seeds, and sherpa sauce. The chicken is cut into large chunks and coated with the sherpa sauce, which is just a little spicy…you taste the chiles more than the heat. I liked it….but I liked the pork more. The pork was shredded/pulled pork and you could just taste the slow-roastedness of it. The sauce was perfect and all of the veggies really completed the flavor. I love corn tortillas and the tacos were great on them. The chips and salsa were….chips and salsa. I want to try the banchan…and I will, eventually. Taco Sherpa is a fantastic addition to Chattanooga’s street food scene. Try it. TRY IT! They just opened last month, and they’re sure to be around for a long time. You can learn more about Taco Sherpa at their website, http://tacosherpa.com, their Facebook page, or on Twitter (@tacosherpa).

****Sadly, the Sherpa closed in early 2013 when White and Lindsay decided to move back to South Korea. I wish them well but they’ll be missed!

While Philip liked the idea of Korean tacos, he was sucked in by the promise of the Famous Nater’s BBQ pork sandwich: 12-hour roasted pork with truckmade barbecue sauce, bacon, and cabbage slaw on a Niedlov’s bun. Yep. Pork on pork. Since Philip loves pulled pork and bacon about equally, he was pretty much fixated and couldn’t take his mind off that pork sandwich. Nater’s was a little late opening, so he had to wait a few minutes longer than I did. He got the BBQ sandwich and a bag of Route 44 salt & vinegar chips (we got our drinks from Pure Sodaworks-more on that in a minute). As you can see, there were a few lightly pickled vegetables also included with the sandwich, along with the huge stack of pulled pork in sweet sauce and a thick layer of red cabbage slaw. The roasted pork was perfectly tender and the sauce was just right, although Philip commented that he couldn’t really taste the bacon very much….I guess it was overpowered by the barbecue sauce. Oh well. The sandwich was still great and the Niedlov’s bun pulled it all together…quite literally. Famous Nater’s has been around since early 2011 and landed very close to the top in a national food truck competition…in their first year! You can find out more about Famous Nater’s on their website, http://famousnaters.com, their Facebook page, or on Twitter (@famousnaters). You can also call them at 423-596-5457.

Like I said above, we got our drinks at Pure Sodaworks. I had no idea such a thing existed until last month when another local blog, Local Milk, started talking about it on the blog and on Twitter. Handmade soda? In Chattanooga? Yes please. Philip and I are soda lovers but soda is a treat for us, and we are always on the lookout for a great soda that doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup, and we’ve recently even tried our hand at making our own (good times!). Well, we have found the perfect one(s). Pure Sodaworks has a stationary location in Coolidge Park that just opened, and in addition to selling their drinks by the cup, they will start a bottling operation soon. They offer seasonal flavors-hooray-sweetened with natural cane sugar-hooray again! On this day, the offerings were root beer, ginger ale, hibiscus lemon, strawberry jalapeno, and lavender mint. I jumped at the lavender mint, and Philip decided on strawberry jalapeno. Both were heaven in a cup, a few squirts of syrup over pellet ice (rejoice!) and topped off with carbonated water. Mine was so fresh and herby tasting, not overwhelmingly minty or lavendery but a perfect balance of both. Philip’s was sweet and perfectly strawberry tasting with the peppery flavor of jalapeno and just a hint of spice…even my pansy tastebuds could handle it. He kept saying it was blowing his mind (in a good way) to taste sweet and jalapeno together. Perfection. Shawn, the soda jerk who was working the stand (I found out his name because I cyberstalked him on their website) carried our drinks to the table for me because I had my hands full of tacos and then he spent several minutes talking to us about their business before we left. I am so excited about Pure Sodaworks I can hardly take it! Get out of your Coca-Cola rut and give them a try! Pure Sodaworks is located at 181 River Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-299-3219. To learn more about them, check out their website, http://puresodaworks.com, their Facebook page, or Twitter (@puresodaworks).

Finally, as we left, we stopped by the Monkey Town Donut Company trailer. Monkey Town Donut Company is based in Dayton, Tennessee (get it? Monkey Town? As in the Scopes Monkey Trial?). Their donuts are tiny, one to two-bite donuts (one for Philip, two for me) coated with cinnamon and sugar. Oh, and they only have thirty calories each. Yep, 30 calories. Which means that a serving (six!) has less than 200 calories. Is that the perfect food or what? They were amazing hot, but we had a few left over (I think that he actually gave us a few more than a dozen-which only costs $4.00, by the way) which we ate cold with coffee after we got home, and they were pretty darn good too. I’m completely enamored and told Philip last night that I wished we had some more. I’ll definitely be getting them again! You can call Monkey Town Donuts at 423-902-6685 or check them out on Facebook.

Street food seems to be the new “thing” in the U.S. and I am glad that the trend has made it to Chattanooga. I hope that the trend will eventually bring our fantastic food trucks into Hixson from time to time, but lucky for me, I’m going to have a lot more free time over the next couple of months to support local street food. I’ve even kicked around the idea of starting my own food truck or cart one of these days-who knows? In the meantime, I’m happy to eat food from these amazing chefs, cooks, and creators who make this food fresh for us Chattanoogans. I encourage you to do the same!

Hair of the Dog-April 28, 2012

April 29, 2012

So, I’ve completed the trifecta. Hair of the Dog is owned by the same people who own The Honest Pint and Terminal BrewHouse, two of my very favorite dining spots in Chattanooga. Since Hair of the Dog is a bar….errr, pub (i.e. a smoky environment) we have been waiting for warm weather so that we could dine al fresco (there’s no non-smoking section as there is in The Honest Pint). Yesterday was a beautiful day and it was perfect for sitting on the deck. We’ve been to Hair of the Dog before, a couple of different times, but we’ve only eaten appetizers and both of those visits were long before the Chattavore days.

Since we love the other two spots so much, we were pretty excited about Hair of the Dog, especially since I read on the Main Street Farmers Market website the other day that the bartender was experimenting with locally grown/produced food in the menu specials, and I was actually in line behind her on Wednesday when she was picking up produce at the Fall Creek Farms stall. On the Hair of the Dog website there were several weekly specials listed featuring local food, but we didn’t see this until after our visit (otherwise we would have asked about them) and there was no mention of them from our server or on the chalkboard outside listing the beer specials. Of course, by Saturday afternoon they could have been fresh out of these items….we’ll have to ask next time!

On one of our past visits, we had soft pretzels with beer and cheese soup for dipping; on another, Philip ate some Reuben rolls (just as they sound….eggroll wrappers stuffed with corned beef, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing). This time, we decided to order chips, drowned in beer cheese soup. You can also get them plain, wet (covered in white gravy), or overloaded (wet, drowned, and topped with bacon). We were thinking actual chips, but they turned out to be fries. I guess we should have been thinking in more of an “across the pond” mode, since this is a pub, after all, but we weren’t. If we had known they were fries we would have gotten them wet! Anyway…the beer and cheese soup is interesting, with chunks of carrots and celery in a mild and not super-liquidy cheese soup. Appetizers don’t usually come with chunks of veggies, so these are healthy, right? Anyway, the fries are hand cut and not super-crispy. So drippy and messy….but that’s okay! I really liked them but was secretly wishing for bacon.

I toyed with the idea of getting a burger, but that wasn’t really what I wanted. I looked over the menu about fifteen times and finally decided to try out the fish & chips, an item I rarely order….but it seemed appropriate. The funny part of this is that when I ordered it I knew that the “chips” coming with the fish were fries, but still hadn’t made the connection that the “chips” coming in my appetizer were not potato chips. So anyway…I ended up with double fries! Good thing I adore fries, right? They were really good plain with some malt vinegar sprinkled on top, and also dipped in ketchup. I could eat fries every day, do you understand???? The fish was great too…three pieces of cod in a very crispy but not greasy batter. I love fish & chips because (a) it’s fried; (b) it’s crunchy; and (c) it tastes great with malt vinegar. My college roommate and I used to go to Captain D’s (I’m so ashamed!) on a regular basis to eat pieces of fish completely soaked in malt vinegar (we called it “eating a little food with our fat”). This fish was definitely not Captain D’s….I would definitely order it again! The tartar sauce was pretty much amazing…clearly housemade. It wasn’t goopy and it had big chunks of pickle in it. The fries also tasted great with the tartar sauce. Win!

Philip decided on the Winner, Winner, Chicken-Fried Chicken Dinner, a gigantic butterflied boneless chicken breast, breaded and fried and served with white gravy on top. He ordered hash brown casserole and broccoli with almonds as his sides. The chicken breast, as I mentioned before (and as you can see below) was extremely large and very crispy but extremely juicy and well-seasoned. The gravy was good but according to Philip not as good as mine (he’s a little spoiled, you see…besides, mine’s made with bacon grease-hard to beat!). The hash brown casserole was also good, crispy, cheesy, and creamy, all important hash brown casserole characteristics. The broccoli was fresh and well cooked, but he did feel like it needed a little salt. Overall definitely a blogworthy meal….

Hair of the Dog is nice, casual environment with a tasty pub menu. Remember that it’s a 21 and over establishment, and if you don’t like smoke, go on a warm day so you can sit outside. Support your local farmers and ask about their local specials! Hair of the Dog Pub is located at 334 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-265-4615. Check out their website, http://www.hairofthedogpub.net, “like” them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter. Oh, and tell them Chattavore sent you!

I Love Honest Pint-April 22, 2012

April 24, 2012

Sunday we decided at the last second to have lunch out (don’t ask….more planning issues. Blast!). Philip suggested The Honest Pint, and you know I was game. I’ll never turn down a visit to the Pint. I’m not going to go through all of the details about The Honest Pint…you can read those in my original post…but just thought I’d share about what we tried on this experience.

As I mentioned in my last Honest Pint post, they serve a Saturday and Sunday brunch from 11-3. When we walked up, we were greeted by this sign:

Philip asked our server (darn if I didn’t forget her name-I’m usually so good at remembering!) about the chicken and waffles, which he was very tempted to order….it’s a panko-breaded, boneless fried chicken breast served with a waffle that contains bacon. Um, yeah. He was very tempted to get it until he asked the make-it-or-break-it question: is the syrup real maple syrup? She seemed pretty taken aback by that question and was surprised that pancake syrup would be a dealbreaker. Turns out the syrup was a blend of buffalo sauce and pancake syrup. The buffalo flavor covered the artificial flavor of the syrup a little but it definitely wasn’t enough. Use real maple syrup, people! It’s the only way to go. We of course ordered our usual pommes tots (tots fried in duck fat!) while we decided what entrees to order. You may think that tots fried in duck fat sound bizarre, but they are not, my friends….they are not.

So, Philip ordered the chorizo hash, with housemade chorizo, potatoes, red onion, red pepper, and a fried egg on top. The chorizo was not as spicy as what he has become accustomed to ordering off the menu at Delia’s, but it did have a good, well-seasoned flavor. The eggs were nicely cooked with a little runny yolk….and I appreciated that the eggs were fried, not scrambled (like in their corned beef hash) because you know that’s how I do hash. Still, Philip said that while he liked the chorizo hash, he preferred the corned beef hash.

Actually, the angle behind going to The Pint was so I could try a burger (Philip had tried one before, I had not). I decided on the This Burger is the Jam burger, cooked to medium because I like to live dangerously, and chips. The burger had caramelized onions, blue cheese, and bacon jam (word to your mom!). I loved that the edges of the burger were “irregular” so you knew that it was hand-patted, and it was perfectly cooked and oh so drippy. The blue cheese was very pungent and the bacon jam lent the perfect combination of savory and sweet. I did, however, feel that the onions could have been a little more caramelized (to me, caramelized onions should be caramel-colored, not white) although these were cooked enough that I was able to eat them (raw or barely cooked onions are on my bad list). If I were making this burger at home, I would have paired the bacon jam with cheddar…I felt that the blue cheese overpowered the bacon jam a little. Still, a good burger. And the chips, as always, were to die for.

So, you may have figured out that we love The Honest Pint. The menu is unique while still offering “something for everyone”, and the atmosphere is casual and relaxed. If you haven’t already, you should try it! The Honest Pint is located at 35 Patten Parkway, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-468-4192. Check out their website, http://thehonestpint.com, “like” them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter (@thehonestpint).

Eat at Good Dog (Again)!-April 14, 2012

April 19, 2012

Ugh. Lack of planning is going to be the death of me. Sunday we were supposed to have cream of broccoli soup for lunch, and I completely forgot to put the chicken carcass from the freezer to the Crock-pot to make chicken broth. Not wanting to buy broth at the grocery store, we decided to go “out” to eat, something that we rarely do on Sunday afternoons. After wracking our brains for several minutes, it dawned on me: Good Dog. Re-blog!

It was much more crowded on this Sunday afternoon than when we visited on a Saturday evening in November. We waited in line for several minutes, which gave us plenty of time to decide what we were going to order…not that I needed several minutes. The last time that we were here, the BLT dog was not on the menu, so my eyes went straight there and didn’t leave. BLT dog it is (was?). Philip decided on the NY Street Cart dog, and, of course, we got frites.

We waited a little while since there were so many people in the restaurant. Seriously-I was a little nervous we weren’t going to find a table! We decided to sit at the “bar” area in front of the kitchen, and I snapped a few pictures of the restaurant:

Condiment Gallery = Yea! I love frites sauce!

From where we were sitting, we had a great view of the grill area (and the dog dust, honey mustard, and curry, wasabi, and regular ketchup).

The one disadvantage to sitting at the “bar” was the lack of the little hole to set the frites into! Just like last time, the frites were delicious….perfectly fried, not too crispy, not soggy, skin on. There was an employee in the back prepping fries-I could see her putting the potatoes into the fry cutter (I gotta get one of those!). I am assuming that they do a “first fry” back there to get some of the starch and moisture out of the potatoes. She then brought the baskets out and put them in a stacker to wait for the final fry. I know that some of you bristle at the idea of dipping your fries in “frittesaus”, which is a mayo-like condiment…but wow, this stuff is so not weird.

I loved my BLT dog….lovely grilled hot dog, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, crumbled freshly cooked bacon, and frites sauce. Like I mentioned before, I could eat one of these dogs plain (I usually despise hot dogs). I was watching them press the dogs just a little bit on the grill, and they get nice and browned. No boiled dogs here! The bun was soft and the produce very crisp and fresh. The bacon was a perfect finishing touch….but I do think I liked the pimento cheese dog better.

The NY Street Cart dog has Bertman’s Brown mustard, onion sauce, and sauerkraut. Pretty basic dog, again with stinky-foot-smelling sauerkraut. Oh, sauerkraut, I kid, I kid! I tasted it and it really did taste good. If you’ll remember, last time we went to Good Dog Philip got a brat, and he was quite happy with his first “true” Good Dog hot dog.

They had red velvet and vanilla cupcakes. I almost ordered one but talked myself out of it…I’m trying to cut back on the sugar, and I knew there would be dessert at my parents’ house (banana splits with homemade chocolate sauce made by yours truly!)…one of these days I’m going to get one of these gigantic beauties!

So, to sum it up….this is still a great place to get a good (great!) dog. It’s worth the trip downtown. This is no convenience store dog. So, as this sign says…..

Good Dog is located at 34 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-475-6175. You can “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Check out their website, www.eatatgooddog.com.

Julie Darling Donuts-April 14, 2012

April 17, 2012

Boy, Saturday was a big day for us! After we finished our great lunch at Niko’s, we headed over to the North Shore to get some donuts from Julie Darling. I’m not sure why we hadn’t been yet…I saw an article about them when they opened in 2010 and immediately wanted to go. So….we finally made it.

We went on Saturday afternoon (around three p.m.) and they did not have the red velvet donut, which, according to the brochure we picked up, is their “signature”. I wanted to cry….I’m pretty much obsessed with all things red velvet (strange, I know, for someone who tries to avoid food dyes…but it’s not something I eat on a regular basis) and I knew when I read about it in the aforementioned article that I would be ordering that. So….I was completely thrown off by the fact that it wasn’t available. It took me a few minutes to make a decision…they had glazed (yeast-raised) doughnuts, cake donuts (iced/uniced), and a variety of filled donuts. We each chose two and brought them home (we were far too stuffed to eat them there).

After I dried my tears and pulled myself together, I decided to get a lemon-filled donut and a ‘nana pudding donut. Truth be told, I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for a really good filled donut (cake donuts are my favorite-not a huge fan of glazed). The lemon was lightly glazed and the ‘nana pudding had a little glaze and some powdered sugar icing with crushed vanilla wafers on top. I was concerned that the vanilla wafers would get soggy but needn’t have been concerned-I saved half of each donut until Sunday and the wafers were fine. Anyway, the ‘nana pudding was far and away my favorite from these two. There was no actually banana in the donut, but rather a creamy banana-flavored filled, like pudding or the filling from a cream pie. It was smooth and banana-y but not overly so. Not that the lemon wasn’t good….I just didn’t find it to be head and shoulders above other lemon-filled donuts I’ve had in my lifetime. The lemon flavor of the technicolor filling was very strong and bright….I think I would have liked it better if it had been a little milder, like a homemade lemon curd. Still, the doughnut was extremely fresh and no doubt had better ingredients than what you might find in your standard chain doughnut shop….

Unlike me, Philip is a fool for a glazed donut, and a day-old Krispy Kreme is pretty much his idea of heaven on earth…so, of course, he decided on a plain glazed donut. For his other donut he chose (surprise!) the pancakes and bacon donut, which is a yeast-raised donut with maple glaze and bacon topping. Philip liked both of his donuts, but did say that the bacon on the pancakes and bacon donut seemed a little “dry”…I’m wondering if it was from sitting in the case (according to a post I read on another blog, the bacon is cooked in the shop). There certainly was a lot of it….I’d like to know just how they crush it so finely! He preferred the glazed donut, because, like I said, he’s just a glazed donut kinda guy. He did say that he didn’t like it as much as Krispy Kreme. I would probably disagree with him if I were to compare the two, but he really, really loves Krispy Kreme. I don’t understand, but I guess it’s a nostalgia thing (also, he is not a “hot and fresh” Krispy Kreme guy….he likes them a day old and a little crusty. Weirdo.).

I haven’t been enamored with the national donut chain (that shall remain unnamed) that has recently reemerged in the Chattanooga area. It’s not that I have a problem with them or their donuts…I mean, I’ll eat them if they’re offered (and it’s a flavor I like)….but I guess it just annoys me that everyone makes such a big flipping deal about a huge chain that’s good but not stellar, when we have local gems like this we could support (I feel the same way about a very large coffee chain….sorry to offend anyone!). If we spend a little time rooting out local options, we might (ahem, probably would) realize that those options are the best options in every way. So, get some donuts from Julie Darling!

Julie Darling Donuts is located at 121 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-591-3737. They do not have a website, but you can “like” them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

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