Downtown Chattanooga Archives - Page 9 of 21

Community Pie: New York Style Pizza

December 15, 2013

Community Pie has fantastic pizza, both Neapolitan style and their new New York style pizza. Is it authentic? No clue. Do I care? Nope. It’s delicious!

I first wrote about the Monen’s pizza restaurant, Community Pie, in February. I’ve written about all of their other establishments-Taco Mamacita, Urban Stack Burger Lounge, and Milk & Honey-as well. In October I received an email letting me know that they were now serving New York style pizza at Community Pie, followed by a Facebook message offering me a gift certificate to come in and check it out (and as a thank you for all the free plugs for their many great restaurants). So there you go…now you all know that I ate (mostly) for free on this visit. However, if I didn’t like it….you know I wouldn’t write about it. That’s just my style.

We needed to head downtown to pick up some coffee at Velo anyway, so Philip and I decided to go to Community Pie for a late(ish) lunch. There weren’t a ton of people in the restaurant when we got there at about 1:30, but it definitely wasn’t dead for an after-lunch crowd on a cold, rainy, and dreary Saturday. We were quickly seated and our server took our drink orders and talked to us about the newly introduced New York style pies, which come in 14 and 19-inch whole pies as well as slices. You can order a specialty pie or top your own, and the slices come in cheese, pepperoni, supreme, and “home slice” which is the special of the day (the special when we visited was the aphro, short for Aphrodite, with lemon roasted chicken, tomato, feta, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, red onion and pepperoncini peppers.

The last time that we were here we split an arugula salad, but I had really wanted to try the raw kale salad, of which I’d heard so many good things, so I ordered one. Philip ordered a Caesar salad, and we decided to get an order of garlic knots as well. The garlic knots came first, hot, crispy, and covered with parmesan cheese and julienned fresh basil. They were quite tasty, and the marinara was very interesting, with a smoky flavor that reminded me of chipotles (but it wasn’t really spicy). Our server told us that there was bacon in the sauce, which is probably where the smokiness came from. The sauce also contains San Marzano tomatoes and a little bit of chocolate. Amen and amen.

I loved the kale salad. Let me say that again: I loved the kale salad. I really, really enjoyed the arugula salad before, but the kale salad was over the top delicious. If you are someone who is convinced that kale is gross….well, stop it. Just stop. Kale is fantastic….you just have to know how to treat it. Massage (literally!) and a little acid will break down the fibers of the kale and make it yield to chewing much more easily. This kale was wonderfully tender, well-dressed with a tart-but-not-overly-so champagne vinaigrette, with dried cranberries, slivered almonds, and grated parmesan. It was amazing, and I want to eat it every day (I should really make this kale salad again soon!). Philip liked his Caesar as well. The romaine leaves were well-coated in a very lemony Caesar dressing (too little Caesar dressing is a travesty) and topped with grated parmesan and plenty of house made croutons. I hate getting a Caesar that has approximately 2.5 croutons and a sad little sprinkling of cheese. This was not that salad.

Now, before I start talking about the pizza, I need to say something. I have never been to New York and therefore I’ve never had “real” New York style pizza. I have heard from many that the pizza at New York Pizza Department is pretty authentic, but I have no experience to draw on there. I was scolded by a friend after that review for getting toppings that no New Yorker would ever order on their pizza (I got BLT and Philip got Buffalo chicken) but we ordered what sounded good to us because our reviews are based on what sounds and tastes good to us. So, I have no idea if Community Pie’s New York style pizza is “authentic” (by the way…this is why I’ve never written about sushi).

Philip thought the Demarco pizza, with fresh and shredded mozzarella, hand torn basil, extra virgin olive oil and pecorino romano, sounded good. And it did, but I kind of wanted to try a more signature Community Pie…pie. He was also into the Spicy Bianca, with olive oil, fresh mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, basil, pecorino romano and calabrian chiles (no tomato sauce), but I was scared that one might be a little spicy for my wimpy palate. The Drunk Pig sounded great, with vodka sauce, Community Pie ricotta, homemade fennel sausage, fresh mozzarella, parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper (you know my love for vodka sauce) but ultimately, we decided on the Bianca Supreme (olive oil, fresh mozzarella, spinach, mushrooms, bacon and gorgonzola-no tomato sauce). The 14-inch, which our server described to us as “good for two people” was pretty gigantic. It was cut into six slices, of which I ate one and Philip had two (we brought the other three home).

This pie was sturdier than the Neopolitan pies that we sampled on our first visit, which I preferred to eat with a fork. The crust was very thin until we got to the edge, when the border was wonderfully chewy and crunchy at the same time. The amount of cheese was perfect and the pizza was topped with just the right ratio of each ingredient, including a liberal amount of bacon. Philip did comment that he would have liked a little more gorgonzola, but overall, this pizza was perfect that way it was.

More pizza in Chattanooga: Crust, Lupi’s Pizza Pies, New York Pizza Department, The Pizza Place, Hill City Pizza

Now, I cannot leave an establishment serving gelato-especially Milk & Honey gelat0-without having some, so we ordered some salted caramel and pistachio (two separate flavors, but you can get up to three flavors in your cup) to split. Other flavors available were the signature flavor, Milk & Honey, chocolate Oreo, and vanilla latte. As always, the gelato was perfect. I was a little surprised to find that I preferred the salted caramel to the pistachio, but I would order either (or both) again.

Our total for this visit was $39 and some change pre-tip. As I’ve said before, it’s not a place to go for a cheap pizza dinner, but for a creative and delicious pizza I think it’s worth it as an occasional treat. Is it authentic? I have no clue. Do I care? Nope.

So, I think you should try New York style pizza at Community Pie.

For another review, check out my bloggie friend Emily’s recent review.

Community Pie is located at 850 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. You can call them at 423-486-1PIE. Check out their website, CommunityPie.com. You can also like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Slick’s Burgers

December 8, 2013

Slick’s Burgers is a popular burger spot, formerly located in St. Elmo and now on Main Street in Downtown Chattanooga, serving house-ground beef burgers.

A few weeks (maybe a month?) ago I was driving back to my school after a meeting on West 40th Street in St. Elmo when I saw a sign at the old Sugar’s Ribs location (across from the Incline and adjacent to 1885 Grill) for Slick’s Burgers. I filed it in the back of my head and kept moving…I was starving and needed to get back to work in time to eat lunch before time to get the kids up from their nap.

Last weekend I was dying for a burger, but Philip was sick so we ended up staying in all weekend. I have a list of several places that I’m planning to go in the next few weeks, but there was one reason or another not to go to any of the places that I had ticked off in my own head before we left the house. Philip had noticed a post on Facebook about Slick’s Burgers and suggested that we head out there since I had been wanting a burger. Sure! Why not?

We were greeted when we walked in by a man whose name I didn’t catch but who I think may have been the owner or manager. He quickly explained the menu to us and told us that all of the meats are ground in-house (they get their beef from Buckhead Beef in Atlanta) and they hand-cut their own fries as well. They have a very small regular menu-burgers in various sizes, a chicken sandwich, grilled cheese, and hot dogs, fries and a handful of other sides, a soup of the day, and a specials menu. I love restaurants with small menus because that often means that they are focused on quality, not variety.

Philip and I both decided to get the 7-ounce “Slick” burger (I briefly debated getting the 4-ounce “Sissy” burger but then I decided that I am probably never going to be satisfied with a 4-ounce burger). The burgers come with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickles on a Niedlov’s bun. I added cheddar cheese to mine and Philip added pepper jack (pictured below). They also offer American, Swiss, and blue cheese. Ketchup and mustard are on the table and they bring mayo to you when they deliver your food. We split an order of fries (they offer truffle fries and chili-cheese fries but we decided to just have regular). We just drank water, but they also offer fountain drinks, Pure Sodaworks bottled drinks, and a decent selection of beers. Our total was $19 and some change.

The food came out pretty quickly, about ten minutes after we ordered. The fries had been split between the two baskets-I love when restaurants do that! The burgers were open so that we could put on the toppings as we wished (except for the pickles, which were on the bottom bun). The cheese was melted on top of the burgers, which you would think would be a given but…isn’t. The burger was huge, and when I moved the bottom bun to put some mayo on it there were tons of juices soaked into it. Yum. And the verdict was….wow. This was a great burger, pink on the inside and so juicy. I know some of you are queasy about pink on the inside of a burger, but I am not and this was glorious. If you don’t like pink…be sure to tell them to make it well-done. It was delicious, simply seasoned with just salt and pepper and simply topped. I had considered getting the BBQ burger but I’m glad I decided to go with the Slick so that I could taste how good this burger was in its simplest form. The fries were also fantastic….skin-on, perfectly crispy, and wonderfully seasoned.

So…I officially loved this place….in fact, if I see fit to revise Chattavore’s Top Five Burgers, they may garner a spot (there may be an opening depending on whether or not the rumor I heard about Merv’s closing permanently is true or not. Update 2/14: not true! Not true! Merv’s is reopened!). Philip grumbled a little bit about the music (they were playing The Doors and he hates The Doors) but I was find with the music. The atmosphere is great for a little burger joint and the guy we talked with when we came in as well as the cashier were very friendly. The service was quickly but not suspiciously so, and the food was great. And, a big plus for a St. Elmo place, they have their own fairly large parking lot (as odd and jumbled as it may be-not sure who designed that lot!).

I strongly recommend that you check out Slick’s Burgers!

Slick’s Burgers is located at 7950 Tennessee Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37409. You can call them at 423-385-8392. They don’t currently have a website but you can find them on Facebook.

Also in St. Elmo: 1885 Grill, The Purple Daisy, Pasha Coffee & Tea

Other great burgers in Chattanooga: Main Street Meats, Tremont Tavern, The Terminal, Merv’s, Southern Burger, The Honest Pint, Tubby’s

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga

October 13, 2013

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga is a trendy spot serving classic, fun Southern food in at Warehouse Row in Downtown Chattanooga.

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga opened last month at Warehouse Row. It has been much hyped (at least in my Facebook feed!) and I was anxious to check it out. We ate at the original Tupelo Honey in Asheville, North Carolina a few years back and were pretty impressed by the BLT and the sweet potato pancakes. It’s now a chain, but since it’s still regional and small I decided that it still fit into the confines of Chattavore.

I was a little nervous about crowds since it’s downtown and still fairly new, so we decided to go early. We arrived at a few minutes after 5 p.m. on a Wednesday night and were immediately seated. Since the weather was perfect-o, we decided to sit outside. Our server, Leslie, greeted us quickly and took our drink order, suggesting fried green tomatoes (served with goat cheese and basil) or cheesy grit cakes as an appetizer, but we decided against ordering an app (besides, I probably would have gone for the pimento cheese and tortilla chips if I had wanted an appetizer). Every diner gets a biscuit with blueberry jam and honey (Tupelo honey, I presume). The biscuits were pretty good but the jam was great-not too sweet, not too gooey…just perfect.

Tupelo Honey serves breakfast all day. I really wanted the Eggs Betty-“two free-range, medium-poached eggs on a biscuit with all-natural city ham and homemade lemony hollandaise”-but that’s the one breakfast item that they don’t serve all day (they stop serving it at 2 p.m.). The fried egg BLT-“two fresh, free-range eggs prepared over hard, two strips of maple peppered bacon, lettuce, tomato and smoked jalapeno aioli on our exclusive sourdough wheat”-sounded pretty good too….but I decided I didn’t want breakfast. I flipped back to the entrées, where I seriously considered the vegetable plate (three of the veggie sides for $9.95 or four for $12.45)…but then I noticed Shoo Grill Cheese, Have Mercy Served with a Big Hearty Mug of Soup-“Havarti, pimento cheese, caramelized onions, maple peppered bacon, all natural city ham, fried green tomatoes and fresh basil served on our exclusive sourdough wheat bread”, served with tomato soup or cheesy onion bisque, which Leslie described as sort of like a creamy French onion soup. I decided on the bisque and also ordered a side of the brown butter Brussels sprouts. The sandwich was large and very, very messy. There was a lot going on so I couldn’t really tease out the flavor of the pimento cheese, but all of the flavors worked really well together. I really enjoyed the soup. The onions were perfectly soft and worked wonderfully with the creamy broth, which didn’t have the overly salty flavor that many restaurant soups have, and the croutons floating on top were crispy and delicious. The flavor of the Brussels sprouts was good, but I did feel that they needed a little salt….and, well, in my opinion, Brussels sprouts always benefit from the addition of bacon. Sue me. They’re not as good as mine (my husband said so!).

Philip though about ordering the sweet potato pancake-“one large buttermilk pancake flavored with cinnamon and sweet potatoes, topped with whipped peach butter and spiced pecans”-but, like me, decided against breakfast. Shrimp & grits is one of his restaurant go-to items, but the menu item he looked at-Shoo Mercy Shrimp & Grits-was $22.95. Upon perusing their menu, it appears that they have two versions of shrimp and grits-Brian’s Shrimp and Grits-seven large shrimp served over Goat Cheese Grits and anointed with a spicy roasted red pepper sauce ($15.95)-and Shoo Mercy-Chef Brian’s Shrimp and Grits – and then some. A dozen shrimp with bacon, carmelized onions, spinach and sautéed mushrooms over Goat Cheese Grits. Oh well-next time. He decided to get the Southern Fried Chicken Saltimbocca with Country Ham and Mushroom Marsala-“crispy fried natural, hormone-free chicken breast topped with country ham, melted Havarti cheese and basil. Served with a mushroom marsala sauce, cheesy smashed cauliflower and a fresh asparagus garnish” for $15.95. He loved the chicken, which was a boneless chicken breast, perfectly fried, with cheese melted on top, mushroom marsala gravy poured over, and bits of country ham sprinkled on top. The cheesy mashed cauliflower was really tasty, cooked till tender and combined with cheddar cheese, and I really liked the asparagus, which was very, very lightly steamed and just a little undercooked for Philip’s taste (he doesn’t like asparagus quite as much as I do!).

When Leslie mentioned dessert, we were all ready to decline until she mentioned brown butter pecan pie. Pecan pie is Philip’s second favorite dessert (after crème brûlée), and theirs is served with vanilla bean and caramel sauce, so we decided to get a slice to bring home and eat later that night. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture! It was tooth-achingly sweet but still quite good, with the brown butter adding a nice richness to the filling. Good but not the best I’ve had.

At around $40 pre-tip, this was definitely not an inexpensive dinner out. We liked it but it definitely won’t be a regular destination for us, especially since Southern cooking is one of my specialties so I could recreate the things that we ate there for a lot less than forty bucks (and perhaps I’ll check into the Tupelo Honey Café Cookbook to help me do just that).

Still, if you’ve been itching to check it out, Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga is definitely worth a try.

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga is located at 1110 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-779-0040 or email info@tupelohoneycafe.com. Check out their website, tupelohoneycafe.com. You can also like them on Facebook. I did not find Tupelo Honey Chattanooga on Twitter, but you can follow the original, @tupelohoneycafe.

More restaurants in this area: Southern Burger Company, Public House, Meeting Place

Blue Orleans-August 31, 2013

September 1, 2013

Blue Orleans is a New Orleans-inspired Creole restaurant in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, opened by a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

So, when I wrote about Enzo’s Market a few weeks ago I believe that I mentioned that we were actually planning to try Blue Orleans but they are not open for lunch. They open at 4:00 p.m., so we decided yesterday to head there again with our friend Rachel for an early dinner. We got there about 4:30 and were the first patrons in the restaurant, so we were of course seated immediately.

Blue Orleans is a New Orleans-inspired Creole restaurant in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, opened by a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The walls are brick, the floors hardwood, and the tables shiny wood. The restaurant is decorated with fleur de lis and some Saints gear, but nothing gaudy (which is what you often find in Creole/Cajun restaurants). It’s a nice, tastefully decorated place, smaller than we imagined based on the outside.

Our server, who was lovely (and I believe my have been one of the owners), took our drink order. They serve 20-ounce bottled Coke products for $2.00 each (this is the second place we’ve been in the last month that serves bottled drinks-unusual indeed), unsweetened tea, beer, wine, and of course water. Philip and I ordered water and Rachel decided on unsweetened tea. One thing I can say is that they kept our drinks full to the top! Our server and another very, very friendly lady came around frequently to refill our glasses. Philip tried to talk us into some gator bits but Rachel and I weren’t convinced….plus at $9 they were a little steep. That was one issue that I had-the menu items were priced pretty high, with the least expensive entrée being a $12 po’boy and they quickly went up from there.

I decided on the shrimp po’boy, “dressed” (remoulade, lettuce, tomato, and pickle). The sandwich was huge, served on a large portion of French bread with breaded fried shrimp, shredded iceberg lettuce, and pickle chips. The shrimp were large and well-cooked, not chewy or gummy. The remoulade lent a bit of spiciness but was not overly spicy. The sandwich was a little “bready” and I ended up pulling a lot of the excess bread off, but it was still pretty good. I ordered Cajun fries with it; the fries were obviously from frozen, but I appreciated that they were not overly doused with Cajun spices like some that I’ve had…just enough to give them a mild spice.

Philip went way authentic (that’s sarcasm) and got a black and blue Orleans burger, which is topped with bacon and blue cheese and dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise. This was really one of the largest burgers I’ve ever seen…it looked like one of those truck stop burgers that if you eat the whole thing they put your picture on the wall (by the way, Philip would have gotten his picture on the wall). The burger took up almost the whole bun, though, like me, Philip did pull a bit of the bread off. I wouldn’t call the burger itself a masterpiece…I don’t think there was anything “special” about the meat, but Philip did really like the combination of bacon and blue cheese with the other toppings. Philip got regular fries, which were just the same frozen shoestring fries that I had but just salted, not seasoned-nothing special but not bad either.

Rachel decided on the shrimpalaya-spiced cajun rice with sliced andouille sausage and seasoned sautéed shrimp. It was a pretty generous portion. Like my shrimp, Rachel’s shrimp was well-cooked, not chewy or gummy. The sausage was mildly spicy but not overwhelming. I tasted the rice and found it to also be well-cooked, not mushy or sticky and also not hard or crunchy, and it was spicy without being overwhelming (by the way, I need to get my aunt’s recipe for jambalaya to share with you guys!).

We decided to get some beignets to share for dessert. I love beignets, but, believe it or not, I’ve never made them from scratch. I really should soon. They are yeast-raised and most of the recipes that I’ve found for them contain evaporated milk, which is not an ingredient I generally keep on hand. I used to buy boxes of Café du Monde beignet mix at the grocery store and make them from that….not from scratch but still pretty delicious. Anyway, our server made sure that we were okay with waiting 10-15 minutes for the beignets to be prepared (we were) then brought out dessert plates for us. Beignets are basically yeast doughnuts without a hole. Strips of dough are fried till brown, during which time they puff up, and then they are generously doused with powdered sugar. These were very tasty-yeasty and a good sweet tooth solution without being tooth-achingly sweet.

So my verdict on Blue Orleans? Well, I am going to qualify this by saying that I have basically no experience with Cajun or Creole food. I’ve never been to New Orleans and the only “Cajun” restaurant where I’ve ever eaten before was Meo Mio’s. I’ve made “Cajun” recipes before or ordered “Cajun-seasoned” foods at restaurants. I am no expert. This food was definitely better than what we had at Meo Mio’s, but I have no idea how authentic it was. It was pretty good, but was it worth the price? Eh. I probably won’t go there again just based on the price for what we got. I will say that I thought the atmosphere was really nice, and the staff was very nice. I do believe it’s the only Cajun restaurant in town anymore (correct me if I’m wrong), so if you like Cajun food you’ll have to try it yourself to decide on the authenticity. Have you tried it? What are your thoughts (be nice/constructive and remember my comments policy!)?

Blue Orleans is located at 1463 Market Street (on the corner of Market and Main), Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-757-0088. You can find more information, including the Blue Orleans menu, at the Blue Orleans website. They are open Monday-Wednesday, 4-9 p.m.; Thursday 11-2 p.m. and 4-9 p.m., Friday 11-2 p.m. and 4-10 p.m., and Saturday, 4-10 p.m. (closed Sunday).

Elemental-August 17, 2013

August 18, 2013

Elemental, now closed, was a restaurant on Chattanooga’s North Shore near Whole Foods. Their former chef Charlie Loomis has now gone on to open FEED Co. Table & Tavern.

Okay, let me tell you guys a story. It is completely unrelated to this post…but it needs to be told. It’s Saturday night as I type this. This afternoon, after spending a couple of hours reading about coding, I installed some ad codes in the HTML of my blog. The first one looked a little wonky but it showed up and worked, just needed some tweaking. So I install the second one, hit save…and boom. My blog = gone. Panic! Panic! Luckily in my research earlier in the day I had been poking around my server so I went into my server files and was able to fix the problem. Good grief.

Okay…moving right along. Today (Saturday) was my birthday! I am now firmly in my “mid-thirties”. Right in the middle to be exact. On our anniversary last month, we went to Easy Bistro but decided to go to Elemental for my birthday. I started waffling a little bit this morning because I had really wanted to try 1885 for a while too but in the end we decided to go to Elemental since we’d been planning that. Hopefully we’ll get to 1885 soon because I’ve heard lots of great things about it!

Anyway, there were not a ton of people in the restaurant when we got there at about 1:00. We were quickly seated by Josh, who turned out to also be our server. Since we had never been there before, he explained the mission of Elemental-to use as many local products as possible-and told us about the list of local farmers and producers on the back of the menu, then brought us water and left us to peruse the menu for a few minutes.

The first thing that struck me about Elemental was the atmosphere…very casual and rustic (I hate to use that word, but it really does fit here) but in a polished way. A Ford tractor adorns the center of the restaurant. There’s lots of wood, beautiful wood tables with succulents in a tiny Mason jar in the center of each. Track lighting illuminates the restaurant and small glass pendant lights with Edison bulbs hang over some of the tables, including ours, where we sat at a hightop table perched on wooden swivel stools as I admired the large metal letters spelling “Elemental” on the gigantic oven hood over the open kitchen. Swoon.

As I mentioned above, the back of the menu offers a list-a very long list-of local producers and farmers from which Elemental procures their goods. Chef Charlie Loomis, who moved here from Asheville to work as the head chef at Greenlife, strives to find goods as close to home as possible. If they cannot be bought locally, he will move to regional producers. This was definitely one of the most impressive lists of local sources that I have seen in my two and a half years blogging about Chattanooga restaurants.

So…food. I really, really wanted to try the boiled peanut hummus, served with marinated olives and housemade crackers. House.Made.Crackers. I had heard that it was amazing. Unfortunately, they were out. Josh suggested a flatbread as a consolation prize, so we decided on a chicken flatbread with basil pesto, marinated tomatoes, and housemade mozzarella. Delicious indeed, with a chewy crust, puffy and blackened in spots but thin and crispy for the most part. The mozzarella was perfect, creamy, just a hint of salt, and chewy, and the red and yellow tomatoes had that amazing ripeness that can only be found in July and August.

The special of the day was a BBQ burger, complete with a fried egg, and I would have ordered that if it hadn’t been for my mom’s promise of grilled burgers for Sunday dinner. I briefly weighed the roasted vegetable sandwich with pimento cheese and aioli against the BLT with Benton’s bacon (!), thick-sliced tomato, iceberg lettuce, basil aioli, and pimento cheese. Chances are that if you are a regular reader you already know which item I chose. Yes, my friends, Benton’s bacon won out. The sandwich was served on a shiny Niedlov’s bun dusted with sesame seeds, and my goodness…they did not skimp on the bacon-that was quite a stack, and Benton’s bacon, well, it’s just some of the best I’ve ever tasted. The tomato was ripe, juicy, and indeed very thickly sliced, then salted and peppered. There wasn’t a ton of pimento cheese under the tomato…just enough to lend the flavor. It was the best restaurant pimento cheese I’ve ever had-made with housemade aioli and Sweetwater Valley cheese, and it was the only pimento cheese that I’ve ever thought was as good as my own. Sorry, I happen to think very highly of my pimento cheese recipe! Iceberg lettuce may seem passé, but the crunch is unrivaled in the lettuce world (ha!) and really, isn’t that the purpose of the L in the BLT? The basil aioli was the final complement, lending just a little bit of herby bite and the bottom of the sandwich. I decided to have the split red potatoes, quite simply just roasted red potatoes with housemade rosemary aoili on the side. Simple and delicious-and I can’t believe I’ve never thought of serving my roasted potatoes with aioli. I think I’ll start!

Philip pretty much immediately decided on the Cloudcrest Farm pulled pork sandwich with a mixed green salad (by the way, the other sides were sweet potato wedges and cooked seasonal greens). The salad included a variety of spicy greens and a few thin beet strips as well as a light vinaigrette. The pulled pork was served on a Niedlov’s bun with a very flavorful, slightly spicy sauce and a lightly mayo-dressed coleslaw that also included beets. The pork was definitely the star of the show, cooked to falling apart tenderness and tasting so….porky. That may sound weird, but the thing about most pork these days is that they are bred to be so lean that they don’t really taste like pork. Local producers tend to use heirloom breeds that have more fat, hence more flavor. The pork at Elemental…doesn’t. Taste. Like. Chicken. This sandwich was perfect.

Unfortunately, I was so full after this meal that I couldn’t even think about dessert. I would have loved to check out the Ollie Pops, which are brown cow-esque confections made by Milk & Honey-vanilla gelato coated in chocolate-or one of Chef Loomis’s own creations. I look forward to going back for dinner and hopefully saving room for dessert this time…though I have heard from more than one person that trying the Sunday brunch is a necessity. We were able to spend a few minutes talking to the chef before we left and he reiterated the importance of elevating the menu by offering simple food from local purveyors. The quality of the food makes his job much easier-when it starts that fresh and amazing, you don’t have to do much to it before you serve it to guests. (***Note: in late August/early September Chef Loomis and Elemental parted ways. Chef Loomis has since moved on to 1885 Grill and Elemental has changed their menu but vowed to continue their mission of serving fresh, local, high-quality food.)

Our total for lunch before tip was about $26…not too bad for a locally-produced, upscale lunch in a beautiful atmosphere. I have to be honest, I’d read mixed review on Urbanspoon…but it appears that most of those were from the earliest days after Elemental’s opening, and I didn’t experience any of the downsides that were mentioned in those reviews. As always, I would encourage you to go and check it out for yourself…I don’t think you’ll be sorry (I wasn’t!).

Elemental is located at 313 Manufacturer’s Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405. They are open Monday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. `You can call them at 423-648-9160. Check out their website, elementalrestaurant.com. You can also “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

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