By Location Archives - Page 4 of 42

Rock City and Café 7

May 5, 2017

Perhaps Chattanooga’s most famous attraction, Rock City is beautiful, kitschy, and fun. And Café 7 offers delicious food at totally reasonable prices!

Welcome to my first Chattanooga tourism post! I mean, I guess Chattavore has always been about Chattanooga tourism, what with my focus on locally-owned Chattanooga restaurants, but why not throw some do-not-miss spots in for people visiting the city (or those of us who want to find something fun to do on the weekend)?

My original plan for last weekend was to check out the National Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg. After a little thought, though, I decided that I wanted to start with a truly local Chattanooga spot…and what better place for my inaugural post than what is probably Chattanooga’s most world-famous tourist spot, Rock City? I mean, really…aside from The Chattanooga Choo Choo, what iconic Chattanooga location is more famous than Rock City, which people know from all the Rock City barns all over the world?

Rock City, atop Lookout Mountain, is actually located in Georgia (shhhh, don’t tell anyone). According to Rock City’s website, a couple named Garnet and Frieda Carter developed the trails that we now know as Rock City in the 1920s as part of a community that they were developing known as Fairyland. Frieda planted gardens around the property that have grown, along with the naturally occurring foliage, into the beautiful scenery that we see today.

Not only does Rock City include naturally occurring attractions such as Fat Man’s Squeeze and Lover’s Leap (see the image below for the legend there), it also includes a swing-along bridge (see below for my feelings on that bridge…but hey, I did it). For those of you who just can’t stomach it, there is a way across that does not move.?By the way, I feel like this is a good place to mention that because of the narrow passages and steep stairs, strollers are not permitted on the Enchanted Trail. Rock City recommends child carriers.

One of the last things that you see as you near the end of the Rock City trail is the kitschy and fun Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village, which feature sculptures that the Carter’s contracted Atlanta-based sculptor Jessie Sanders to create.

And, of course, you can’t leave out the unbelievable views of seven states – Tennessee and Georgia, of course, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Sadly, it was an overcast day and we forgot our quarters, so we didn’t get to use the binoculars. It didn’t make the views any less spectacular.

And…Café 7. Located by the See Seven States overlook, Café 7 features outdoor seating so you can enjoy the views while you enjoy your lunch. I have to admit…I wasn’t expecting a lot from this restaurant. I mean, how many restaurants in a tourist attraction are more than restaurant-supply store grade fast food? Dumb. I was dumb to think that. The food at Café 7 was actually fan-freaking-tastic. The menu changes, but the menu that was available on the day of our visit was comparable to any of our favorite locally-owned casual dining restaurants in the valley. Appetizers, sandwiches, entrees, desserts, and a respectable beer list (Philip got a Chattanooga Brewing Company beer for $2!)…what more could you ask for?

Of course, the menu is not the only thing that’s important. Would the food taste good? I was skeptical, but that was silly. My Choo Choo nachos, with pulled pork, cheese, barbecue sauce, sour cream, and caramelized onions atop housemade potato chips, were perfect, and at $8 definitely a respectable price for an entree. Philip decided on the chicken fried chicken with a side of edamame succotash and mac and cheese. The fried chicken was a boneless chicken breast that was fried to absolute perfection, and the edamame succotash (in place of the usual turnip greens) was fresh and flavorful. He thought the macaroni and cheese was a little “meh”, which, honestly, is my usual reaction to restaurant mac and cheese. At $15, his was a little more pricey than mine, but still reasonable. Unlike most tourist attraction restaurants, the food here was not outrageously priced, and it was delicious. I found our service to be great too, and, let’s be honest – you can’t beat that view. If you would prefer, you can consider Big Rock Grill at the entrance of Rock City for short order items or Cliff Terrace for snacks. There is also a Starbucks located at Rock City.

Another thing? Rock City is pet-friendly! You are welcome to bring your leased pet to walk the trails and even dine on the terrace at Café 7 with you. They even provide a list of pet-friendly hotels in the area for those who are visiting with their pets.

Finally, Rock City offers lots of special events. Everyone knows about (or at least I think they do) the Enchanted Garden of Lights around the holidays (I’ve been twice and it’s spectacular), but their website lists several other special events that I didn’t know about.

Rock City is located at 1400 Patten Road, Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Rock City’s hours are seasonal, and you can view the hours by season on their website. Tickets are $19.95 for adults and $11.95 for children 3-12. Parking at Rock City is free and Rock City is partially accessible for visitors with disability (find more info about accessibility in their FAQs). For more information about Rock City, check out their website or their Facebook page, or call them at 706-820-2531 or 800-854-0675.

Olive Branch Mediterranean Foods – East Ridge, TN

April 26, 2017

Olive Branch Mediterranean Foods is a Mediterranean deli/grocery located in East Ridge, Tennessee, serving delicious foods with great service!

It’s funny how some of my favorite places around town are places that I probably wouldn’t even know about if someone didn’t tell me. For example, if a friend had not sent me a message telling me that I had to eat at Thai Chili, it probably wouldn’t be my favorite Thai restaurant, because I never would have figured out it was there.

Likewise with Olive Branch. It’s been around in East Ridge (directly in front of East Ridge Elementary) for a while now (maybe about a year? I’m not sure.) but because of Philip’s Saturday work schedule we haven’t been able to make it out there (well, so I thought…I was thinking that they closed earlier on Saturday than they actually do). He’s not working on Saturdays for the time being, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to try something new.

Olive Branch is located in a pretty unassuming location – a little strip mall that also houses a teriyaki restaurant that we haven’t tried yet. When you enter, you are greeted with a nice little selection of Mediterranean groceries and kitchen supplies, then a deli counter well-stocked with tasty looking foods.

When we entered, we were greeted by Chris, who enthusiastically explained the menu to us. You order and pay at the counter and take a seat in the dining room or at one of the high-top tables in the grocery area. You can choose from a made-to-order sandwich with your choice of Boar’s Head meat, cheese, vegetables, bread, etc., or you can order a specialty sandwich (traditional gyro, falafel, meatball, steak & cheese, eggplant parm, Italian, or vegetarian. OR you can order one of their specials, which are held in a cafeteria-style warming table. The specials on the day of our visit were lemon chicken, moussaka, lasagna, and stuffed tomatoes. You can also order a large Greek salad, and they’ll add chicken or gyro meat to it for $2 if you’d like.

I’m a sucker for a great falafel so I really didn’t have to think twice about my order (though I might have ordered a gyro if I had known that Philip wouldn’t order one). The sandwiches are served with a scoop of potato salad. You can get the falafel with tzatziki, tahini, or hummus on it. I went with the traditional tzatziki…I can’t get enough of that stuff. It’s served on a flatbread style pita with several slices of tomato and a few strips of red onion. The falafel was so good – very crispy and a little bit spicier than what I’ve had at other places. It was pretty messy so I ended up eating it with a knife and fork, and I was okay with that. The potato salad was pretty simple – just potatoes, green onion, and whatever binder they use – I couldn’t tell if it was sour cream or mayo. I would definitely recommend this if you are a falafel fan.

Philip decided to go for the moussaka (moo-sah-KAH), which is a layered dish, similar to a lasagna, made with sliced potatoes, spiced ground beef, sliced eggplant, and béchamel sauce. It was served with a small greek salad, bread, and a side (Philip got gigantes plaki, or baked giant beans). The salad was good – pretty standard ingredients (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, a pepperoncini, feta cheese, kalamata olives) with a great homemade dressing with lots of oregano. The gigantes plaki were great – giant beans, like butter beans, in a spiced tomato-based sauce. And, well, I’m going to have to learn to make moussaka because it was fantastic. I loved the spices in the meat, and the textures all went perfectly.

We also got a spanakopita (spinach pie). How can you go wrong with spinach layered in buttery, crunchy, flaky phyllo dough? It was amazing and I could have made an entire meal out of spanakopita or tiropita (cheese pie). We veered off our usual course and instead of drinking water we got a bottled Hank’s soda out of the cooler. Philip had cream soda and I had orange cream soda – both very tasty.

Of course, before we left, we had to choose something out of the bakery case to bring home. The black and white cookies were very tempting – I have a thing for black and white cookies – but how can you leave a Mediterranean restaurant without baklava? We took a box of two baklava and a box of two wedding cookies and had those with coffee after we got home. I’m telling you, I think that baklava might be the perfect dessert. I can’t think of much better than ground spiced nuts sandwiched between layers of phyllo and dripping with buttery honey. Can you??? The cookies were great too – a little crumbly and not too sweet, despite the fact that they were coated in a liberal dusting of powdered sugar.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but as soon as you step inside of Olive Branch Mediterranean Foods you realize that the “can’t judge a book by its cover” adage is definitely true here. Not only is the interior perfectly lovely (colander light fixtures!!!), so are the people, especially Chris, who really went out of his way to show us all the different options that were available to us. And the food is just fantastic, and a great value to boot ($31 pre-tip for an entree, a sandwich, a spinach pie, two baklava, two cookies, and two sodas – that’s a lot of food!). I wish it weren’t so far from me, because I think that Olive Branch may be my new favorite Mediterranean restaurant. Thanks to everyone who recommended it to me!

Olive Branch Mediterranean Foods is located at 3992 Ringgold Road, East Ridge, Tennessee, 37412. They are open 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday – Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. You can call them at (423) 805-5295. Olive Branch Mediterranean Foods does not have a website, but you can follow them on Facebook, where they post pictures of their “specials” menu every day.

Local 191 (Chattanooga River Front)

April 19, 2017

Local 191 is a popular bar located near the Chattanooga river front. Attached to the Blue Plate, it serves lots of delicious, locally sourced foods.

How is it that it’s already summer here? I mean, it’s only mid-April but guys, IT IS SUMMER. The temps have been in the eighties the last few days and I’m already having to pack anti-chafing gel in my bag (TMI, sorry about that).

Not that I am complaining. I❤️????summer. I made a vow a few years back that I would never complain about the heat in the summer because I wanted to be free to complain about the cold in the winter. And after the second winter of “will it or won’t it” in a row, I am ready for consistent temperature, even if it’s consistent heat and humidity. Anyway…

So, Chattanooga is an amazing city year-round, but it really comes alive when the heat comes. The river front is a center of the hustle and bustle in Chattanooga and a great place to see what Chattanooga has to offer. There are lots of restaurants, and the Blue Plate is one of my favorites. Serving lots of locally sourced foods from a kitchen that doesn’t have a microwave, it’s right up my alley. Local 191 is a bar connected to the Blue Plate, and we hadn’t managed to make it in there yet.

Early Saturday is a perfect time to go there. The lunch crowd was wrapping up at around 1:00 when we arrived and snagged the last table in the dining area. The patio was packed out. We took advantage of the 10-4 Saturday happy hour ($1.50 off cocktails, $1 off draft beers) with a Sun Also Rises (tequila, pineapple, grenadine, orange, and lime) and a Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ ale.

My search is on to find the best chicken sandwiches around, so I had to check out the Local’s Fried Chicken Sandwich – a fried chicken breast on a toasted Niedlov’s bun with slaw, house pickles, and honey mustard ($7.50) plus house made chips ($2). Lightly breaded and crunchy, the chicken was juicy and flavorful…but I would have left the slaw off or maybe just used about half, because the sandwich was a little messy and hard to eat. The pickles were great and the house made chips were crunchy and perfect.

Philip went for the chicken and pancake – an Aretha Frankenstein’s pancake served with a crispy chicken tender and loaded hash browns ($10.25). The chicken was basically the same as mine and paired perfectly with the tender, fluffy, sweet, and flavorful Aretha’s pancake (someday I’m going to figure out how to make a pancake that thick). The menu said that the syrup was maple syrup, but we thought it tasted like pancake syrup. Our server swore that it was real. It’s a mystery – has anyone else had the syrup here? What were your thoughts?

Regardless of whether the syrup was maple or pancake syrup, Local 191 serves fantastic food at a fair price, particularly when you consider how local the food is. Our pre-tip total was $31 and some change. Our server was friendly and attentive and the atmosphere was casual and laid-back. Local 191 is a great place for a meal or a drink!

Local 191 is located at 191 Chestnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, 9 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, check out their website, like Local 191 on Facebook, or follow Local 191 on Twitter.

Carrabelle’s Casual Cafe – Dayton, Tennessee

March 29, 2017

Carrabelle’s Casual Café is a casual dining restaurant located in Dayton, Tennessee, that serves low country and Southern-style food.

Have you tried any new restaurants off the beaten path lately? I don’t know if Dayton is really off the beaten path, but it’s definitely a little bit out of the way, at least the way we usually go. It’s nice to see new restaurants popping up in that area. Carrabelle’s opened up several months back, in the fall of 2016. I like to wait until restaurants have been open for a few months before I check them out, so a few few weeks ago we finally ventured north to check it out.

The full name for Carrabelle’s is Carrabelle’s Casual Café. Their website describes their cuisine as “low country Southern”. We arrived at about 4 p.m. to a fairly empty restaurant – several tables were occupied but there was no wait and our food came quickly. The building is new and the decor was pretty standard for a casual dining style restaurant.

While we checked out the menu, our server, Morgan, took our drink orders and brought our waters and Philip’s beer, from a Tennessee brewery that we had not heard of before (this doesn’t happen often – remember, he works in a bottle shop). We decided to order some fried green tomatoes ($6.99), battered and rolled in bacon and fried, served on top of grits with pimento cheese on top and a cup of Cajun mayonnaise. There was a lot going on there, but everything was very good. The grits were different from any grits I’ve ever had – they were dry, but somehow that wasn’t a bad thing. The tomatoes were crunchy and well-seasoned and the pimento cheese was melty. I liked the Cajun mayo a lot.

I was in the mood for chicken and biscuits, so it really didn’t take me any thought to choose my entree. I ordered the chicken and biscuits with a side of Cajun mashed potatoes ($10.99) but there is a “biscuit” section of the menu so I am not sure if this got rang up as “chicken and biscuits” or “chicken biscuits plus a side” because the chicken & biscuits were listed on my receipt separate from the side and the total cost was $10.49. Long story short, I don’t know if the entree version is served this way (chicken on the biscuits) or not, but that’s how I was planning to eat it so I was okay with it. The chicken was crispy and seemed freshly breaded, and the cheddar biscuits were tender and tasty. The gravy made a great dipping sauce. I liked the mashed potatoes, which were just a little bit spicy, but I will try a different side next time I go back.

Philip decided to go for the shrimp and grits ($14.99). These were not prepared in the style that he likes the best (grits cake and creamy sauce) but he said that they were very good. The grits were the same cheesy grits that were served with the fried green tomatoes. There was a reasonable amount of shrimp, bacon, and sausage, and it was served with a cheddar biscuit.

There were quite a few specials, most of them seafood dishes (most of the seafood dishes were listed on the specials menu). The menu was pretty standard for a southern style restaurant – fried chicken, shrimp & grits, chicken & waffles, several sandwiches and pasta dishes, etc. The prices were on par with other restaurants of similar quality. Our total for fried green tomatoes, chicken & biscuits plus a side, shrimp & grits, and one beer was $41.62 pre-tip). Our server, Morgan, was very friendly and attentive. The atmosphere was low-key and great for an early evening dinner date.

If you’re looking for a nice dinner in the Dayton, Tennessee area, check out Carrabelle’s Casual Café!

Carrabelle’s Casual Café is located at 4370 Rhea County Highway, Dayton, Tennessee, 37321. They are open Sunday – Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. You can call them at 423-428-9441. For more information, you can check out their website or like Carrabelle’s on Facebook.

Thai Esan

March 17, 2017

Thai Esan is a small and unassuming (and easy to miss) Thai restaurant located in a strip mall on Ringgold Road in East Ridge, Tennessee.

I still have plenty of places that I need to try, but after almost 6 (SIX!!!!!) years of writing about Chattanooga restaurants there are times that I feel like I’ve been everywhere and pretty soon I’m going to run out of new places to try. Totally irrational, I know, but the truth is that I can’t be everywhere and there are always new places opening that I don’t know about (not to mention long-standing secrets that I need to be told about).

I posted on my Facebook page recently asking for my readers to tell me some new places that I needed to try. Multiple Thai spots were mentioned, which caused me and Philip to develop a craving for some noodles. It is not difficult to make us crave Thai food (by the way, will someone please open a Thai restaurant in Hixson? Please and thank you.). One of the places that was mentioned was Thai Esan, which is located on Ringgold Road near the Food Lion complex (in the strip mall where Cakemakers, Etc. is located).

Thai Esan is located in the former home of Mom’s Thai Kitchen, another spot that I was told by multiple people that I needed to try and never got around to before they closed up shop. I have no idea if there is any common thread (other than Thai food, obvi) between Mom’s and Thai Esan, but I did not want to make the same mistake twice.

We headed out to Thai Esan around 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon. There was only one other couple in the restaurant dining and several to-go orders were picked up while we were there. It’s a pretty bare-bones place…not a lot of decor, and the booths need to be reupholstered or at least patched. It was clean, though, so it was all good.

A server quickly greeted us, brought us menus, and took our drink orders. We both decided to get a Thai tea because it is just so good, and we also got an order of spring rolls (4 spring rolls per order). The spring rolls were hot and fresh and the dipping sauce sweet and just a little spicy. The Thai tea did not disappoint, with the sweet black tea spice that you expect from Thai tea and a generous splash of half-and-half.

Chattavore followers, you know that I love my pad Thai. I just can’t order anything else when I visit a Thai restaurant. I know that I should, but I like to use the excuse that if I always order pad Thai that I can be consistent with giving a review. So….I went with the pad Thai with chicken. I was not disappointed. It was a generous portion – I only ate about a third, then had more for dinner the following Monday, and Philip had the rest for lunch one day. This is a lot of food. The noodles were sweet and a little bit spicier than most pad Thai that I’ve had (though I ordered it without spice). The chicken was very thinly sliced and cooked well, but I would have liked to have had a little bit more chicken just for a balance of protein and carbs.

Like me, Philip has his usual these days, ever since discovering pad see ew at Thai Chili. Unlike me, he is a little bit braver with the spice and went for “medium”. He ordered tofu as his protein, as his visits to Hong Kong Chinese restaurant have helped him discover a love for tofu. Everything was well cooked (the tofu was a gorgeous golden brown and it did have a great flavor from the sauce). He did end up regretting the medium spice, though. Apparently Thai cooks have a little bit of a different definition of “medium” than he does, and he ended up spending much of the meal picking out little pieces of fresh red chili from the dish in order to avoid breathing fire. He did say that aside from the heat, the food was delicious.

Thai Esan is relatively quick and very casual. The food is very tasty, but be careful with the spice levels unless you know that you can handle it. The prices are pretty much on par with other Thai restaurants in the area and the portions are huge so you are likely going to get more than one meal from it.

If you’re looking for some tasty Thai food in East Ridge, give Thai Esan a try!

Thai Esan is located at 4330 Ringgold Road, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37412. They are open Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday – Sunday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. You can call them at (423) 668-8924. They do not have a website, but you can like Thai Esan on Facebook.

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