Signal Mountain Archives

517 Subs (Signal Mountain, Tennessee)

July 12, 2017

517 Subs is a popular sandwich shop on Signal Mountain that has been around for years and serves basic but delicious sandwiches.

What is it about a great sandwich that is so sublime? Sandwiches are just simple lunchbox fare, after all. How many sandwiches have we eaten in our lives and not given a second thought to? In a world of PB&Js and ham sandwiches on squishy white bread, a sandwich might not sound like something that you would drive to the ends of the earth (or up the mountain) for.

Truth is, I don’t really love sandwiches. I mean, I like sandwiches, and when they’re served to me I’m happy to eat them. The instances of me taking a plain old sandwich of lunch meat on sliced bread this school year though? Zero. Zip. Zilch. There may have been a few turkey croissants but that’s pretty much the extent of my sandwich-packing.

We’ve been meaning to try out 517 Subs for a pretty long time now. I hadn’t really heard much about it until some friends who are fairly new Signal Mountain residents tried it out and told us that it was worth the drive to try it out. A recent rainy Saturday turned out to be “the day” and we headed up Taft Highway to give them a try.

The place was pretty empty when we arrived…a couple of employees doing cleaning and restocking tasks, one taking a break, and one behind the counter, plus another diner at a table. The decor is simple…not much beyond the tables and chairs and some retro board games framed on the wall. We got a laugh out of looking at the Disney’s Robin Hood game and the Beatles board game, among others.

I am decidedly a hot sub person. A BLT sub always sounds good, and it’s hard to pass up a meatball sub…but my sub order is almost always a steak and cheese (I may have declared my love for them at least once on here). I ordered a 6-inch steak and cheese on wheat bread ($4.25 plus $2.10 for chips and a drink) with onions and peppers. They ran out of onions, but I did get a couple of shreds of onions before she heated my sandwich. I dressed my sandwich basically, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and salt and pepper. The steak and cheese here was very reminiscent of the steak and cheese subs that I used to order at Blimpie, back when it was a frequent haunt of mine…when they still existed in Chattanooga (I thought until a few months ago that there was still one in St. Elmo, when I discovered that it was gone when I tried to eat lunch there??‍♀️). Their steak and cheese was always more like a pot roast sandwich than a Philly cheesesteak, and I always loved it. Thus, this steak and cheese was a throwback to my college years and I did indeed love it.

Unlike me, Philip is a cold sandwich lover, and he decided on the Italian – his standard sub shop order anytime it’s available (he’ll even order the Italian sub at Chuck E. Cheese’s, despite knowing from his years working in the CEC kitchen that the kitchen guys hate making sandwiches more than anything else). The Italian ($4.10 pre-combo) is made on your choice of bread (white, wheat, or rye, all baked fresh daily in the shop) with ham, salami, capicola (a cold cut made with cured pork shoulder), and provolone. Philip likes his Italian sub pretty heavily dressed and got his with lots of “stuff” on it. He said that it was a great Italian sub and commented on how good the bread was.

It wasn’t actually raining when we arrived, but by the time that we finished eating it was pouring rain and we had to hang out inside for a while since we had not brought our umbrella indoors. By that time there were quite a few other people in there – since it was getting closer to closing time, I assume that people were trying to get in before they closed. We hung out until the rain slacked off a bit then headed over to Pruett’s to check out what they had in the store.

If you’re looking for a good, basic but tasty sub, 517 Subs has you covered. The prices are definitely reasonable; the two of us had sandwiches, chips, and drinks for about $13.50. The staff was friendly, particularly the lady who made our sandwiches. There’s definitely something to be said for a great sandwich, and if you (like me) have been missing Blimpie, I’d recommend that you go here.

517 Subs is located at 1238 Taft Highway, Signal Mountain, Tennessee (in the Signal Plaza Shopping Center near Pruett’s). They are open Monday – Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can call 517 Subs at 423-517-7827 (that is, 517-SUBS). They do not have a website, but you can “like” 517 Subs on Facebook.

Hummingbird Pastaria (Signal Mountain)

November 9, 2016

Hummingbird Pastaria, formerly known just as Pastaria, is serving amazing fresh Italian food in a familiar location on Signal Mountain.

So, last weekend I gave Philip three choices for our late afternoon lunch. Two were in Ooltewah…and one was on Signal Mountain. He ended up choosing the Signal Mountain option, so we headed up the mountain to check out Hummingbird Pastaria.

Hummingbird Pastaria has been around for a couple of years, but you may remember it as Nino’s Pastaria…or just Pastaria, which is how most people know it. The restaurant has been around for years, but changed hands a little while back. Since the change in ownership, they’ve upped their menu game, serving handmade pastas, handmade cheeses, house made breads…I’m not sure why it took us so long to get back in.

We arrived around 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and the place was fairly empty…a couple of large parties occupied the dining room but other than that there was no one in there. We requested a seat on the patio and our server brought us some water and homemade focaccia with cannellini bean puree. The foccaccia was fresh with a very tender crumb, the cannellini bean puree flavorful with garlic and herbs. We couldn’t resist the bruschetta ($7), though, and thank goodness for that. With crunchy grilled bread, melted mozzarella, and a blend of fresh tomatoes, garlic, julienned basil, and olive oil, this was the best bruschetta I’ve ever had. I was still talking about it the next day. It was so fresh and so tasty – surprisingly for late October tomatoes. I was already sold before I got through the appetizer.

I was stuck between the bolognese – meat sauce with tomatoes, cream, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and house made pappardelle (wide ribbons of pasta) for $13 or the funghi bianchi – mushrooms, cream, spinach, truffle oil, and housemade fettucine for $12. When our server described the funghi bianchi as kind of an amped up fettucine Alfredo, I was sold. If you guys haven’t figured this out, I’m a sucker for a good cream sauce. The handmade pasta was absolutely amazing – the texture of fresh pasta is just so different from dried. The cream sauce was thick and rich, and the truffle oil provided the perfect finishing layer of flavor and a complement to the sauteed mushrooms. There was just enough spinach to add a little color to the dish, and a sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano crowned the pasta beautifully.

It didn’t take Philip long to settle on the polpette – pork meatballs with marinara, pecorino, and housemade spaghetti ($10). I like to add a little ground pork to my meatballs, but I’ve never made them with all pork…now I know that I need to. The meatballs were so tender, with a lighter flavor than a meatball made with all beef or a mixture of ground meats. The sauce had a great flavor, with the freshness of tomatoes set off by garlic and herbs. The pecorino (a sheep’s milk cheese similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano) added a delicious tanginess to the dish, and the spaghetti was just the perfect classic pasta for this dish. He also got a Caesar salad ($6) – romaine lettuce with croutons, Spanish white anchovy, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. The salad was fresh and crunchy, with a classic (i.e. not creamy Caesar dressing), lemon wedges on the side, and an actual anchovy fillet on the side. If you are squeamish about such things (we are not) you may want to ask them to leave that off. It was a very tasty salad.

Was this our most economical meal in recent history? At $42.06 pre-tip (Philip also ordered a beer)…no. But I have to say, I would pay it again for a meal that makes us swoon like this one did. Like I said, I was still talking about this meal the next day. It was absolutely amazing. The service was good – friendly and attentive – and the atmosphere is simple but nice. It’s definitely a staple on Signal Mountain.

If you’re looking for a delicious Italian meal, Hummingbird Pastaria is the place to look!

Hummingbird Pastaria is located at 720 Mississippi Avenue, Signal Mountain, Tennessee, 37377. They are open Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can call Hummingbird Pastaria at 423-886-1900. For more information, you can check out Hummingbird Pastaria’s website or follow Hummingbird Pastaria on Facebook.

Double Barrel BBQ (Signal Mountain)

September 28, 2015

If you’re looking for delicious barbecue on or near Signal Mountain, Double Barrel BBQ serves tasty barbecue (and great beer!) in a great atmosphere!

I recently discovered something called bullet journals and now I am obsessed (mine isn’t nearly as pretty as the one in that post, but I love the idea of keeping my calendar, notes, and lists organized as opposed to having random notebooks floating around and having to dig through them to figure out where things are. This weekend I updated my list of restaurants I need to try and posted the list on Facebook to see if anyone had anything to add. Turns out I have a lot of places to visit in Cleveland and North Georgia…those take some planning. We ended up at Double Barrel BBQ on Signal Mountain, which a friend suggested on my Facebook post (I have a handful of other places on Signal to try as well).

Double Barrel BBQ is on Taft Highway just a little past the Signal Mountain “business district” in the building that used to be Pepper Jack’s. Double Barrel started as a food truck and in August opened their static location. They are currently operating off of their food truck menu but will be expanding starting with their grand opening in October.

We were offered the options of being seated in the bar or the dining room and were seated immediately by a very friendly server. It’s a log cabin so the decor consists of lots of wood, but it’s not dark. They have lots of cool pendant lights hanging all over the dining room and interesting wall hangings. There are televisions in the dining room as well as the bar.

Our server, Tabitha, came pretty quickly to take our drink orders and brought a beer list at Philip’s request. They have a pretty impressive list of craft beers-both bottles and draft-at great prices, including some local brews from Chattanooga Brewing Company. Philip ordered a Straight to Ale Lily Flagg milk stout, which was listed on the list as a bottled beer for $2.50 but was actually on draft for $3.50 (still a pretty amazing price). He’s had that particular beer before and loved it. I, of course, stuck with water.

They have a pretty lengthy list of sides that come in a side-size portion or as an appetizer, and we decided to order some fried pickle chips, which the menu purported to be hand-bettered. We got the appetizer sized portion for $5.75…it was a pretty large portion and we probably should have stuck with the side-size portion for $2.50. Oh well. I never cry over more fried pickles. They were indeed hand-battered and were very tasty, well seasoned and with just enough batter to add crunch and flavor but not so much to mask the pickle flavor. They were served with ranch dressing which was just basic ranch dressing.

Right now the menu consists of a selection of meats and some hot dogs. I decided to get the 1/2 pound pulled pork plate for $9 (you can get a half-sized portion for half the price) with a side of fried squash, which the menu also said was hand-battered. I was a little less convinced about the squash being hand-battered than I was the pickles, since the coating was fairly thick. It tasted good, though, and was well-seasoned with Cajun seasoning. The meat was tender and smoky and was pulled and served on top of a couple of toasted dinner rolls. I had enough to bring home for lunch the next day.

Philip decided to order the 1/2 pound of brisket ($9.25), chopped (you can also order it sliced) with fried okra. The brisket was chopped into bite-size pieces and had a spicy rub on it (it was also served on top of toasted dinner rolls). The fried okra was lightly coated and was also seasoned with Cajun seasoning.

The sauces at Double Barrel are made in-house. I didn’t think to get a photo, but there was one called “Old Faithful” that was sweet and chunky…it was our least favorite. There was a molasses-based sauce that had a deep molasses flavor and a little bit of spice. The third sauce was a sweet and spicy blend, and it was very spicy.

Our total for this meal was $29.22 pre-tip, which included fried pickles, a beer, a pork plate, and a brisket plate. The service at Double Barrel BBQ was friendly and the food was tasty. I like the atmosphere in this restaurant, and it didn’t hurt that the mountain air was nice and cool and just made it nice to be up there (I love what I call “shorts and long sleeves weather”). I can’t wait to see what they unveil for their expanded menu. By the way, they also serve a breakfast buffet daily and offer growlers of beer to go. There are daily specials as well.

Double Barrel BBQ is located at 3720 Taft Highway, Signal Mountain, TN 37377. You can call them at 423-777-5491. They are open 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 7 a.m.-12 a.m. Friday-Sunday. You can check out their website, www.doublebarrel.me and like Double Barrel BBQ on Facebook.

Siren’s Seafood and Steak Market (***CLOSED)

December 22, 2014

Siren’s Seafood and Steak Market was a seafood & steak market and restaurant located on Signal Mountain. They are currently closed, though rumor has it they may relocate eventually.

I’ve been meaning to get to Siren’s for some time now. They opened several years back on Signal Mountain Boulevard and at some point…they moved up to Signal Mountain. I really have no idea when. I also have no idea if they always had a menu or if that is a more recent development since they moved up the mountain. The employees were very busy when we were in Saturday so I didn’t have a chance to ask them.

There were only a couple of people in the shop when we went in on Saturday afternoon, but several came and went making seafood and meat purchases or placing food orders while we were there. There is a dining room with several tables on one end of the building and the seafood/meat shop on the other end. There’s also lots of outdoor dining…but it was a little chilly for that.

When you walk in, there’s a counter at the end in the dining room where you can look at the menu and place your order when you’re ready. You pay at the counter and find a table in the dining room, then they bring your food out to you. The menu consists of appetizers (crab bites, oysters on the half shell, and sesame crusted tuna), gumbo, sandwiches, fried seafood, chicken, burgers, salads, blackened fish, boiled seafood, and a kids’ menu. They also had a menu of specials, which included crab cakes and shrimp and grits.

I decided to get the fried oyster po’ boy, which consisted of lightly breaded and fried oysters served on a length of soft but crusty bread with remoulade, lettuce, and tomato. The oysters were well cooked and there was a good amount of sauce-not too much, not too little. The best part is that the oysters are cleaned, shucked, and prepared right there, in house. Philip decided to get the catfish po’ boy, which was a nicely sized piece of catfish, lightly breaded and fried, served the same way as mine. It was well-seasoned and tasty. The sandwiches came with lightly dressed coleslaw, hush puppies, and crinkle-cut fries, which I have learned are always food-service fries. The menu here is about the seafood, though, so that’s okay. I had sweet tea to drink and Philip had a Founder’s All-Day IPA (they have a pretty decent beer list for such a small place). For our two meals and the beer, our total was $24.56.

In the seafood section, there were several varieties of fish available in addition to shrimp, clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops. The meat section had a variety of cuts of beef as well as duck breast and there were also whole ducks in the cooler. They also had crab cakes and some other house-made items for sale in the cooler. There were seasonings and other dry goods available as well. I really wanted to get some mussels but we weren’t going straight home, so we’ll be going back up soon to get some. Since I discovered that I like to eat mussels, now I want to learn to cook mussels.

Siren’s Seafood is definitely the place to go for seafood in Chattanooga, and they offer a nice meat variety as well.

Siren’s Seafood and Steak Market was located at 411 Wood Street, Signal Mountain, TN. They are currently closed. I have heard that they are planning to possibly relocate to downtown Chattanooga, but I have not heard definite plans for this. You can like Siren’s on Facebook and check out their website.

Pepper Jack’s-March 16, 2013 CLOSED

March 16, 2013

I’ve been asked a few times how I come up with my “list” of restaurants to review. Honest answer? The initial list came from the phone book. Yep. I pulled out the phone book and combed through the restaurant section, using the internet to research whether restaurants were locally owned if I wasn’t sure.

This was an eye-opening experience for me. There are a lot of restaurants out there that I hadn’t heard of prior to April 2011 (I bought my domain name in January 2011 but didn’t write my first post until April). One of those restaurants was Pepper Jack’s on Signal Mountain. I feel like Signal Mountain is kind of a “neglected” area of Chattanooga on Chattavore, probably because it is kind of “isolated” from the rest of the city (though I don’t think I’ve written about a single restaurant in the Ooltewah area-any recommendations for me? I do have a list….). I have been trying to make it to Pepper Jack’s for a while, but the last time that I was really thinking about it was the day that a sudden snowstorm came through and made the roads a little sketchy for a while, so no way were we driving up Taft Highway….

Anyway, up Signal we went today. Pepper Jack’s is a little out of the way, past the Bachman Community Center and across from the Dollar General. I didn’t see a sign on the street but there is a sign on top of the building. But just look for the Dollar General. Anyway, we were seated quickly, choosing to sit outside (in retrospect, probably a bad idea because it was pretty windy and a little chillier than we were expecting-I ended up getting my sweater from the car). Our server, Dee, was with us immediately after the hostess seated us on the porch, taking our drink orders and telling us the specials (fish & chips, chicken livers, and bone-in smoked chicken, Manhattan clam chowder, maple-bacon bread pudding, and carrot cake). She also brought out some cornbread muffins, which were really good. They were very moist and I liked them even though they were a little sweet (which I don’t usually care for), especially since they were served with real. Butter. Amen.

The appetizer menu included such items as wings, jalapeño poppers, fried jalapeños, onion fries, chips and salsa (to which you could add queso for an additional charge), and fried pickles. Now, I actually love jalapeño poppers but you never know how spicy they’re going to be so I was afraid to spend money on something that I might now be able to eat. I considered the chips and salsa….but you know the fried pickles won out. They were nice and freshly fried with a crispy flour coating, but not so hot that they burned the roof of your mouth off. Not too salty but just salty enough. They were served with ranch dressing, which was good….but I think if I order them again I will ask for the ancho chili pepper dressing that’s served with the ancho BLT wedge.

I was seriously considering ordering the smoked chicken special with mashed potatoes and green beans….until I noticed the veggie style stuffed potato. On Dee’s recommendation, I decided to order the stuffed potato, which was topped with steamed broccoli, cheddar-jack cheese, butter, and onion straws (actually, there was some sour cream on there too, but it wasn’t listed on the menu. I would have asked for it if it hadn’t been there, though). The skin of the potato was crusted with salt and the texture of the potato was nice and fluffy. There were plenty of toppings but (unlike the stuffed potatoes served at many of the local barbecue restaurants) there wasn’t so much on top that I had to take some of it off. I really liked the addition of the onion straws. The only issue that I had was that the broccoli didn’t taste like it was seasoned, but Dee brought me some salt & pepper so it was all good.

Philip decided to order the meatloaf, which is “baked with special seasonings, ketchup, and applewood bacon”. He decided to have it with sweet potato casserole (topped with brown sugar and pecans, no marshmallows) and fried okra. The meatloaf was good (not as good as mine, but don’t take it personally, Pepper Jack’s. My meatloaf rocks the house)….very moist with small chunks of peppers and onions. There was a decent amount of ketchup but it wasn’t smothered. Philip didn’t really detect the bacon, though. The sweet potatoes were creamy and I thought that I got a hint of orange flavor in the bite that I tried. The coating on the okra was pretty uniform so we weren’t too sure it was hand-breaded (not that the menu made that claim anyway) but it wasn’t bad. The portions were good-sized but not so huge that Philip felt overly stuffed after eating it.

Can you guess what we had for dessert? That’s right. Carrot cake. Okay, no, not really. Of course we had the maple-bacon bread pudding. It was very bacony, which is definitely a good thing, and there was a hint of a black pepper taste to it. Interesting. The maple flavor was not overpowering; in fact, I thought it could have used just a smidge more maple. The texture was more like French toast than bread pudding, so it tasted like something that you could eat for breakfast. I liked it and may experiment with the idea of a maple-bacon French toast casserole (to go along with my eggnog French toast and cinnamon French toast casserole recipes).

The total for our meal before tip was $32. The server and the hostess were both extremely friendly and the decor was nice, with lots of wood and tin everywhere. The place smelled like smoked meat, so that was definitely a bonus. There weren’t a ton of people but definitely a steady stream the whole time that we were there, and a man was working on a deck expansion as we ate our meal. I will definitely go back to Pepper Jack’s, and I encourage you to go out of your way a little bit to try this place out.

Pepper Jack’s is located at 3720 Taft Highway, Signal Mountain, TN 37377. You can call them at 423-386-5449. Their website is www.pepperjackssignalmtn.com. You can “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter (they don’t tweet much, though!). They are open 11-9 Sunday-Thursday and 11-10 Friday and Saturday, plus a breakfast buffet ($10 adults, $5 kids) from 8-10:30 on Saturday.