Restaurants Archives - Page 26 of 49

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

Steve’s Landing (Soddy-Daisy)

September 29, 2013

Steve’s Landing is very popular with the locals in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee serving a variety of menu items, including ribs that are supposedly amazing.

I guess I knew that this time would come eventually. It’s time for restaurant reviews to become a biweekly feature of Chattavore, at least for the time being. While I am doing my restaurant reviewing on weeknights to preserve weekend daylight hours for photography, it isn’t really feasible to go somewhere new every week. The fact of the matter is, I am a homebody and getting out at night during the week is pretty stressful for me…going across the river on a weeknight requires some planning, and I’ve just about exhausted my options on this side of town….at least now that I’ve gone to Steve’s Landing. What’s more is that if we keep going at this rate I am eventually going to run out of new places to eat! So….at least until Spring, you probably won’t see more than two reviews a month.

It’s kind of funny that I haven’t written about Steve’s Landing until now…it’s less than ten minutes from my house. We ate there many, many years ago (ten, maybe?) and weren’t crazy about it then….but people I trust eat there often so we figured it was worth another try. The problem is that they don’t open until five during the week and we never think about them on the weekend. We finally made up our minds that we were going to go and figured we better get there early….Steve’s has a loyal following of diners that pack regularly pack the place out, so we wanted to beat the crowd. We got there at about 4:58, before the doors had been opened, and were greeted by another family-that had driven from Dayton for the ribs-and a cat who is obviously a regular. Once Steve opened the door at a minute or two after five, we requested a seat on the large deck.

Becky, our server, immediately took our drink and appetizer order. I had heard from more than one person that the spicy queso at Steve’s Landing was excellent, so we went with that. It is not a Mexican-style queso but rather a spicy, cheddar-based queso with spinach in it, but not so much spinach that you’d really call it a spinach dip. While it had a little kick (presumably from cayenne, since I didn’t detect any jalapeños or other chopped peppers) it was definitely a spicy dip that could be enjoyed by a lightweight like me. The chips were hot and crispy. I don’t think they were homemade….they weren’t Delia’s chips (my #1 pick) but they were pretty good.

I’d heard good things about several items on the menu at Steve’s Landing. The ribs are supposedly amazing but I don’t like to work that hard for my food (at least when someone else is cooking), which is the main reason I also rarely eat Buffalo wings even though I enjoy the flavors. I’d heard great things about the Kickin’ Chicken (basically Monterey chicken minus the bacon-chicken with barbecue sauce and cheddar and jack cheeses) as well as the Ragin’ Cajun pasta (fettucine Alfredo with Cajun-spiced chicken, diced red peppers, and chopped green onions). I decided on the pasta, which was a very large (as in I had enough left over for lunch on Friday) serving of pasta with chopped Cajun chicken on top and a piece of Texas toast on the side. I am not a fan of Texas toast-it’s just “meh” to me-so I took a couple of bites and tossed it aside. The pasta was pretty good, but I would have liked more creamy Alfredo sauce and a little less Cajun spice. Interestingly, I found the dish to be less spicy the next day, which is definitely a departure from the norm. I saw an order of the Kickin’ Chicken being delivered to a nearby table while we were there and kind of wished I had ordered that-it looked great.

Philip decided on the fried catfish, which was served with fries, slaw, and jalapeño hush puppies. He got two cornmeal-coated catfish fillets that were fried to a nice crisp and were surprisingly un-greasy. The flavor was great, a sentiment shared by the porch cat, Jake, with whom Philip shared a couple of bites of catfish. The fries were fine, no doubt frozen, nothing special. Philip liked the slaw, which was made with shredded (not chopped) cabbage and carrots and was not dripping with mayonnaise-y dressing. The jalapeño hush puppies were tasty, not really spicy but with a nice jalapeño flavor and, like the catfish, not greasy. It was a very large portion of food so we took the leftovers to my parents’ house for my uncle to have for dinner. We were way too stuffed for dessert. The dessert special was chocolate covered cherry pie, which sounded interesting, but their house specialty is bread pudding, which I have heard is fantastic. There are several other desserts on the menu, including a key lime pie and blackberry cobbler.

Steve’s Landing is in the price range of other similar restaurants…our total for two waters, an appetizer, and two entrees on the lower end of the price range was about $33 pre-tip. They have a large following because they fill a void in Soddy-Daisy. We just don’t have a ton of restaurants out this way other than your typical fast food offerings, and they offer tasty food that you would otherwise have to drive to Hixson or beyond to get, and the prices are not outrageous….they are within the same price range as other restaurants with similar offerings. The staff was extremely friendly.

While the crowds will definitely prevent this from being a regular place for us to visit, we’ll definitely go back to Steve’s Landing.

Steve’s Landing is located at 1145 Poling Circle, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. You can call them at 423-332-4098. They are open Wednesday and Thursday, 5-9 p.m., Friday 5-10 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can view their menu and find more information at their website, www.steveslandingsoddy.com. You can also like Steve’s Landing on Facebook.

Want another option near the water? How about Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River in Dayton?

Great American Burger Company (CLOSED)

September 22, 2013

Unfortunately closed now, Great American Burger Company was a neighborhood burger stand that was located near the lake in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee.

My hometown, Soddy-Daisy, has precious few restaurants. When Great American Burger Company opened in the neighborhood where I grew up and now teach (and where my parents still live) a couple of months back in the former location of another restaurant (whose name I’ve already forgotten) I’ll admit I kind of rolled my eyes. Truth be told, I’d never seen anyone at the former joint-though, to be fair, their hours were such that I really never drove by when they were open. Now I drive by every day on my way to and from work and have noticed quite a few people at this little road-side stand on the road adjacent to “Soddy Lake”(some eating at the picnic tables out front), so I decided that an afternoon when I was staying late for a training was a perfect excuse to give it a try.

It was just after five when I walked up to the window at Great American Burger Company. A very friendly guy opened the window and greeted me. I told him I needed a minute to look at the menu. There was a little chalkboard standing by the window with specials listed, including the Big Papa Burger (with smoked sausage on top), fish tacos, and a fish sandwich. The items on the regular menu board included burgers, a BLT, a fried bologna sandwich, barbecue pork and chicken sandwiches and tacos, deep-fried hot dogs (known as “rippers” because they burst open a little while cooking) with a variety of toppings, and a Philly cheesesteak. There were a few other items but I can’t remember them at the moment.

I decided on a regular cheeseburger (there was also a spicy cheeseburger listed on the menu) with no onions and, declaring that he would have a heart attack at age 40, Philip (on the phone) told me to order him a Big Papa burger. Our burgers were basically the same: large, irregularly shaped burgers (a good sign, showing that they are more than likely hand-patted rather than frozen patties) on store-bought buns with American cheese, mayo, mustard, shredded (not leaf) lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and in Philip’s case onions and a split piece of griddled smoked sausage. Because he has gotten spoiled by sausage from places like Link 41, he wasn’t super-thrilled that it was basically a piece of Hillshire Farms sausage (or something similar) but he said it tasted pretty good on the burger so he got over it. It was a well-seasoned, well-cooked burger that wasn’t overly drenched with condiments. It was a very good burger-not a gourmet burger, just a good old cheeseburger. Sometimes you just want a straight-up good burger. We both ate the whole thing. Don’t judge me. Teaching PreK is hard work, and I am pretty much always hungry.

We decided to try out both the fries and the onion rings. The fries were crinkle-cut, a gigantic bag of them to be exact. They were crispy and well-salted, not mouth-searingly salty but not unsalted like those that you get at some places (I will never for the life of me figure out why so many places are so afraid to salt their fries. I’m sorry, but fried food should be salted when it is fresh out of the oil or the salt will never stick. I understand that some people cannot eat salt, but can’t special orders of unsalted food be made for them????). The onion rings were battered, not breaded, with a slightly sweet taste to the batter. I like my onion rings a little thicker than these were with a more oniony flavor (because while I hate raw onions I do love cooked onions) but they weren’t bad. I’m pretty sure the fries and onion rings were frozen (I have yet to come across a restaurant that serves hand-cut crinkle cut fries) but they were pretty good and I have to admit that frozen crinkle cut fries are kind of a comfort food for me.

When I was growing up, JJ’s, which was on Dayton Pike in the location that is now Shuford’s BBQ, was a mainstay….a place to go for a gigantic burger or a huge bag of crinkle-cut fries so hot they’d burn the roof of your mouth. It wasn’t gourmet cuisine, but it was good. I loved that place. I don’t think I even realized how much until I became an adult. I remember a lot of weekends when I would come home from my college dorm that my mom would ask me what I wanted to eat and I would request JJ’s. When it became “Jan’s” sometime after I got married, I knew the end was near. It lasted a little while but eventually gave way to Shuford’s. I’d be exaggerating if I said I shed a tear, but I was a little sad. The food at Great American Burger Company reminded me a lot of JJ’s so I guess you could say it fills a bit of a void-that great little neighborhood burger stand. Since it’s on my way home from work it seems like a great solution for those nights that I end up working a little later than usual or I just don’t feel like cooking…or for in-service days when I just can’t bring myself to pack a lunch. I would like to give some of their non-burger menu items a try as well. By the way, our total was $14.37.

Great American Burger Company closed several months after this post was written. The owners went on to participate in Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race as Chatty Chicken.

Great American Burger Company was located at 202 Durham Street, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. They are open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with occasional Saturday hours for special events. You can call them at 423-618-3186. They do not have a website right now, but you can like Great American Burger Co. on Facebook. Soddy-Daisyans (or anyone else who is in the area and looking for a yummy burger!), support your local burger stand!

Also in this area: Shuford’s BBQ

The Big Table (Red Bank, TN)

September 15, 2013

The Big Table is a small restaurant in Red Bank, Tennessee. It’s just a tiny bit off the beaten path (not too far) and they serve homemade favorites!
Funny thing about being a food blogger…you have to learn to be a photographer too. This was something that I didn’t know when I started Chattavore, but I very quickly learned that if I wanted to be taken seriously as a recipe blogger I better get pretty good at taking pictures. It has taken me a long time, but I finally feel like my photos are getting where I want them to be-through a lot of hard work and research…and natural light. Summertime is a food blogger’s best friend, what with the daylight lasting till 9 p.m. and all. Fall is upon us, though, and those long days are quickly getting shorter, so I knew I had to do something to make the most of the daylight hours. We’ll be doing our restaurant visits during the week so that we can use the daylight hours on the weekend for food photography. Our first weeknight visit: The Big Table.

I’ve been meaning to make it by The Big Table for a long time…really, I have. I’ve heard from several people that it was an excellent place to eat. Until I visited Merv’s, which is directly in front of The Big Table, a few months back, I was not 100% sure where the restaurant was located, though I did know the general vicinity. I also knew that it was a small space and that it was gaining in popularity, so a Friday or Saturday night would probably not be the best time to visit (at least for someone who doesn’t like to wait and hates crowded spaces), and I knew I really wanted to try their dinner menu. Early dinner on a Wednesday seemed like a perfect idea. And it was.

There was no one-NO ONE-in the restaurant when we got there. The Big Table is located in an old house, with the dining space taking up the two front rooms. I didn’t count the tables but I would estimate that there were not more than twelve (there is another house next door with the name The Big Table Too, so I don’t know if this is an overflow space or if it is currently being used-anyone else know about this?), with the official “big table” located in the room where we sat with engraved name plates. Sarah (or maybe it was Sara), the niece of the owners, explained to us that “the big table” was located in the dining room of the owner’s childhood home and the children had to wait for someone to grow up and move on before they could sit at “the big table”. There were lots of family pictures used as decor. I was immediately smitten with the space, with the family memories being recalled here.

Sarah brought us menus and a specials menu. Apparently the crab cakes are a very popular menu item, but we decided to pass on them (two ladies came in and ordered them while we were there though and were RAVING about them). There is a casserole of the day (on this day, poppy seed chicken over rice and a chicken, spinach, and red pepper casserole), a risotto of the day (I don’t remember what it was), a vegetarian entrée of the day (on that day it was a vegetarian risotto), and the chicken and fish are prepared daily with a special sauce or prep style.

I would have loved to try the risotto but at $15 I felt the price was a little steep considering that risotto is one of my home specialties. I considered the pané chicken (which was being served with a marinara sauce) and the grilled fajita marinated chicken alfredo, but I really, really wanted to try the poppy seed chicken. Poppy seed chicken is a creamy chicken casserole with mushrooms, shredded chicken, and, of course, poppy seeds. Every entrée is served with either soup of the day (today: corn chowder and vegetable beef) or a salad (house salad with pears, walnuts, feta, and raspberry vinaigrette, or Caesar). I decided on the house salad, but Sarah also brought us a cup of corn chowder to share because I had such a difficult time deciding between the house salad and the soup. I liked the soup, which definitely tasted homemade and had lots of great herby flavor. It was a thinner chowder and quite tasty but it did need a little more salt. The salad was nice…I liked the flavors together (it was similar to my Thanksgiving leftover salad!).

I really liked the poppy seed chicken. It wasn’t super-heavy as chicken casseroles can often be. There was more chicken than creamy sauce, and the sauce tasted homemade, not like processed soup. There were enough poppy seeds to taste (my more recent reading claim that eating poppy seeds will not cause you to fail a drug test, which is a good thing because I love poppy seeds.). I think poppy seeds have a great flavor; I used to work at a bagel shop and poppy seed bagels were my favorite. The rice was cooked well, not mushy, still a little chewy. I did need a little more salt in my chicken. The vegetables were fresh, nicely cooked with still a little crunch. I would have loved to have had more of the vegetables! I would love to see them serve a housemade roll or a roll from a local bakery (Bread Basket, anyone?).

Philip decided on the pot roast, which he knew he was going to order as soon as he saw it on the menu-it’s made with smoked brisket. Um, yes please. It was served with potatoes as well as the vegetable medley that I got. He decided on a Caesar salad, which was fairly nondescript. The pot roast, however, was not nondescript. It was served with a thick gravy that tasted homemade (and was well-seasoned) as well as potatoes and carrots cooked with the meat and potatoes au gratin and mixed vegetables on the side. The meat itself was perfectly tender, just short of falling apart but tender enough to cut with a fork. The potatoes were well cooked, well-seasoned, and tasted like they were actually made there and not out of a box like you might be afraid potatoes au gratin may taste. He stopped short of licking the plate, though he did give it brief consideration.

It was Wednesday night when we went, and Wednesdays are “buy one dessert, get one free” day. The desserts are homemade, and who are we to turn down buy one get one free desserts? They had chocolate chess and key lime pies as the specials, but if I see lemon bars on a menu I am pretty much obligated to order them, and Philip wanted to try the double fudge cream cheese brownie. We (or at least I, since Philip is not a huge fan of lemony desserts) felt pretty sure we’d hit the jackpot when we saw that we got two of each bar, which meant that we both got one of each….and the jackpot indeed it was. I’d say go there if for no other reason than for the desserts-the lemon bars and the brownies were both fantastic.

Our total for this visit was just under $25 pre-tip. I was really happy with our experience at The Big Table. I love small, family-owned and operated establishments. To me, The Big Table is like Red Bank’s version of Blue Ribbon Café, which many of you know is one of my very favorite places. They have a small menu, which means that they are not overwhelming themselves trying to make a million different dishes, and they serve things that a lot of other places don’t serve. They were extremely friendly and they have a pretty loyal crowd of regular diners. If you are looking for someplace just a little bit different from the mainstream, give them a try!

Personally, I am looking forward to going back to try the lunch at The Big Table sometime.

The Big Table is located at 118 Cross Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405 (like I mentioned before, just behind Merv’s). They have their own parking behind the building. They are open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. You can call them at 423-634-0772. You can read more about them at their website, thebigtable.net and you can also find them on Facebook. They also offer catering.

1885 Grill (Chattanooga/St. Elmo)

September 8, 2013

1885 Grill is a great restaurant in the St. Elmo area of Chattanooga with fantastic food and a heart for the community of Downtown Chattanooga.

I have been wanting to try 1885 Grill really badly ever since it opened in June. I have no idea why it took me three months to get down there. We considered going for my birthday a few weeks ago, but since the original plan was to go to Elemental, we stuck with that. Anyway, 1885 is connected to Tremont Tavern (in Chattavore’s opinion, the spot for Chattanooga’s best burger) by a common co-owner and is located in the former Blacksmith’s Bistro location in St. Elmo, next door to the former location of Pasha Coffee and Tea. They have done quite a good business since opening, and I had heard that they are almost always busy-no doubt in part due to the fact that they are only open for dinner through the week (open for lunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch only on Sunday), but surely also due to some great food, I was confident. While I read some mixed reviews of 1885 Grill on Urbanspoon (their overall rating is 87%, though), I had heard nothing but good things from friends and family members who had already eaten there.

We got to 1885 Grill at around 2 p.m. and the place was still pretty crowded-the lunch crowd had not yet thinned out. We were seated at one of the last available tables on the patio. It was a nice day to sit outside-not too hot-but we weren’t really thinking about the fact that, of course, the patio is the smoking section. That was our one “issue”, if you could call it that, but then that’s our own fault, isn’t it? I did go inside to use the restroom but didn’t really pay much attention to the decor. The inside dining area was fairly dimly lit with very simple, clean decor but that’s about as much as I noticed.

Our server, Victoria, quickly came to our table and brought water glasses and a bottle of water that she left on the table. She ran down the specials (a fish special, the name of which I can’t remember, and an eggplant sandwich) and strongly suggested the pimento cheese appetizer, which, of course, we had already decided to order (we did consider ordering the empanadas instead, but this is Chattavore and if there is pimento cheese to be had, well, pimento cheese must be had). Apparently this is far and away their most popular appetizer, and I can see why…though I think it may have more to do with the fried okra served alongside the pimento cheese than the spread itself. The okra is cut lengthwise and has more of a cornmeal batter than a cornmeal breading. It is cooked very well-not slimy at all, as okra tends to be-and I would call it the best restaurant fried okra I’ve ever had. It’s so very, very difficult to find a restaurant that serves housemade (not frozen) fried okra, and I get tired of being served okra in a breading jacket. Now, I don’t mean at all to imply that I didn’t like the pimento cheese-I liked it a lot. Like me, they use a cream cheese base, with big chunks of pimento and a grated white cheddar. They also use smoked paprika and minced jalapeño to add another element of flavor-but don’t worry, it’s just a little spicy. Wimpy tastebuds like mine can handle it!

My brother had told me that the pork chop (glazed with Red Delicious apples and a choice of two sides) was excellent and I thought hard about ordering it, but in the end the Country Cuban sandwich won. I posted a Cuban sandwich in the very early days of my blog (if you look at that post, please excuse the photography! Philip has encouraged me to leave old photos so I can remember where I came from.) and I love a good Cuban. The “Country Cuban” is a grilled sandwich, served on sliced Niedlov’s Cuban bread, with sliced roast pork, country ham, white cheddar, thinly sliced dill pickles, grainy mustard, and housemade chips (squeal!) on the side. The sandwich was very large and packed with ingredients. It was grilled but not greasy with a good balance of ingredients. I loved the country ham, though I can’t say that I loved the roast pork. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t “grab” me. I could only eat half of the sandwich and as I’m typing this six hours later I am wondering if I should eat something even though I’m not really hungry so I won’t be starving at bedtime. The chips were amazing. Let me say that again. The chips were amazing. You guys know how I feel about housemade chips. They were great!

Philip ordered the shrimp and grits, which, if I am not mistaken, are made using the recipe of co-owner Miguel Morales’s mother (as are many of the dishes at the restaurant). They offer a choice of loose grits or grit cakes, and of course Philip ordered grit cakes. He prefers grit cakes 500%. There were three grit cakes but they weren’t huge with a crunchy coating on the outside. There was a good ratio of shrimp to grit cakes and not a ton of sauce-the shrimp and the grits were the star players and the sauce had a supporting role. His verdict was that these were not quite as good as those served at the now-defunct Market Street Tavern (which, coincidentally, was also co-owned by Tremont Tavern and 1885’s Dustin) but better than those at FoodWorks (his other favorite) which he said has a lot of very rich sauce that, while it tastes really good, leaves him feeling a little icky after. He did think that the addition of some sort of ham (like the Tasso ham used at FoodWorks) would have kicked it up a notch…but congratulations, 1885 Grill. According to my husband, your shrimp and grits are now the best in Chattanooga.

We were already sold on 1885 Grill, but the thing that has sealed this place as far as our business goes was not related to the food-at least not as far as the flavors are concerned. While we were eating our appetizer, a lady came and sat down at the empty table next to us. She had three children with her and told us that she didn’t have any money to buy food for them. We don’t generally carry cash and Philip told her that while we didn’t have any money to give her for groceries, we would buy her something to eat and she accepted, so we asked a nearby server for a menu. A few minutes later Miguel brought the menu out to us and Philip explained that we were going to buy them some food, to which Miguel replied, “Don’t worry about that-we’ve got it,” and took the lady’s order. One of the managers also brought them drinks. After the lady left, Philip commented to the manager, Katie, that he was very impressed that they gave her food. Katie told us that she felt like if they have a kitchen full of food, giving food to someone in need is the right thing to do. That, my friends, is taking care of your community. 1885 Grill earned my respect for not only their food but for their kindness.

Our total, pre-tip, was about $32 plus some change. Personally, I am looking forward to trying their pork chop at some point as well as some of their fish dishes, which I have also heard are excellent (again from my brother, who typically doesn’t even like fish).

I highly recommend that you give 1885 Grill your support. Good people like that deserve our business.

1885 Grill is located at 3914 St. Elmo Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37409. You can call them at 423-485-3050. Their hours are Monday-Wednesday 4 p.m. – 10 p.m., Thursday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The parking behind the building is very limited but there is overflow parking across the street. There are “no parking” signs in the spaces but we talked to Victoria about this and she explained that the businesses across the street are not open when 1885 is open so it works out well. Check out 1885’s website, http://1885grill.com. You can also like them on Facebook: facebook.com/1885Grill and follow them on Twitter: @1885grill.

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