Restaurants Archives - Page 28 of 49

Saturday in the Park: Muenster Truck, Chattanooga Brewing Company, and Ice Cream Show

July 21, 2013

How many of you are singing the Chicago song with me now? If you don’t know that song, you are obviously younger than me and let’s never speak of that again. Anyway, it was the twentieth of July, not the Fourth, but close enough.

You may have guessed based on the establishments about which I am writing that the park to which I am referring is Coolidge Park. I had an appointment scheduled yesterday afternoon to do a photo shoot, so when Philip saw on Facebook that the Muenster Truck was going to be at Chattanooga Brewing Company, it seemed logical to both of us to head down for some grilled cheese action.

You may have walked past Chattanooga Brewing Company many times without really even realizing that it was there. Located next door to N2 Shoes, Chattanooga Brewing Co. is only open to the public on Fridays from 5-9 p.m. and typically on Saturdays from 1-9 p.m.(well, these are the stated hours on the front page of their website, though I did notice that their event calendar on the website mentions growler hours starting on Sundays at 3 p.m.), though they opened early yesterday to accommodate grilled cheese eaters. The company originally opened in 1890 (later closing in 1915) and was reopened in 2010, microbrewing a variety of brews right their in their tiny space. Their Imperial Pilsner and Hill City IPA are available year-round and other brews rotate. During their “growler hours” (listed above) you can purchase their fantastic small-batch beers by the glass (or smaller samplers of the whole variety) or in growlers (64 oz.). Chattanooga Brewing Company beers are served in many local establishments-check out the list hanging in their window to find out which ones (I wish I’d taken a photo of it)! Pictured below is their Hill City IPA.

When I first heard of the food truck trend, one of the trucks that really piqued my interest was a Los Angeles truck known simply as The Grilled Cheese Truck, serving plain old grilled cheese sandwiches as well as more unusual offerings like a macaroni & cheese and short rib sandwich. Truth be told (and I may have mentioned this here) I once wanted to open a grilled cheese truck in Chattanooga, but I’m definitely not cut out to be a food truck owner so I’m glad someone else undertook the task.

I was super-excited when I heard a few months ago that Chattanooga was soon to get a grilled cheese truck….and apparently so were a ton of other people because when I went to the Chattanooga Market the Sunday before Independence Day the Muenster Truck was by far the most crowded. The line was a mile long and I was hot and hungry so even though I really wanted a grilled cheese, I was not going to stand in that line (regular readers know that I’d rather gouge my eyes than wait in a superlong line or wait for an hour and a half to be seated in a restaurant). Guru, the Muenster Truck owner, emailed me recently and told me that Center Park tends to be a little less crowded than the market, so my plan was to head down there in the next week or two, but this was the perfect opportunity.

I came extremely close to ordering the Angry Bacons sandwich, which contains two of my favorite things: bacon and avocado (in the form of guacamole) but in the end the smoked gouda of the Dragon Ball Cheese won out. Besides, you can’t go wrong with caramelized onions and sautéed mushrooms. Philip decided on the Rocket Italian, with provolone, a spring mix, Italian vinaigrette, and tomatoes. Honestly….any of these sounded delicious, because who doesn’t love a grilled cheese (and coincidentally, I’m going to be sharing some grilled cheese recipes with you guys fairly soon)? When Raj, whom I gathered is the manager of the truck, handed us our sandwiches, the first thing that struck me was the smell. It smelled like a grilled cheese. That may sound strange to some of you, but you dyed-in-the-wool grilled cheese lovers (like myself) will know what I’m talking about. Some food purveyors try to be fancy or modern or “healthy” with their grilled cheese/paninis, brushing or spraying them with olive oil instead of cooking them in butter. This was a true butter-grilled sandwich. Heaven help me.

Raj promised that these sandwiches would fill us up, and let me tell you….he wasn’t lying. The sandwiches were very large and assembled on sturdy but not dense white bread. For you health nuts out there, get over it. As much as I’d love to love a grilled cheese on whole wheat-and do make them myself sometimes-I cannot deny that a proper grilled cheese must be made on white bread…it just turns up the comfort food level a couple of notches. There was a good ratio of cheese to toppings, which can be difficult to achieve. The mushrooms and onions on my sandwich were sautéed very well-to the point that they still had some texture but didn’t give that off-putting crunch of pseudo-caramelized onions that haven’t really been caramelized at all. I was only able to eat about 3/4 of my sandwich.

Like my sandwich, Philip’s had a nice ratio of toppings-including tomato, radicchio, and some more delicate greens-to cheese. This is a great sandwich for someone who likes a little crunch on their grilled cheese, but honestly, my favorite feature of the sandwich was the Italian vinaigrette. I have never thought of putting a vinaigrette on a grilled cheese, but I think it provided a perfect balance between the vegetables and the cheese. Delicious.

At $17 (including 2 bags of Miss Vickie’s chips and 2 bottled waters, of course this is a little more expensive than making a grilled cheese at home, but how many of you have all of the aforementioned ingredients to add to your grilled cheese? You should definitely support the Muenster Truck. To find out their hours and locations, you can check out their website: http://themuenstertruckchattanooga.com/www, like them on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter.

After our lunch (which we ate on a barrel inside Chattanooga Brewing Company) we still had a quite a bit of time to kill before my photo appointment. This provided the perfect opportunity to get a little leisurely exercise by walking across the bridge. We circled Bluff View Art District and then ended up back at the bridge with time to kill, so Philip suggested a stop-in at The Ice Cream Show.

The concept at The Ice Cream Show is seemingly simple-you choose your based (soft serve chocolate or vanilla ice cream or yogurt) and your container (waffle cone or cup) then add mix-ins to your liking (they have a sign with suggestions, which I photographed, but my photo was way blurry. Unfortunately (if you’re indecisive like me anyway), the list of mix-ins was pretty long and it took me a minute…but then I saw green mint and all was right with the world. The cashier suggested one of their combinations-green mint, dark chocolate, and Oreos. It sounded pretty good to me, except the Oreos were unnecessary. Green mint & dark chocolate in vanilla ice cream. Yes. Pretty tasty, though I could only eat about half of it (that was a pretty large container of ice cream!). The green mint chips and dark chocolate chips lent the perfect amount of flavor to the vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm. Philip decided on a chocolate malt, which is pretty much his standard ice cream shop order unless he’s just in the mood for a waffle cone. The malt had a good texture, unlike the malts served at some shops that are not well-mixed and have chunks of malt powder throughout, but the malt flavor was not as strong as he would have liked (note-if you like a strong, bitter malt flavor….ask for extra malt!). Still a pretty decent malt, though-definitely better than many he has had.

Normally $13.75 might seem a little steep to me for ice cream, but when you’re sweating bullets in ninety-degree heat on a July day, it seems perfectly reasonable. The Ice Cream Show is definitely conveniently located at the south end of Walnut Street Bridge and I have no doubt that they do a ton of business in the warm weather months. It’s not Nana’s (because in my opinion no one will ever top Nana’s), but it’ll do. The staff was friendly and the service was quick, and they have a good selection and a nice atmosphere for patrons to cool down from the summer heat.

The Ice Cream Show is located at 129 Walnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37403. They are open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. You can call them at 423-702-5173 or check out their website: http://www.theicecreamshow.com/TICS/Welcome.html or follow them on Twitter.

Easy Bistro-July 14, 2013

July 15, 2013

Easy Bistro, an upscale restaurant located in downtown Chattanooga near the Tennessee Aquarium and the Tennessee River, serves amazing brunch!

So Sunday was Philip’s and my twelve-year anniversary! We vacillate between “I can’t believe it’s been twelve years already!” and “It feels like we’ve been married way longer than that (but in a good way)!” Anyway, since it fell on a Sunday, we had to make a choice: go out on our actual anniversary or go out on Saturday so that I could do my usual Sunday morning blog post. Obviously we decided on the former.

We talked a little for a couple of weeks about where we might go for our anniversary but hadn’t really made any solid decisions. It came down between Easy Bistro & Bar and another upscale Chattanooga restaurant that hasn’t been around as long. Since Easy Bistro has been around for so long, I really felt like I needed to go ahead and give them the props and save the other restaurant for my birthday next month. We decided to go for Sunday brunch, which held a few advantages: 1) eliminating the need for me to think of something to make for lunch; 2) less costly; and 3) the brunch menu at Easy Bistro. Oh. My. Goodness.

Easy Bistro & Bar was opened by chef-owner Erik Niel in 2005 as Easy Seafood Bistro and Bar (I’m not sure when they dropped the word “seafood” from the name). Reading some of the articles listed in the news section of the restaurants websites, I found that prior to opening Easy, Niel worked in the kitchens of some of Chattanooga’s other well-known restaurants, including Southside Grille (which gave way to the now-closed Niko’s some years ago) and St. John’s. Philip and I had given Easy Bistro a try before-and liked it-but that was before the inception of Chattavore (2009 maybe? Or 2010? It was for another anniversary, that much I remember.) so it was definitely time to go back, especially since a friend had fairly recently highly recommended that I go back and write a blog post based on her own fantastic filet mignon experience.

We arrived a few minutes early. We have a habit of doing that…we are habitually punctual and we like to park far away. However, if you are not a far-away parker, there is valet parking for $7, which sure is convenient and is offered Thursday through Sunday. In our reservation we had requested a seat by the window (for picture takin’), and a seat by the window we got.

If you haven’t been to Easy Bistro….let me start by saying that it’s gorgeous. The ceilings are impossibly high and the walls are an impossibly shade of dark-black, to be precise. White trim and a cool panel of mirrors with accents of muted colors everywhere scream simple, contemporary, and beautiful (Chef Niel’s wife Amanda-who sat behind me in high school speech class-has a background in design so there you go). The new chevron chairs on the patio? Oh my. This place is a sight.

We were quickly greeted by our server, Christian, who brought us our waters and then asked us if we had any questions about the menu or did we perhaps want to order something from the bakery? Why yes, Christian, yes we do want to order something from the bakery. At only $3 each, we’ll take a cinnamon roll and an order of beignets, to be exact. I. Love. Cinnamon rolls. I can’t believe I haven’t made them for you here, but today got me thinking that I need to start a sweet roll series or something. But this isn’t about me, so I’ll shut up about that…and anyway, after eating this cinnamon roll, I’m not sure that mine will ever measure up. This was far and away the best cinnamon roll I have ever had, slathered with a warm swath of gooey cream cheese icing, somehow managing to be a little crisp on the outside but soft and buttery on the inside. How do you do it, Easy Bistro? How? The beignets (round doughnuts, native to Louisiana, drenched in powdered sugar…and another item I can’t believe I haven’t made for you yet-I’ve got to get cracking!) were just as delicious, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside just as the cinnamon roll was, with a light lemony flavor and not too much powdered sugar (the traditional “way” is to put them in a bag with powdered sugar and shake shake shake, which is delicious but quite messy). We had to stop, though, so we’d have space for our meal, but we had Christian box them up (we are not too proud to bring home our leftovers…those could not be wasted, and I just ate the rest of that cinnamon roll for breakfast).

Besides the bakery items, the brunch menu at Easy Bistro includes starters like yogurt & fruit and a blue cheese tartine (sort of open-faced baguette sandwich), traditional brunch items (steak & eggs, eggs Benedict, omelettes, etc., etc.), a selection of coffees and some “branchy” cocktails (like mimosas and bloody Marys), as well as soups and salads, some sandwiches (braised brisket, a burger), and a few additional entrées like fish tacos, shrimp & grits, and moules frites (mussels & fries). I really considered the fish tacos and briefly thought about the brisket sandwich, but ultimately the decision came down between eggs Benedict and the smoked bacon & mushroom omelette (which came with a salad with champagne vinaigrette). My craving for a good rich Hollandaise won the battle, though, so eggs Benedict it was. And my, what an eggs Benedict! Two oversized English muffin halves (Thomas brand-I asked in hopes that maybe they were made in house), perfectly toasted and topped with lightly browned Canadian bacon, tomato slices, perfectly poached eggs (see the picture of the oozy egg below to see just what a perfectly poached egg looks like), and a beautiful Hollandaise. One bite and I was sold….and then I ate the whole thing. The English muffin was wonderfully crisp around the edges, the Canadian bacon lending a delicious saltiness contrasting with the sharp tang of the Hollandaise, which had a little bit of spice to it, and the tomatoes were a nice touch that added a warm, soft touch to the whole dish. Perfection…wow.

Unlike me, Philip had no real consideration. We had checked out the brunch menu the night before as we made a decision about whether to go for brunch or for dinner, and the eggs Norwegian had caught his eye: toasted English muffin with smoked salmon, a tender lettuce, poached eggs, and Hollandaise. The smoky flavor of the salmon was, like the Canadian bacon, an excellent pairing with the sharp richness of the Hollandaise, the eggs adding a nice oozy bite to the whole thing and the lettuce lent a little bit of crunch. Philip’s dish did not have quite as much Hollandaise as mine but it was still plenty and he too ate the whole thing. We were both surprised at how full we were after finishing our meals, though we weren’t nearly as stuffed as we no doubt would have been had we gone for dinner. For $37 before tip, not too bad.

Easy Bistro was a perfect choice for our anniversary meal. The atmosphere was lovely and the menu flawless. I can’t wait to go back for dinner, perhaps to test that filet that my friend was raving about and definitely to check out the sticky toffee pudding that I saw on the dessert menu. If you are looking for an upscale meal in a beautiful setting with lots of local love (the website provides a list of many local farms with which Chef Niel partners), definitely give Easy Bistro & Bar a try!

Easy Bistro & Bar is located at 203 Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open for dinner Monday-Saturday, 5-10 p.m. and Sunday 5-9 p.m. and for brunch Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. You can call them at 423-255-1121 or email at host@easybistro.com and you can also make reservations on their website, http://easybistro.com. You can “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Bluegrass Grill-June 28, 2013

June 30, 2013

Bluegrass Grill is a breakfast/brunch/lunch hotspot located on Main Street in Downtown Chattanooga. They have great food with fantastic service!

I have been writing Chattavore for 2 years and 2 months. In that time, I’ve eaten at a lot of restaurants and done a few “repeat reviews”. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, for the sake of the longevity of Chattavore reviews) I still have quite a few restaurants to get to.

There are an awful lot of locally owned restaurants that are only open during the day (and some of those aren’t open on the weekends). These places are pretty much impossible for me to get to when I’m working, since a teacher’s lunch break is about 25 minutes (and I eat with my kids anyway, and 25 minutes is barely enough time to walk to and from my car really). So, I have to cram as many of those sorts of places as possible into my summer.

Bluegrass Grill is one of those places. They are open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. during the week and from 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. No way I would even attempt it on a Saturday, though, because I am willing to bet that there are people spilling out the doors from the minute that anyone has any business being awake on a weekend. We had heard (from a friend who raved about Bluegrass Grill) that it wasn’t too bad on a weekday if you could arrive after the breakfast crowd was gone but before the lunch crowd hit.

We arrived at a few minutes before eleven and the place was packed out. Mind you, it’s a fairly small space….but every table was taken and there was another couple waiting in front of us. It wasn’t too bad of a wait, though….we waited about ten minutes, I guess, for a seat at the bar, which I liked because I could watch how everything operated (I couldn’t see too much of what was going on in the kitchen, just a peek through the pick-up window).

At Bluegrass Grill there is no POS system where the servers are keying the orders in a fancy computer. It’s an old fashioned system where the server writes the order on a ticket and hangs it on a carousel-y thing that the cooks spin to see the tickets. Our server, Marissa, was very friendly as was Greg, a guy that was doing various tasks at the counter while we were waiting for our food whom I gathered was the son of the owners. Greg told us that Bluegrass Grill had been open for six years, which surprised us….we had no idea (I probably heard about it about two years ago). We spent a few minutes perusing our menus, which consisted of specials, hashes, biscuits, omelets, cereals, pancakes, & French toast, salads, soups, and sandwiches, potato dishes, and baked goods, as well as some specials written on a dry-erase board on the wall. The specials that day were a roasted corn salsa bisque and pastichio, basically a Greek lasagna.

Instantly I was torn between the Special #2-two eggs, any style, with choice of Applewood smoked bacon, jalapeño bacon, sausage, or ham and two of the following: breakfast potatoes, grits, biscuit, toast, or fresh fruit (for $0.75 extra) or the corned beef hash. Ultimately, I decided to go with my gut and get the special, which I ordered with eggs over medium, Applewood bacon, potatoes, and a biscuit. The biscuits are housemade, half whole wheat, and have the homemade touch of being obviously cut with a knife as opposed to a biscuit cutter, which means that the dough does not have to be handled over and over to reform it for cutting. The eggs were nicely cooked (though I would have liked the yolks just a tad runnier) and the bacon tasted great. The potatoes were red-skinned potatoes, hand-cut, boiled, then fried off till crisp, and the biscuit was nice and soft with a hearty texture similar to what I make at home (because mine are half whole-wheat too!). At first I was worried that they only had the Promise buttery spread that was at the top of the container, but Philip unearthed real butter that I spread on my biscuit and the day was saved.

I was fully expecting Philip to go with pancakes for his breakfast but he surprised me and ordered French toast instead, with an over-easy egg and bacon. The bread is homemade and you have a choice of buttermilk bread or whole-wheat; Philip chose whole-wheat. He also chose to add maple syrup for $1.50 extra rather than eat the pancake syrup that is included with the price ($1.50 seemed like a bit of a steep up charge until Greg handed Philip this pitcher that probably held about half a cup of syrup-do people actually use that much syrup? I guess we are used to carefully parsing out our liquid gold.). Funny story….we were actually impressed when we saw Joan, one of the owners, take the lid off of one of the pancake syrup pitchers and wash it. My dad refuses to eat at Waffle House (which he calls “The Awful Waffle”) because he says if you take the lid off the syrup pitcher you’ll be horrified at what you find. Philip remarked that my dad could eat at Bluegrass Grill. Like mine, Philip found his eggs to be cooked well and he liked his bacon. The scent of the batter from the French toast was really nice, and it had a good flavor. The only thing that I might change about it was the thickness of the bread-I like my French toast nice and thick. We got a laugh at the one little piece of cantaloupe that was wedged under Philip’s French toast; it looked as if it had landed there by accident, but I don’t think that it did!

Our total came to about $16 and some change before tip….not a bad price. It was definitely a good meal and I’d like to go back and try some of their Greek specials. This place has been around for quite a while and has been voted best non-chain breakfast in Chattanooga in the past (sad that they have to make a chain and a non-chain category because if they didn’t everyone would just vote for Cracker Barrel). It’s a good place to get a good breakfast, though I’m probably just going to stick to my homemade breakfasts that I can cook and eat in my robe with my gigantic cup of Velo coffee in hand on the weekends (because I make a mean breakfast, I hate crowds, and I’m a hermit).

If you, however, are looking for a great homestyle breakfast served by good, friendly people and you aren’t into making that sort of thing yourself, head on down and give Bluegrass Grill a try!

Bluegrass Grill is located at 55 East Main Street, Chattanooga, TN 37408. They are open 6:30-2:00 Tuesday-Friday and 6:30-1:00 on Saturday. There was also a sign for a Sunday brunch buffet that they just started (today!) by reservation only, though I didn’t notice a time…but you can call them for that information at 423-752-4020. Check out their website: http://bluegrassgrillchattanooga.com and “like” them on Facebook.

Tremont Tavern Revisit-June 20, 2013

June 24, 2013

Tremont Tavern is a wildly popular bar and neighborhood hangout in North Chattanooga that many say has the best burgers in town.

When I wrote my Friday list about my Top Five Burgers in Chattanooga a couple of weeks ago, a few very strong opinions were expressed. Every. Single. One. of those opinions was in favor of Tremont Tavern.

Philip and I went to Tremont last spring. We really liked it, and I made them second on my list. The caveat, though, was the fact that since our most recent visit was before Tremont started grinding and patting their own beef, we hadn’t really had a burger from their, at least not the burgers that they are serving now. So, I resolved that I would return to Tremont and my mind was changed, I would update my list to reflect that. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may have noticed that I did, in fact, update my list this past Friday to show that Tremont now has what I consider the best burger in Chattanooga. It’s that extra step of cutting and grinding their own meat that really sets them apart from everyone else. They take a whole shoulder clod (sounds like a lovely piece of meat, right?), cut away all the unsavory stuff (the stuff that just gets ground up really fine at the factory), grind the meat and the fat separately, then weigh them into an 80/20 mix.

So anyway, I knew I had to get back. We waited until after lunch-rush time…the space at Tremont is pretty small and I’ll tell you, I have to be pretty patient in my professional life. I try to avoid situations that require a lot of patience (e.g. waiting at restaurants) outside of my classroom whenever possible. One o’clock on Thursday turned out to be a pretty good time. Our friend Brian, who also accompanied us to Merv’s, went with us.

It was difficult for me to decide what to order. Last time that we went, I had the pimento burger, with pimento cheese, onion straws, and bread & butter pickles. While it was amazing, I wanted to try something different. The Coltrane, with a fried egg on top, was tempting, but I was also interested in the Gouda, with smoked gouda, onion straws, and barbecue sauce. My friend Matt had recommended it, and anything with smoked cheese is pretty much perfect in my book. Our server (there were actually two girls serving us, and I regret that I didn’t get either of their names) told me that the Coltrane was a good “hangover burger” but that the Gouda was probably the most popular burger on the menu….so I went for it. It was pretty much perfect. Messy, drippy, sticky, and delicious. I had to wash my hands after eating it. It was gigantic, and I ate all of it. Luckily I don’t eat like this every day! The barbecue sauce was perfect with the onion straws and a great match for the smoked cheese. Not overdone but just righ, with the Niedlov’s bun soft enough to absorb some of the juice from the burger and structured enough to not fall apart. Last time we came I had the housemade chips, so this time I tried the beer-battered fries. They were pretty good, but I liked the chips better, and I ate so much burger that I didn’t have too much room for fries!

Philip contemplated getting the jalapeno Jack burger (which he had last time) again, but ultimately decided that the Dirty Gomez (don’t think I didn’t look at that name twenty times to make sure I typed the write thing!) sounded too awesome to pass up. 50/50 beef and housemade chorizo, with avocado and queso fresco. This started out as a special (Tremont has a “burger of the day” every day) and ended up being so popular that they put it on the menu. When he bit into it, the first words out of Philip’s mouth were, “Oh dear sweet Baby Jesus!” That good. I tried it…I don’t normally care too much for sausage, but it was quite good, just a little bit spicy but not too much so, with the taste of peppers in the background. He had the tots….he loves tots.

Brian had the jalapeno Jack, with fresh jalapeno, bacon, ancho cilantro dressing, pepperjack cheese, green leaf lettuce, sliced tomato, and red onion, and chose corn chowder (the soup of the day) as his side. He was extremely happy with his burger, which I described in more detail in my last Tremont post, and liked the corn chowder a lot as well (though he did douse it with hot sauce). I don’t like to spend a lot of time harassing my friends for details about their food, but he was definitely happy and did remark that he liked the Tremont burger more than he liked the Merv’s burger (which he still really liked).

We spent several minutes chatting with Dustin, the owner of Tremont Tavern, about their new(ish) practice of grinding their own meat. Apparently lots of other restaurants were starting to use the same preformed Black Angus patties that they were using and they decided that they needed to step it up a notch to set themselves apart from the other guys. They have certainly done just that, and I’d say that there aren’t too many other restaurants-especially not restaurants quite this tiny-that have such a fiercely loyal customer base.

If you love burgers and you’ve never been to Tremont Tavern, try them out….you just may become their next loyal customer.

Tremont Tavern is located at 1203 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-266-1996. You can “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

212 Market-June 15, 2013

June 16, 2013

212 Market is a Southern cooking spot in downtown Chattanooga, near the Tennessee Aquarium, that has been around for many years.

How is it possible to be a food blogger in the town in which you grew up and you’ve never eaten at a restaurant that’s been around for twenty-one years?

I have no idea, but it is.

212 Market has been open in Chattanooga’s downtown since 1992, around the same time that the formerly skid row-ish downtown area was being revitalized with the opening of the Tennessee Aquarium and lots of beautification projects. Back in the eighties you didn’t really go downtown unless you had to…say, you worked down there or something. It just wasn’t very smart. In the nineties it was much safer but old habits die hard and my parents didn’t care too much for the downtown area. It wasn’t until late in my high school career when I started going downtown with my friends that people from the suburbs felt safe going downtown.

I remember one of my best friends in high school loving 212 and going there often with her parents, but that was back in the age when lots of casual dining places were opening up in Hixson, starting with Applebee’s then later O’Charley’s and Chilis and those were the kinds of places where my friends and I hung out when we wanted a “nice” dinner, something besides our usual McDonald’s (I am not kidding). I lived downtown for four years while in college but still TGIFriday’s and Taco Mac were more my kind of hangouts. I recall Philip and I discussing going to 212 for our first dating anniversary but it never panned out. And so here we are twenty-one years after the inception of what I would now call an institution in the Chattanooga dining scene and I have finally eaten there (at this point I would say I haven’t been because I generally avoid the fairly congested area around the Aquarium….notice I haven’t blogged about Thai Smile or Hennen’s yet either).

So, we parked at the visitor’s lot at Unum and trekked it down to 212 Market for lunch (not really necessary, as 212 Market is one of the very few restaurants downtown that has free parking on-site for its patrons, but we like to walk). A sign was out detailing their brunch specials and though there were several tables occupied we were immediately seated. While the decor was not what I would call “contemporary”, it wasn’t outdated either. It was nice and comfy, and the first thing that I noticed was the Fiesta saucers on the table for bread. One of 212’s missions is to be as local as possible, and with the made in the USA Fiesta dishes they are really proving their point. We were given a brunch menu and a lunch menu, and our server Julia arrived very quickly with glasses of water for us, then a basket of focaccia and whole wheat bread. The bread is house made and had good flavor, though Philip and I agreed that the whole wheat bread was not really the kind of bread that is best served in a bread basket (a little too heavy/hearty).

Philip and I were both grabbed initially by the eggs Benedict on the brunch menu, but as usual decided against the brunch because we had already eaten eggs at breakfast. Honestly, I don’t even remember much else of what was on the brunch menu…I wish I had taken a picture of it! There is also a pretty comprehensive salad & starter menu, including a Mediterranean salad with hummus and quinoa tabbouleh, a strawberry and chèvre (goat cheese) salad, a bison spring roll (including locally-raised bison), and the obligatory Caesar salad. The spinach salad sounded particularly delicious with apples, gorgonzola, bacon, and spiced pecans dressed with orange-basil vinaigrette.

I wasn’t in it for a salad, though. While the burger with Alabama dry-aged beef sounded delicious, I was torn between the grilled pimento cheese sandwich and the signature spinach and walnut ravioli primavera. I asked Julia for her recommendation and she told me that both were very good….but from her descriptions, I could tell that her preference was for the pimento cheese sandwich. In fact, I felt that she threw down the gauntlet when she told me that their pimento cheese was the best that she had ever had…so I ordered it, with bacon, lettuce, and tomato, per her recommendation. She sounded a little less biased about the sides (which are $2 with a sandwich). Ultimately I decided to have the fruit…I definitely needed something besides fries, and I felt that fresh fruit would not compete with my sandwich. The fruit consisted of thinly sliced apples, kiwi, bananas, and nectarines, quartered strawberries, grapes, and and orange wedge. The fruit was very fresh and tasty, though I would have liked just a little more, or perhaps for it to be more of a “fruit salad” amalgam (I love a good fruit salad!). The sandwich was grilled to the point that the cheese was melty and drippy, but the outside of the sandwich was not greasy as it can sometimes be. While the bacon was included on the sandwich when I got it, the lettuce and tomato were on the side. The pimento cheese had shreds of cheddar and finely diced pimentos in it as well as green onions, which added a little zip to it. It was indeed among the best pimento cheese I’ve had at a restaurant…but not better than mine (sorry, 212). While, as I mentioned before, I thought the whole wheat bread was a little too “hearty” for a bread basket, I thought that it was an excellent sandwich bread.

Philip was seriously torn about his entrée. He thought the burger sounded amazing, but they had shrimp and grits on the menu and it is very difficult for him to pass up shrimp and grits. Julia told him that the dry-aged beef on the burgers was something that they had substituted once for the more local beef from Sequatchie Cove they used to make their burgers with, and their regular customers raved that they needed to keep the dry-aged beef on the menu…so they did. However, she stated that the shrimp and grits was one of her favorite items on the menu, the recipe of the Charlestonian grandmother of a former chef. While the sauce was not cream-based as he generally prefers (the grits were, though), Philip decided to take a chance and go for the grits: wild caught shrimp, Falls Mill stoneground grits, Link 41 andouille, black-eyed pea salsa, and fried green tomatoes. The shrimp were gigantic and very well-cooked, the andouille perfect (of course, Link 41 can do no wrong in our opinion), and the fried green tomatoes delicious…hand-coated in a cornmeal breading and fried to golden perfection. While the grits were loose, not in a fried grit cake form as Philip generally preferred, he was able to concede that while they were not the style of shrimp and grits that reeled him in or made shrimp and grits one of his favorite meals, they were still quite delicious.

Our final total was $26. Not too bad for a fine-dining restaurant, though we were definitely tempted to check out the dessert menu (since we had coconut ice cream and brown butter chocolate chip cookies at home, we figured we better abstain). 212 Market is definitely one of the most local restaurants around, making an amazing effort to source as many items as possible locally. With a registered dietician (Maggie Moses, one of the owners) consulting with them on their menu, they are able to offer many healthy options including clearly indicated gluten-free and vegetarian options. They are also a very “green” restaurant, practicing recycling and composting, sending scraps to local farmers to be fed to livestock, and sending leftover food to the Food Bank. They also have solar panels on the roof and electric car charging stations in the parking lot (and, need I point out again-FREE PARKING FOR PATRONS?!?!). They offer seasonal menus (allowing them to make the most of seasonal produce) as well as daily specials. I have no idea how it took us twenty-one years to try this place out, but I don’t think it will be another twenty-one years until we come back.

212 Market is a great place to try if you’re in Downtown Chattanooga!

212 Market is located at 212 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open for lunch from 11-3 daily and for dinner Monday-Thursday, 5-9:30, Friday and Saturday, 5-10, and Sunday 5-9. You can call them at 423-265-1212. Check out their website, http://www.212market.com. You can also like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

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