Delis, Sandwiches, Burgers, & Hot Dogs Archives

2 Sons Kitchen

November 22, 2017

2 Sons Kitchen and Market, owned by Chef Nathan Flynt of Famous Nater’s food truck fame, serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Downtown Chattanooga.

I’ve been meaning to get down to Nathan Flynt’s (of Famous Nater’s fame) new restaurant ever since it opened earlier this year. We don’t get out much, at least not during the week. When 2 Sons Kitchen first opened they were not open late on Saturdays, which meant that we weren’t going to make it since Philip was working every Saturday morning.

Ironically, they are now open later in the afternoon and evening on Saturday but I actually visited for brunch. Becky from A Calculated Whisk and I like to meet for coffee or lunch or dinner or whatever excuse we can make to get together from time to time, so we decided to do some brunching at 2 Sons Kitchen. By the way, breakfast/brunch is served until 10:30 a.m. on weekdays but until 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

When you enter 2 Sons Kitchen, you grab a menu off of the counter (specials are listed on a blackboard on the wall as well) and order from a cashier. You are given a number, you choose a table, and your food is brought to your table.

The promise of a homemade biscuit is really all I need to be happy, and if there is chicken on it, even better. I didn’t even have to think about my order of a fried chicken biscuit ($4) with a hash brown ($2) on the side, plus a coffee ($2.50 because I wanted a lot of coffee). Unfortunately, the cashier misheard my order of “chicken biscuit” for “bacon biscuit” so that’s what came out at first, but the mistake was quickly corrected and I got my oversized fried chicken biscuit with a drizzle of hot sauce and housemade pickles. The pickles and the fried chicken batter were both just a little spicy, and paired with the hot sauce it made for a pretty spicy biscuit sandwich (I would have actually preferred for the hot sauce to be served on the side as indicated on the menu, but it was still delicious). Nathan cuts his biscuits with a knife instead of cutting them with biscuit cutters, which results in having to work the dough less and therefore a more tender biscuit (this is the trick I use, too). The biscuit was pretty perfect – flaky and tender…I consider myself an expert biscuit maker and I was definitely impressed. The hash brown was incredibly brown and crispy, well seasoned, and SO good. I could have eaten nothing but hash browns.

Becky went for the quiche of the day ($6.50), which was listed as a wild mushroom quiche but turned out to be a kale and cheese quiche. Since there were greens in the quiche, she subbed hash browns for the mixed greens with lemon vinaigrette. She said that the quiche was very tasty but she did feel that it could have been just a little bit warmer, and while she liked the greens in the quiche she was disappointed that they didn’t have the wild mushroom quiche. She too really liked the crispy hash brown.

The service at 2 Sons Kitchen was great; all of the employees that we encountered were very friendly. The atmosphere was great – very clean, bright, and modern. The only issue was with my biscuit and that was quickly addressed. The prices were very good – the total for my biscuit, a hash brown, a 16-ounce coffee, and the quiche + side was $16.39 + tax. I definitely recommend 2 Sons Kitchen for breakfast, and knowing Nathan’s cooking, I’m going to take bet that it’s a great place for lunch or dinner as well.

2 Sons Kitchen and Market is located at 422 E. MLK Boulevard, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37403. They are open Monday – Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday – Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breakfast is served until 10:30 a.m. daily except on Saturdays, when it is served until 3 p.m. You can call 2 Sons Kitchen at 423-661-8709. For more information, you can check out their website, www.2sonskitchen.com. You can also follow 2 Sons Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint

November 1, 2017

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint, part of a small regional chain, is one of Chattanooga’s newest places to get a great burger and a beer.

There are few things better in my opinion than a great burger. It’s pretty widely known that I love burgers-I mean, I have done not one but two top burger lists…so it shouldn’t be surprising that when Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint opened downtown people started telling me about it and asking if I had been.

So it took me a while to get there. I took some time off from writing restaurant posts when life got a little hectic back at the beginning of August. We finally got to Jack Brown’s a few weeks ago, on a lazy Saturday…Philip’s first Saturday off in months.

In the early afternoon there were not tons of tables taken, and the bartender told us to feel free to sit wherever we’d like. We chose a table by a couple of regulars from the shop and started looking over the menu. Philip chose a bottled beer (Victory Golden Monkey). They have eight taps and a wide selection of bottles and cans.

The two bartenders waited on us (and I didn’t catch their names…the receipt just said “bar share”). I asked for a recommendation between the basic cheeseburger and the Greg Brady. Our server recommended the Greg Brady without hesitation, and it was definitely hard to resist: a wagyu beef patty on a potato roll, topped with creamy macaroni and cheese and Martin’s BBQ chips. The burger patty was the way that I make it at home: thin and a little crispy on the edges, with that soft potato roll soaking in any juices. The creamy and cheesy mac and the crunchy BBQ chips were a perfect foil to the burger. I ordered sweet potato fries, which were just basic crinkle cut fries but were served with a slightly sweet, slightly spicy mayo-based sauce with what I think were finely minced shallots in it.

Philip went for the special. There is a daily special with Saturday’s special being a “freestyle” chef’s choice burger; I didn’t write down the name of that day’s special and can’t remember it for the life of me! No matter, though. It was the wagyu patty between two cinnamon pancakes, with bacon and maple syrup. I know that sounds a little crazy, but dang, it was delicious. And now I need to make a pancake burger.?Philip went for the regular (crinkle cut) fries, which were also served with the sauce that mine came with. In hindsight, we could definitely have split the fries.

We are not usually dessert orderers expect on special occasions, but when fried Oreos are on the menu it’s pretty hard to resist. At $1 each, it was hard to resist getting a couple. Battered, deep fried, and tossed with powdered sugar, these tiny confections were pretty irresistible. I love an Oreo dipped in milk, but deep frying = next level Oreos.

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint is a fun little place with a friendly staff and some tasty and well-cooked burgers. The prices are pretty average: our total for two burgers, two orders of fries, a beer, and two fried oreos was $32.75 pre-tip. Check it out for yourself!

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint is located at 818 Georgia Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37402. They are open daily, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. You can call them at 423-682-8198. For more information, check out Jack Brown’s website or follow them on Facebook.

Mad Philly

October 18, 2017

Mad Philly, located in the Shallowford Road area of Chattanooga, is the newest place in town to get an awesome and authentic Philly cheesesteak!

Unless you are a non-meat-eater, it’s hard to argue with the appeal of a Philly cheesesteak – very thinly sliced steak fried on a flat top griddle until it’s just a little bit crispy, served on a crusty yet chewy roll with whatever gooey cheese is your poison. Maybe some fried onions or some mushrooms too…I mean, why not?

Living in the south, though, a great cheesesteak is not exactly easy to come by. I’m not hating on Charley’s (at Hamilton Place) because Lord knows I’ve eaten my share of steak & cheese sandwiches there. I’m going to go out on a limb, though, and guess that your average visitor from Philadelphia is not going to bite into a Charley’s sub and proclaim that it is equal to Pat’s or Geno’s (for those of you who are unfamiliar, Pat’s and Geno’s are two renowned cheesesteak shops that are definitely rivals for the top spot in Philly – and they are located across the street from one another).

I first heard mention of Mad Philly on Facebook and immediately went to check out their Facebook page. Run by a Philadelphia transplant, Mad Philly boasts authentic Amoroso rolls that are shipped straight from Philadelphia to become the vessel for their cheesesteak sandwiches. Much to my chagrin, they aren’t open on the weekends. Luckily, their location (on Shallowford Road, near Steamboat, which is another great sandwich shop) is pretty convenient to the shop, so I was able to make a stop in on the way to work an evening shift.

4:45 p.m. on Wednesday isn’t a busy time for them, but I’m thinking that all bets are probably off during the weekday lunch hour. I paid for my Original (with fried onions and American cheese, add mushrooms just because), Philip’s Pepperoni Pizza Steak (with mozzarella, pizza sauce, and pepperoni), an order of hand-cut fries and an order of tots ($17.75 pre-tip) and my food was out within 10 minutes. On top of that, Alyssa, who rang me up, was very friendly and upbeat.

I was pretty hungry by this time, and the smell of cheesesteaks, fries, and tots was pretty overwhelming in the car. Some guys at the counter in the shop were eyeing the sandwiches hungrily too, so hopefully I scored some additional business for Mad Philly right there. My sandwich was pretty much perfect – gooey and a little greasy in the very best way, with perfectly seasoned and cooked meat. Say what you will about American cheese, but it’s tradition and nothing melts quite the same. I say you can’t beat it where the purpose is gooey meltiness. The only thing I would have changed was the mushrooms, which I think were canned. I ate half of my sandwich for dinner and saved the other half for the next day’s lunch.

Philip’s sub was gargantuan! I think it was actually the same length as mine, but the addition of the pepperoni and sauce made it seem huge. It was definitely much messier than mine…it was positively dripping with red sauce. I took a bite and it was definitely tasty, although not really the style of sandwich that I prefer (mainly because I say that there is no need to mess with the perfection of cheesesteak). The fries were excellent – tender but crispy, well-seasoned – and the tots were, well, tots. I would definitely like to try some of their topped fries or tots (i.e. Philly Cheesesteak fries, pizza tots, etc.).

Cheesesteak lovers, you need to check out Mad Philly. They are located at 5959 Shallowford Rd, Suite 201, Chattanooga, TN 37421 (in the same building as We R CPR). They are open Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. They are closed on Saturdays and Sundays (though they are available for catering on Saturdays, and I don’t know how much merit there is to it but I heard a rumor that weekend hours may be on the horizon – so get out there and check them out so they’ll know it’s needed!). You can call Mad Philly at 423-531-9449 (WHIZ). For more info, visit their website, madphilly.com or find them on Facebook .

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.

Olive Branch Mediterranean Foods – East Ridge, TN

April 26, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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