CLOSED restaurants Archives - Page 4 of 8

Blacksmith’s Bistro-April 6, 2013 (CLOSED)

April 7, 2013

Blacksmith’s Bistro was a popular dining spot, now closed, that was located first in St. Elmo and later in Downtown Chattanooga.

I’ve been meaning to get to Blacksmith’s for quite some time now. I’ve mentioned my Adventures in Dining coupon book (chock-full of buy one entrée, get one free coupons) before…well, there isn’t a Blacksmith’s coupon in the edition that I currently have, but I first heard of Blacksmith’s from an Adventures in Dining book. Unfortunately, I never got around to using the coupon, probably because of the slightly out-of-the-way location of Blacksmith’s (near The Incline in St. Elmo). Nice spot, but we just rarely make it to that side of town.

Well….they are out of the way no more, having moved to the former location of Market Street Tavern, which closed late last year. Apparently I was not the only person who kind of saw Blacksmith’s as “out of sight, out of mind” because Philip started talking to one of the employees about their relocation and it turns out that part of the reason that they moved was to increase their lunchtime visibility. Being right-smack in the middle of downtown definitely makes you more attractive to the business set, and their sales have increased 25% since they moved just a few weeks ago.

Anyway….we were driving aimlessly, consulting the list, and I mentioned Blacksmith’s….so off we went. There were only a couple of other tables occupied (it was about 2 p.m., so after lunch time and way before dinner) so we chose a table and checked out the decor, which is similar to what was here after MST moved in and remodeled, with specials written on the large chalkboard on the walls and dark tables and walls, but with Blacksmith’s own touches hanging on the walls. They have quite a few house drink specialties, a decent variety of beers on tap, a nice wine selection, and several non-alcoholic special drinks, including Pure Sodaworks bottles (yea!) and their own specialty Italian sodas. Michael, our server, quickly took our drink orders while we perused the menu.

The first section of the menu is “small plates”, or, basically, appetizers. I really wanted to try the fried green tomatoes, served with pimento cheese, black bean sauce, and booyah sauce (more on that in a few minutes) for $6, but Philip’s been on an antibiotic that’s seriously affecting his appetite so we passed. My eye was also drawn to the hummus, of course, and the vegetable spring rolls. They have quite a few unique-sounding salads on the menu, including the beet (with romaine, marinated beets, goat cheese, walnuts, and dijon vinaigrette), the arugula (with black bean-corn salsa, roasted tomatoes, and avocado), and the ubiquitous pear salad (with mixed greens, toasted pecans, gorgonzola, and dijon vinaigrette), which had us both salivating. Ultimately we decided against getting an appetizer or salad, though. Next time…next time.

They had several tasty sounding “big plates”, including steak frites (fancy-speak for steak & fries) and a couple of varieties of mac & cheese, but we were definitely in a sandwich mood. I perused the sandwich menu and was tempted-very tempted-by the Chatty cheesesteak (voodoo steak, pimento cheese, caramelized onion, sourdough)….but the Gooey burger (pimento cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, russian dressing) was calling my name as well so I enlisted Michael’s assistance to choose. He recommended the burger, so that’s what I went for (nine times out of ten I will go for the server’s recommendation). I did not regret that decision. The burger patty was huge and really caramelized on the outside. The meat was absolutely delicious…I was very impressed. The flavor really stood out to me, I think because of the wonderful caramelization. The vegetables were fresh and the Russian dressing was just a teeny bit spicy, which was a nice complement to the salty, creamy pimento cheese, which had nice big (but not off-putting) chunks of pimento. The fries were shoestring fries, not made in-house, sadly, but Michael did tell me that the items that are outsourced are purchased from researched, reputable companies. I dipped mine in some booyah sauce because the name of that sauce was just too intriguing for me to pass it up. It was kind of like a wing sauce, thin, orange in color, not terribly spicy but smoky with the flavor of chipotle. The sauces-pimento cheese, Russian dressing, booyah sauce, etc.-are made in-house.

Philip decided on the Local Vore (Eagle’s Rest bison, Sequatchie Cove Coppinger cheese, balsamic honey marinated red onion, arugula, ciabatta, herb aioli) without much thought because, well….those are a few of his favorite things. It was served on an individual ciabatta roll, which was gigantic still, with very fresh bison meat that is brought to the restaurant a few days a week by the man that raises the bison, perfectly cooked. Of course, Coppinger cheese is a very local raw milk cheese with a very unique flavor, and the caramelized onions and arugula were an excellent addition to the strong flavors of this burger. Philip liked the shoestring fries, too, and we joked that we needed some cheese sauce with them (because they were very similar to the shoestring fries served at Steak & Shake, which are just not right without cheese sauce).

We were too full for dessert (both of us cleaned our plates!) but I asked Michael for a dessert menu just so I could check it out. It was pretty standard-a chocolate lava cake, an ice cream sundae, and a few other things, including an ice cream float served in stout beer. Our total was about $24. We really enjoyed our Blacksmith’s experience and will definitely go back…perhaps to try their Sunday brunch? I’m dying to try the Croque Madame from their brunch menu, and I’m sure that Philip would be more than happy to check out their shrimp & grits.

Blacksmith’s is located at 809 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at (423) 702-5461. Check out their website: http://www.blacksmithsgastropub.com and “like” them on Facebook. They are open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Also, a reader recently asked me to share whether establishments are wheelchair-accessible. Due to their location right off of a major downtown street with curb cuts, Blacksmith’s is wheelchair-accessible, and a large space running between the tables on either side of the restaurant allows room to get around (not sure about the restroom).

Pepper Jack’s-March 16, 2013 CLOSED

March 16, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

El Sol Mexican Restaurant-March 2, 2013

March 3, 2013

Wow, is it really March? I just typed “February” into the title field for this post then realized, “Wait, it’s March!” It’s snowing here in Soddy-Daisy right now (and has been since yesterday morning) but it’s not cold enough to stick and besides, snow on the weekend is a total waste as far as teachers are concerned. No matter, though. Spring break is at the end of March! I have a full week of doing nothing planned and I can’t wait.

Anyway, I wasn’t feeling too hot yesterday (still not) and didn’t really have a restaurant in mind. I wasn’t in the mood to go much of anywhere, really, but there also wasn’t any food that I just wasn’t in the mood for. I really wanted some soup but I couldn’t think of any locally owned restaurants that claim soup as a specialty, not since Soup’s On that used to be on Broad closed (and I don’t think they were ever open on Saturdays anyway). Soup suggestions, anyone? Anyway, Philip suggested El Sol, the Mexican restaurant in the building that was formerly Hillbilly’s and before that Backyard Burgers-near Highland Plaza on Hixson Pike. Fine by me.

We were seated quickly. There was only one server working the floor, but at 1:30 in the afternoon there were only a couple of other tables occupied. He took our drink orders and suggested queso dip, which we of course accepted. He quickly brought out our waters, our queso, a basket of chips, and some salsa. The queso was standard Mexican restaurant queso…not too spicy, creamy, not too runny but not too thick. The chips and salsa were the same….the chips pretty standard, not too thick, not greasy, pretty fresh. The salsa was mild and not super-chunky, which is always a plus for me because I am not a fan of chunky salsa (for this reason I do not like salsa from a jar). Not bad but it didn’t stand out in any way from any other Mexican restaurant in the area (besides a couple that shall remain unnamed that I have not blogged about whose chips have been stale the last couple of times that I’ve been).

Again, the menu was pretty standard. There was a lunch menu on the back with lunch specials served until 3 p.m. I decided on taquitos Mexicano, which come stuffed with shredded beef or shredded chicken. I ordered one of each. Taquitos are, of course, tortillas (theirs were flour) rolled around a filling and fried. These were served with sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole, and shredded cheddar (an unusual choice for a Mexican restaurant for sure) and refried beans and rice. I found the taquitos to be a little bit greasy but they did have a good flavor. I am not one to choose chicken over beef (ever!) but in this case I actually liked the chicken taquito better than the beef because the beef had large pieces of onion in it. The guacamole was fresh-tasting and very smooth. I really liked the rice…it was seasoned well and not clumpy. The beans were pretty standard.

Philip ordered the burrito El Sol, which contained beans and rice, lettuce, and chorizo (not listed as an option on the menu, but just ask!). It was covered with cheese sauce and salsa verde (green or tomatillo salsa). Philip is a huge fan of chorizo and has taken to ordering it at all the local Mexican restaurants. He liked their chorizo a lot-better than El Metate’s, as good as Delia’s, and not extremely greasy, which a lot of chorizo is. Overall, he really enjoyed his burrito and would order it again.

For some reason, dessert is not an item that we often order in Mexican restaurants, but their dessert menu (curiously) is at the front of the menu (not an afterthought at the end like most) and we happened to notice it. While my eye was immediately drawn to the banana chimichanga (hello, bananas Foster in a fried tortilla?!?!) Philip despises the texture of banana so that idea was out. He was all about the sopapilla, though, and when we had finished our lunch he wanted to order one. I was definitely game. Their sopapilla is basically a fried flour tortilla sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with honey, topped with whipped cream (okay, Redi-whip) and a maraschino cherry (you can also get ice cream if you like, presumably for an additional charge). Funny, I just got a new Tex-Mex cookbook (The Homesick Texan Cookbook) and the sopapilla recipe in it is not made with a flour tortilla (it’s made with fresh dough) but I’ll cut them some slack. This was pretty good, reminiscent (in my opinion) of the cinnamon “crispas” that Taco Bell used to serve in the Eighties, and that made me think of my grandmother, which is definitely a happy thing. They were good, but I want to make the real thing soon and share them with you!

Overall, I’d say that El Sol didn’t stand out as any better than the average Mexican restaurant in the Chattanooga area, but it definitely wasn’t below average. Delia’s still stands undefeated in my play book. I’d eat at El Sol again, though, and if you are thinking about going to the Taco Bell just down the street…..keep driving for a minute and pull on in to El Sol. It’s worth the extra minute’s drive.

El Sol is located at 4047 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, TN 37415. You can call them at 423-877-2879. They do not have a website or Facebook page (at least not that I could find).

Meo Mio’s-December 8, 2012 CLOSED

December 9, 2012

Back in the summer, Philip played a songwriter’s night arranged by the Chattanooga Songwriter’s Association at a Cajun restaurant in Tiftonia of which we had never heard. The name of the restaurant was Meo Mio’s, and we had no clue how to pronounce it. Turns out it’s MEEE-oh MY-oh’s. Easy enough. Anyway, I stayed home for some reason and Philip didn’t eat, so we decided we’d make a trip back to try the food at some point. A soon-to-expire Groupon and a desire to stay away from downtown Chattanooga while Christmas-parade-preparations were happening provided the perfect excuse.

The restaurant was pretty much dead so we were seated immediately. Our server, Destiny, took our drink orders quickly then came back to see if we were ready to order. We weren’t. It took a few minutes to decide, since neither of us is what one would call a connoisseur of Cajun food. Philip, who sampled some excellent Cajun cooking on a trip to Louisiana last spring (I was not with him), wanted to try the fried gator bites-he loved the gator that he tried in Baton Rouge-but they were out. Apparently gator can be hard to come by; to be fair, the menu does warn that gator bites are subject to availability.

After considering a fried oyster po’boy (I’ve been wanting to try fried oysters, you know, just to branch out a little), I decided that an entire sandwich was too big of a leap and I should just go with a fried shrimp po’boy-fried shrimp, shredded lettuce, tomato, and Cajun mayonnaise (yes, otherwise known as remoulade….perhaps they think Tennesseans wouldn’t know what to make of that word?) on a wheat hoagie roll. The sandwich comes with chips but Destiny suggested the beer-battered onion rings. They also serve beer-battered fries but were out of them…the fact that they were out made me suspect that the fries and onion rings are frozen. The onion rings were pretty good, though. The sandwich was gigantic; the hoagie roll was more like a footlong hotdog bun. Because the bread was so narrow, when I closed it up everything fell out. It tasted pretty good but I would prefer a homemade roll-to me, the bread is the essence (to get really cliché) of a sandwich.

Philip considered the boudin, a Cajun sausage made with pork, rice, and Cajun spices, served with corn on the cob, slaw, and red potatoes…but he talked himself out of it and instead decided to go for rosemary shrimp parmesan, which the menu said was served with a side salad and a rosemary breadstick. Philip ordered the salad with raspberry vinaigrette. I have mentioned before that I have a tendency to judge restaurants based on their house salad, and this house salad was blah….some iceberg and romaine with a few shreds of arugula, some cheddar, and a couple of slices of cucumber, tomato, and onion, topped with boxed croutons. It was fairly fresh and the salad itself didn’t taste bad but Philip hated the vinaigrette, which was too much on the acidic/vinegary side and not enough on the sweet/raspberry-y side. Bottled, I feel sure (sigh. I wish more restaurants would make their own dressings. It’s so easy!).

The pasta was basically a creamy parmesan sauce served over fettucine topped with Cajun spiced shrimp. They did not bring Philip a breadstick and he didn’t think to ask about it. He liked the shrimp; it was well-cooked and well-seasoned. The sauced pasta was so-so….the cream sauce itself did not have a bad flavor but it needed salt/seasoning. Philip would have preferred the sauce if it had been spiced with the Cajun seasoning as well. I am not sure where the rosemary came in as we didn’t taste it on the shrimp or in the pasta.

When time for dessert came, we ordered some beignets, tossed in powdered sugar and served with Nutella. We were pretty excited about them…but they were out. If another reviewer on Urbanspoon is correct and the beignets are fried baguette slices and not raised the traditional yeast-raised doughnut strips, that’s okay. Destiny explained that they only had Bourbon balls and cheesecake and that everything else (New Orleans style bread pudding, beignets, chocolate cake) was being made at that time. We decided to order the Bourbon balls, which were made to order-a cook came out of the kitchen and went behind the bar and we heard him say something to the manager (or owner?) about needing something for an order of Bourbon balls. They were made of chopped pecans, sweet wafers, syrup, and rum, mixed together and formed into balls, topped with Nutella. They were quite tasty but not quite as strong as Destiny made them out to be (I’m not really complaining!).

Honestly, I’ve never had “authentic” Cajun food, so I’m not one to really judge the authenticity of the food. I do have a little bit of a suspicion of casual restaurants that serve seafood in a landlocked state. They have a pretty good selection of items that I recognize as traditional Cajun foods (besides the boudin, they also have red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo, crawfish, and several seafood selections). The food wasn’t bad but it wasn’t jump up and down good either. Apparently lunchtime on Saturday is not the ideal time to visit, as they seemed to be out of lots of things. I suspect that this is a restaurant that is at its best at busy times (when the staff is on their toes and menu items are available) and would suggest that if you want to try it you go at night.

Meo Mio’s is located at 4119 Cummings Highway, Chattanooga, TN. You can call them at 423-521-7160. You can also check out their website, http://www.meomios.com,

Market Street Tavern-October 31, 2012 (CLOSED)

November 4, 2012

12/16/12 I am not sure what happened….but MST closed their doors on 12/1/12. It seemed very sudden and was definitely disappointing given the quality of the food and their wonderful new location. It made me very sad!

Philip and I have a nine-year-old Halloween tradition: stay as far away from home until the danger of trick-or-treaters has past. I know that sounds mean, but really there’s a good reason behind it. See, the first year that we lived in our house, we bought two gigantic bags of candy. And had about five trick-or-treaters. This, of course, meant that we were stuck with massive amounts of candy leftover. We figured out that since we live very close to three large subdivisions, all the trick-or-treaters go there instead. We decided after that to make an effort not to be home…that way, we didn’t feel the need to buy candy for the few trick-or-treaters who might be out just so we’d end up with a ton of candy that we’d then feel the need to eat.

Since we had a Living Social deal to Market Street Tavern, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to check out their new location. If you’ll recall, we visited there in February and their shrimp & grits unseated Food Works’ as Philip’s favorite. That was a big deal. One of the few “negatives” that I had to throw out was the decor, leftover from the Italian restaurant that was located there prior to MST. They have now moved across the street to the old Hardie and Caudle building, next door to Fork and Pie Bar. Their new location is much more conducive to a “tavern” atmosphere, with dark wood floors and simple dark-top square tables. The new location is basically one large rectangular dining room with the bar located in the front, a row of tables along one side (with booth seats running along the wall and chairs on the other side), and tables in the back. A sign said to have a seat, so we did. Our server, Kelsey, was with us almost immediately.

They’ve revamped (read: simplified) their menu in a way that would make Gordon Ramsay proud (if you’ve ever watched Kitchen Nightmares, you know what I’m talking about. Do a few things and do them well.). MST now has nightly specials, like wings and pitchers on Monday; Pimp-Your-Mac on Tuesdays (basically designing your own mac & cheese creations), which made me sad that Halloween did not fall on a Tuesday; jazz and wine night on Wednesday (though there was no jazz when we were there because someone had broken in to the restaurant on Tuesday and Wednesday had been a bit chaotic with getting that taken care of); sliders on Thursday; and Sunday brunch; there may have been more but I don’t remember. All the nightly themes/specials are listed on a chalkboard when you walk in the door, and there are many menu items listed on another chalkboard in the dining area.

Steak & Eggs (Sunday Brunch); courtesy of Holt Webb Photography/Market Street Tavern

Fried Green Tomatoes Benedict (Sunday brunch); courtesy of Holt Webb Photography/Market Street Tavern

Gouda Mac & Cheese (and the base for “pimp your mac”!); courtesy of Holt Webb Photography/Market Street Tavern

As I perused the appetizer section of the menu (okay, it’s called the “snacks” section), I was really dying to try the Dixie trio: pimento cheese with bacon, roasted corn spread, and warm bleu cheese served with MST’s fabulous house-made chips. I decided in the end, though, that I shouldn’t overdo it since I still had salted brown butter rice krispies treats at home and knew I would want one later. That is definitely on my “to-try” list for later. They have also replaced the fried pickle spears that I had on my last visit with fried pickle chips.

Dixie Trio (the black-eyed peas have now been replaced with bleu cheese dip); courtesy of Holt Webb Photography/Market Street Tavern

It was not easy for me to decide on an entrée. I seriously considered ordering a pimento cheese sandwich but after sampling the little cup of pimento cheese (they actually use roasted red peppers-like I do!) decided that while it was good, I wasn’t really in the mood. I then began teetering between the LaFrieda (Pat LaFrieda is a renowned NYC butcher) burger (chuck and short rib meat) and the fried green tomato po’boy (fried green tomatoes, Benton’s bacon, avocado, lettuce, and comeback sauce, which Kelsey described as “kind of like Zaxby’s sauce but a little spicier”). I finally decided on the burger, which I ordered “Tavern-style”, which meant that it came with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and comeback sauce (the other “styles” are Jalapeno Jack, Bleu, BBQ Gouda, and Chipotle). Since I am obsessed with homemade potato chips, I ordered those as my side, with a cup of comeback sauce to dip them in. Can I just say I wasn’t disappointed with my choice? I’ll definitely have to try the po’boy on another visit, but the burger was fantastic; cooked perfectly, cheese melted just right, great balance of veggies, delicious meat, and sauce, all piled on a Niedlov’s bun. The comeback was very similar to Zax sauce but even better, just a tinge spicy and wonderful with the chips. I ate the entire burger and almost all of the chips.

Philip considered the garden burger, which is made with whole grains and is vegan (and was highly recommended by our server) and then the fried chicken (which he decided against when he found out that it is chicken tenders). In the end, though, he ordered the shrimp and grits. Once he decides that he really likes a menu item at a restaurant it is very difficult for him to order anything else. The shrimp and grits were just as he remembered them-three fried grit cakes (made with local grits from Falls Mill) with shrimp and Benton’s bacon in a smoked tomato butter sauce-except that he thought there may have been a little less sauce then the last time he had them (which he did not view as a bad thing). There was a nice ratio of shrimp to grits to sauce-not a couple of dinky shrimp plopped on a huge stack of grit cakes-but, like last time, he was not able to eat the third grit cake. When we left, he declared that their shrimp and grits are still his favorite.

A much better photo of the shrimp & grits; courtesy of Holt Webb Photography/Market Street Tavern

I love the new, small menu at MST. I love that they are really focusing on interesting themed specials and doing a few things really well-and with as much local food as possible. All of the staff was extremely friendly and Kelsey was an exceptional server. Holt, the night manager (who also took the photos for the website) emailed me almost immediately after our visit to offer photos and any additional information to assist me with my blog post. We really loved the new atmosphere and the openness of the new location, as opposed to the three different rooms in the old location. All in all, this was a great experience and, like before, I highly recommend Market Street Tavern.

Market Street Tavern is located at 809 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-624-0260. Find them on Facebook and Twitter or check out their website/blog at http://marketstreettavern.wordpress.com.

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