Not too long ago, I wanted to open a pie shop, right here in good ole Chattanooga.  The problem is, I don’t really have the funding or the business experience to go all willy-nilly opening a business, so it wasn’t like an immediate venture or anything.  And someone beat me to it.

A couple of months ago my pie-loving friend Matt tweeted to me about the Fork & Pie Bar, which was set to open on Market Street downtown.  Fork & Pie opened on June 8 to great fanfare in a relatively pie-starved city.  Us Southerners do love our pies, but unless you are willing to make them yourself (I am, obviously), you are not likely to find them beyond the grocery store bakery (well, until June 8, 2012, that is).  One of the owners is also an owner of Brewhaus, so they clearly had a leg up on me in the restaurant business.

Fork & Pie is located in a section of Market Street that has been somewhat abandoned recently, next to Fischer-Evans and near the former Rone-Regency Jewelers.  Market Street Tavern is opening soon right next door.  It’s a revitalization that is much needed.  I love seeing my beautiful, amazing city coming back to life, a little at a time, a process that started when I was in middle school.  Change is slow but hard-won.  The restaurant is an open floor plan, a long, narrow space with seating around the perimeter, including a little mini-bar seating area with stools in one of the front windows.  I wished we had sat there, for photo lighting purposes.  The floors are wood and the walls are black, the decor sparing but deliberately so…a minimalist “less is more approach”.  I liked the atmosphere, but Philip thought that a pie shop should have a more light & airy (i.e. not as dark) atmosphere.  By the way, you just seat yourself, so don’t wait for someone to come and seat you!

A large chalkboard proclaims the quiche of the day as well as any other important info that you might need…such as the fact that their dessert mini-pies were not available on the day of our visit (all of the mini-pies were being taken to the Chattanooga Market for a pie-eating contest).  Frowny-face!  Menus are laid out on the table.  I liked the design of the menus, with the logo at the top, savory pies on the left, sweet pies on the right, Sunday brunch items and sides on the back.  The back of the menu also shows all of the local businesses supported by Fork & Pie, such as Link 41, Velo Coffee Roasters, Pure Sodaworks, and Eagle’s Rest Ranch.  Our server also told us that nothing is ever frozen.  Winning!

I quickly zeroed in on the Mexican Cantina Pie (after briefly considering the chicken pot pie and the Tuscan chicken pie).  I chose this one, to be perfectly honest with you, because it seemed best suited to eat with the avocado salad side (I have a slight avocado addiction).  The Mexican Cantina pie is a 4-inch pie baked in a house pie crust, with chunks of chicken, peppers, onions, mushrooms, black beans, corn, and cilantro, topped with sour cream.  It was spicy, but not too much so, from the small pieces of jalapeno enrobed in the light sauce formed by the vegetables.  The flavor was good, but I did think it was slightly undersalted.  The crust was flaky and cooked nicely.  The avocado salad was delicious, with pieces of tomato, carrot slivers, and red onion (which I ate-raw!  Look at me trying to overcome my phobias).  It had a guacamole-ish texture and was served with lightly toasted pita wedges.  I liked it.  They should put it on their appetizer menu (which includes hummus, tzatziki, and spinach dip) as well!

As soon as Philip discovered that the “quiche du jour”, which was sausage and Swiss, was made with Link 41 sausage, he was all in (he did consider the barbecue pork pie, but decided against it since the crust was a “sweet” cornbread crust, and he isn’t a sweet cornbread fan).  The quiche was made with Link 41 sausage (particular variety not listed, and we didn’t think to ask), Swiss cheese, red onions, and eggs in a whole wheat crust.  Unlike the other pies, served personal-size, the quiche is cut from a larger pie.  Our server told us that the quiches usually go quickly.  Philip decided to get the fresh fruit (blackberries, blueberries, pineapples, and strawberries) as his side.  Philip was impressed by the whole wheat crust, which was crumbly (as one might expect with a whole wheat crust) but not falling-apart crumbly (which would have been bad).  The custard was firm with a nice ratio of sausage and cheese, which was browned perfectly on top.  Again, though, a little undersalted.  Good, but as Philip told our server, not the best he’d ever had (but, in their defense, I make a mean quiche.  Blindfolded.  With my hands tied behind my back.  The man is spoiled, what can I say?).

For dessert, we decided to split a pecan pie with whipped cream (fifty cents extra).  If there had been mini-pies, I probably would have chosen chocolate chess pie or banana pie (which is touted as a pie version of banana pudding), but Philip was pretty excited about the pecan pie and I didn’t want to burst his bubble by insisting on something else (after all, I do like a good pecan pie).  And the pecan pie was good.  Very, very good.  Buttery, with the sugar nice and caramelized and the pecans perfectly toasted.  The seasoning was delicious and the whipped cream was just that.  Whipped. Cream.  Not whipped topping, which would have stirred my ire faster than you can blink.  We stopped just short of licking the tin it was served in.

Chattanoogans, if you love pie, go here.  They seem to be just slightly afraid of the salt pig, a fear I am sure they will overcome (admittedly, many of us are afraid of salt.  DON’T BE!).  Besides, it could have been just these pies on this day.  They are certainly not afraid of butter, which bodes well for makers-of-pie.  I like their inventive spirit where devising pie varieties is concerned, and home pie-making inspiration is always welcome.

Fork & Pie Bar is located at 811 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402.  You can call them at 423-485-3257.  They are open Monday-Thurdsay, 11-9, Friday and Saturday, 11-11, and Sunday 10-2 (they have special brunch quiches available on Sunday).  Check out their website, http://www.forkandpiebar.com.  You can also “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Note: As of December 2012, Greenlife Grocery is now officially known as Whole Foods Market.  They have rearranged the store extensively.  They do still serve sandwiches but I don’t know if the selections remain the same.

Greenlife is Chattanooga’s Whole Foods Market.  While you might not think that this qualifies as “local”, let me explain.  Greenlife started as a locally-owned grocery store, and it was acquired by Whole Foods in 2010.  While there have been several changes to make Greenlife a Whole Foods store, there have also been many things left the same, and the menu is one of those things (I am sure that there are some Whole Foods menu items that have been added, but the menu items from Greenlife remain).  So….I made the determination to count this as local.

We decided to eat at Greenlife since I had a few staples that I needed to pick up from the bulk food section and I had a gift card.  I didn’t think to even check out the hot bar, which changes daily, to see what was available.  There is also a salad bar (hot bar and salad bar are priced by weight) but I was definitely not in the mood for salad.  I did look at the soup (there are eight rotating soups available plus crackers and cornbread) but decided against it. Their pizza is great, with several varieties of the large slices available daily….always pepperoni and cheese, plus another few vegetarian varieties and varieties including meat.  I knew that I wanted a sandwich, though.  Their sandwiches are my favorite-they have paninis, cold sandwiches, and wraps.  You circle your order on a slip of paper and hand it to the person who is making the sandwiches.

I love their Southern Belle panini (pimento cheese) and their BLT, but I decided to go for the Cha-Town club on this day.  According to the menu, the Cha-Town club is turkey, bacon, cheese, spinach, avocado, tomato, and garlic aioli (a garlicky mayonnaise sauce).  Since I am currently obsessed with avocado, I decided to go for this one (there were a few others with avocado, but this one was really appealing to me).  Unfortunately, they left the avocado off!  It was still great.  The bacon was delicious and the sandwich was ample.  I usually don’t like sandwiches with this much meat, but this one was really delicious.  I just love the aioli, and I love that their sandwiches, which are pressed with a little oil, don’t have so much oil as to be greasy on the outside.  I had a bag of Food Should Taste Good sweet potato tortilla chips and a 365 Cola.  Usually, we just drink the free cucumber water that is available in their dining area, but I decided to have a rare treat.  We almost never drink soda-in restaurants or otherwise-but I love the 365 Cola.  365 is the Whole Foods store brand.  They do not use high fructose corn syrup…while I know that cane sugar isn’t “healthy” by any means, I do feel a little less guilty about consuming it in a rare soda than I do about HCFS.  But I digress.  This was a delicious sandwich.  I ate about 3/4 of it, and I was stuffed!

Philip decided to go for the turkey-pesto panini.  It may have another name, but if it does, neither of us can remember it, and their menu is not listed online!  I’ll have to check it out next time I go.  If you know, tell me!  I kind of had a restaurant reviewer panic moment when neither of us could remember…but what are you going to do?  Anyway, the sandwich is turkey, cheese, pesto, tomato, and red onion.  The people behind the counter must have been really distracted on this day (they were super-busy), because not only did they leave off my avocado, they forgot Philip’s tomato!  He doesn’t love tomato that much anyway, though, and in my opinion, tomato is not necessary on this sandwich.  The pesto was good….he wouldn’t be a good judge of how basil-y or garlicky it was, because he loves basil and garlic….which I guess is why he loves pesto.  The turkey, the pesto, the melted cheese, and the crunchy bread (with a little onion, but not too much, unlike in some restaurants where you get a gigantic slab) were pretty much perfect.  He also had Food Should Taste Good chips (olive tortilla chips) and a 365 Cola.  We came in $0.68 under budget with our gift card.  Perfect!

Something you should know about Greenlife….if you go for lunch during normal lunch hours and order a sandwich, you should be prepared to wait.  This is not just on Saturdays, either….there’s the after-church crowd to contend with on Sundays, and the lunch-breakers during the week.  We waited for about 15 minutes for our sandwiches.  Still, they have a sign posted warning that during peak times there may be a wait, and I’d rather wait a few minutes for a great sandwich than have a bad or mediocre one that I didn’t have to wait for.  Besides, if you are in a hurry, you can just grab something other than a made-fresh sandwich…pizza, soup, hot bar, salad bar, or one of the many items available in their cooler (sandwiches, salads, dips, sushi, and even a Whole Foods “lunchable”-freshly assembled chunks of cheese and turkey with crackers and fruit that I can pretty much guarantee is a better nutritional deal than the real thing.  I definitely recommend Greenlife for a great lunch…and a little healthy shopping after!

Greenlife Grocery is located at 301 Manufacturer’s Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405.  You can call them at 423-702-7600.  Like  them on Facebook or follow Whole Foods on Twitter.

Living Social is a fabulous thing. Thanks to Living Social, we got $20 worth of food at Tremont Tavern last week, I paid $10 plus shipping for $50+ worth of business cards and bumper stickers (!) Friday night, and last night, we got $40 worth of food for $20 at Chato.

I’ve been wanting to try Chato ever since I saw them featured in the Dining Out insert in the Sunday edition of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press when they first opened. They feature food with a slight French flair but it’s not really a “French restaurant”. The food is upscale and the atmosphere is as well, but we wore jeans and did not feel out of place at all. We saw a party, people on dates, older people, younger people, and families with children dining here….it’s definitely an “inclusive” environment, unlike some of the other upscale restaurants in town that shall remain unnamed….and that you will not likely see reviewed here. Chattavore and pretentiousness don’t mix.

One of the first things that I noticed was that the chef-owners were not in the kitchen, for the most part. One of them appeared to be expediting, and I even saw him taking food to diners, and the other was walking around interacting with diners. I have a slight case of amnesia, but I think he may have brought our appetizer to us…I do remember that he stopped to check on us on two different occasions. That may be the first time that this has ever happened, and it definitely made an impression on me.

The menu is divided into three sections: Small Plates (small appetizers), Medium Plates (slightly larger appetizers?), and Large Plates (entrees). It didn’t take us long to decide on a small plate: Crisp Pork Belly, served with chipotle slaw and onion petals. The slab of pork belly was served on top of the slaw with the onion petals on the side. The onion petals were, well, onion petals….they tasted fine, but alone I didn’t think they were much to get excited about. The slaw was good, slightly sweet, slightly vinegar-y, with just a slight hint of chipotle that definitely did not leave my mouth burning, which is a good thing. The pork belly….oh, the pork belly. The crispiness was just on the top, and the rest, well, it’s pork fat, people. Delicious, melt-in-your-mouth pork fat. Oh my. I was sold. We only ordered one small plate, but I was intrigued by the Chato salad, which includes a poached egg with bacon lardons on greens, and the southern biscuits with honey-truffle butter, as well as the Caesar salad with basil-caper dressing and the potato-leek soup with crispy shallots on the medium plate menu.

I agonized a bit over my choice of an entree. The sweet-tea brined, roasted chicken was tempting…but seemed a little normal. The sugar-cured pork tenderloin was tempting, especially since it was accompanied by pimento cheese mashed potatoes…but I knew that my mom had mentioned having a pork roast at our Sunday family dinner. So, I decided on the braised boneless short ribs, with hoisin sauce, herb-mascarpone polenta (mascarpone is an Italian soft cheese similar to cream cheese), and garlic spinach (one of my favorite at-home veggies). Our server, Alex, told us that all of the meats are cooked sous-vide, which means that the meats are vacuum sealed and cooked in a water bath. This renders the meats very tender, and then the meats are finished to produce browning, crispness, etc. I loved the polenta and the spinach, both of which were cooked perfectly and seasoned just right. As for the meat….well, I’m not going to lie. I am not a huge fan of hoisin, which is sort of a Chinese barbecue sauce. The short rib could have stood on its own without the hoisin sauce. I scraped most of that off, and found the meat to be very tender and flavorful. So, the only issue that I had was one that I had not with the meat but a standard sauce that I don’t like in any dishes.

Philip wrestled with what to order as well, but he kept coming back to the Maple Leaf Farms Duck Confit Cassoulet. It was a duck leg/thigh with crispy skin, served on a bed of cassoulet (a sort of bean casserole with sausage-chorizo, in this case) and arugula with carrots. He had ordered duck once before in another popular restaurant in town and did not like it one bit, but decided to go for it again. First of all, let me say that they had him at chorizo. He loves chorizo, and really loved it with the cannelini beans in the cassoulet. He was nervous about the duck….but needn’t have been. This experience was 100% different than the time before. The skin was wonderfully crispy and the duck cooked perfectly. It tasted like a slightly saltier, slightly fattier (not in a bad way!) dark meat chicken or turkey. Delicious!

About halfway through our large plates, Alex came by and mentioned to us that their dessert special was a lavender souffle with honey-chevre creme anglaise poured in the center, and that it took about twenty minutes so if we were interested he would go ahead and put in our order. Since we had looked at the menu prior to going to Chato, we knew that they had crème brûlée on the menu, and Philip is a crème brûlée fiend, so we told Alex that, while the souffle sounded great, we were going to have to stick with the tried and true. Besides, I’m not so sure about honey-chevre creme anglaise. Chevre is goat cheese, and I am not a fan, so…..anyway, the crème brûlée was a white chocolate-raspberry. The raspberry sauce was on the bottom of the dish and on the top of the custard, just under the bruleed sugar. I was impressed at the size of this dessert. Usually, when we order this in restaurants, it comes in a ramekin that’s about 1/8 of an inch thick and we each get 2.5 bites of it…not this one. I didn’t really detect much of a white chocolate flavor, but it tasted very lemony, which was fine by me-I love lemony desserts. After we got home, I told Philip that I wanted another one. Great dessert!

Chato also serves brunch on Sundays from 11-3, and I am anxious to try their brunch. The brunch menu includes a whole list of Eggs Benedicts (I love Eggs Benedict!) as well as some sandwiches/burgers, waffles, and a few interesting entrees. Count me in!

Chato is not inexpensive, but for a special, occasional night out, it is worth the price. I especially love that, like I said in the beginning, it is an upscale restaurant that avoids pretentiousness. They are open from 5-9 Monday through Thursday, 5-10 Friday and Saturday, and 11-3 Sunday. Chato is located at 200 Manufacturers Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can reach them at 423-305-1353. Check out their website, http://chatodining.com. You can find them on Facebook as well.