upscale restaurants Archives

Hennen’s (Downtown Chattanooga)

July 20, 2015

Hennen’s is a great upscale but not stuffy restaurant in downtown Chattanooga. We decided to go there for our 14-year anniversary!

Who are these infants? July 2001

So, last Tuesday (7/14) was Philip’s and my 14th anniversary-one of the few times a year that we spend a little more money on dinner (also one of the few times a year we go out on a weeknight). We put a lot of thought into where to go and got lots of great suggestions from my Facebook followers (all added to the list, thanks guys!). We decided in the end to go to Hennen’s…we’d been there before but it was long before my blogging days.

We made our reservations for 6 p.m….then watched a storm roll in at about 5:15. We managed to get ahead of the storm, so it hadn’t started raining when we got there, but even if it had, we would have been okay because Hennen’s has a great set-up where you can park in the garage in the same building, come down on the elevator, and enter the restaurant without having to get out from under cover (and if you remember to take your garage ticket with you, you can pay at a machine before you leave).

We were basically starving when we arrived, so we decided to order an appetizer. We were trying to choose between white bean hummus (with marinated tomatoes and warm flatbread) and poached pear and blue cheese flatbread. We ended up deciding on the latter. It was a good decision. It had a great crust with lots of pears that had been poached in what I assumed was port, which was reduced and drizzled on top, and a good amount of gooey blue cheese. I puffy heart love blue cheese. If you don’t, don’t order this flatbread.

I couldn’t decide between the PEI (Prince Edward Island) mussels and the braised short ribs with herb mashed potatoes and green beans. Our server, Abby, highly recommended the mussels. I have a rule that I always take recommendations (if I ask for them, that is). The mussels were served in a bacon-jalapeño broth with wedges of grilled Niedlov’s bread and I decided to get some fries to go with them, because I always make fries to go with mussels. The fries were pretty average, nothing to write home about but not bad. The mussels were delicious, though. The bacon was diced into pretty tiny chunks and I swear there was an entire jalapeño sliced up in there. It was definitely a 3+ alarm broth, which kind of caught me off guard (I was surprised by how much heat the broth lent to the mussels themselves) but boy was it good. Additionally, the mussels were well-cleaned (i.e. no grit; nothing ruins a meal for me quicker than grit of any kind) and the bread was nicely grilled and perfect dipped in the broth.

Philip decided on the tagliatelle pasta with grilled chicken, shrimp, Andouille sausage, caramelized onions, and peppers in a cream sauce. It was a very large portion (he brought half home). The pasta was well cooked, as were the chicken and shrimp. The sausage was very spicy and added a lot of flavor to the dish (even Philip, who is pretty immune to a lot of things that I find unbearably hot, said it was “lighting him up”). I tasted the pasta with a little bit of the shrimp; the cream sauce was light, a little garlicky, and delicious. He also had a Caesar salad, which was very fresh, with a slightly spicy and very garlicky creamy dressing and housemade croutons.

Just a note…there are a lot of steaks on the menu. While we obviously didn’t order them, we saw a few go by while we were eating. They smelled absolutely fantastic. It doesn’t seem like there are a lot of upscale restaurants that specialize in steak anymore, so it’s nice to see that they do.

When it came time for dessert, we had a bit of a dilemma. We always share a dessert, but Philip is pretty much a crème brûlée addict and essentially unable to order anything else if it’s on the menu. I, however, really wanted to try the beignets (French doughnuts) after seeing a friend eat them the last time we were there. So…we decided to live dangerously and order both (I know. Who ARE we?). The crème brûlée was tasty but not the best we’ve had (I like for the custard to be super-cold and this was maybe a slight bit warmer than I prefer, so not as thick as it could have been) but gah, those beignets! They were served with powdered sugar (of course!) and mocha creme. They were still hot, they were a little yeasty, and they were just amazing. And we didn’t have to pay for them! Abby gave them to us as an anniversary gift (thanks Abby!)!

The best part was that by the time we were finished with our dinner, the storm (which came hard and heavy while we were eating and threatened to knock out the power a few times) had blown over. Our total was about $61 pre-tip. The service was very good and the food was delicious…and Philip even got lunch for the next day.

We would definitely recommend Hennen’s!

Hennen’s is located at 193 Chestnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-634-5160 and you can also visit their website, hennens.net, to make reservations. You can also like Hennen’s on Facebook.

Elemental-August 17, 2013

August 18, 2013

Elemental, now closed, was a restaurant on Chattanooga’s North Shore near Whole Foods. Their former chef Charlie Loomis has now gone on to open FEED Co. Table & Tavern.

Okay, let me tell you guys a story. It is completely unrelated to this post…but it needs to be told. It’s Saturday night as I type this. This afternoon, after spending a couple of hours reading about coding, I installed some ad codes in the HTML of my blog. The first one looked a little wonky but it showed up and worked, just needed some tweaking. So I install the second one, hit save…and boom. My blog = gone. Panic! Panic! Luckily in my research earlier in the day I had been poking around my server so I went into my server files and was able to fix the problem. Good grief.

Okay…moving right along. Today (Saturday) was my birthday! I am now firmly in my “mid-thirties”. Right in the middle to be exact. On our anniversary last month, we went to Easy Bistro but decided to go to Elemental for my birthday. I started waffling a little bit this morning because I had really wanted to try 1885 for a while too but in the end we decided to go to Elemental since we’d been planning that. Hopefully we’ll get to 1885 soon because I’ve heard lots of great things about it!

Anyway, there were not a ton of people in the restaurant when we got there at about 1:00. We were quickly seated by Josh, who turned out to also be our server. Since we had never been there before, he explained the mission of Elemental-to use as many local products as possible-and told us about the list of local farmers and producers on the back of the menu, then brought us water and left us to peruse the menu for a few minutes.

The first thing that struck me about Elemental was the atmosphere…very casual and rustic (I hate to use that word, but it really does fit here) but in a polished way. A Ford tractor adorns the center of the restaurant. There’s lots of wood, beautiful wood tables with succulents in a tiny Mason jar in the center of each. Track lighting illuminates the restaurant and small glass pendant lights with Edison bulbs hang over some of the tables, including ours, where we sat at a hightop table perched on wooden swivel stools as I admired the large metal letters spelling “Elemental” on the gigantic oven hood over the open kitchen. Swoon.

As I mentioned above, the back of the menu offers a list-a very long list-of local producers and farmers from which Elemental procures their goods. Chef Charlie Loomis, who moved here from Asheville to work as the head chef at Greenlife, strives to find goods as close to home as possible. If they cannot be bought locally, he will move to regional producers. This was definitely one of the most impressive lists of local sources that I have seen in my two and a half years blogging about Chattanooga restaurants.

So…food. I really, really wanted to try the boiled peanut hummus, served with marinated olives and housemade crackers. House.Made.Crackers. I had heard that it was amazing. Unfortunately, they were out. Josh suggested a flatbread as a consolation prize, so we decided on a chicken flatbread with basil pesto, marinated tomatoes, and housemade mozzarella. Delicious indeed, with a chewy crust, puffy and blackened in spots but thin and crispy for the most part. The mozzarella was perfect, creamy, just a hint of salt, and chewy, and the red and yellow tomatoes had that amazing ripeness that can only be found in July and August.

The special of the day was a BBQ burger, complete with a fried egg, and I would have ordered that if it hadn’t been for my mom’s promise of grilled burgers for Sunday dinner. I briefly weighed the roasted vegetable sandwich with pimento cheese and aioli against the BLT with Benton’s bacon (!), thick-sliced tomato, iceberg lettuce, basil aioli, and pimento cheese. Chances are that if you are a regular reader you already know which item I chose. Yes, my friends, Benton’s bacon won out. The sandwich was served on a shiny Niedlov’s bun dusted with sesame seeds, and my goodness…they did not skimp on the bacon-that was quite a stack, and Benton’s bacon, well, it’s just some of the best I’ve ever tasted. The tomato was ripe, juicy, and indeed very thickly sliced, then salted and peppered. There wasn’t a ton of pimento cheese under the tomato…just enough to lend the flavor. It was the best restaurant pimento cheese I’ve ever had-made with housemade aioli and Sweetwater Valley cheese, and it was the only pimento cheese that I’ve ever thought was as good as my own. Sorry, I happen to think very highly of my pimento cheese recipe! Iceberg lettuce may seem passé, but the crunch is unrivaled in the lettuce world (ha!) and really, isn’t that the purpose of the L in the BLT? The basil aioli was the final complement, lending just a little bit of herby bite and the bottom of the sandwich. I decided to have the split red potatoes, quite simply just roasted red potatoes with housemade rosemary aoili on the side. Simple and delicious-and I can’t believe I’ve never thought of serving my roasted potatoes with aioli. I think I’ll start!

Philip pretty much immediately decided on the Cloudcrest Farm pulled pork sandwich with a mixed green salad (by the way, the other sides were sweet potato wedges and cooked seasonal greens). The salad included a variety of spicy greens and a few thin beet strips as well as a light vinaigrette. The pulled pork was served on a Niedlov’s bun with a very flavorful, slightly spicy sauce and a lightly mayo-dressed coleslaw that also included beets. The pork was definitely the star of the show, cooked to falling apart tenderness and tasting so….porky. That may sound weird, but the thing about most pork these days is that they are bred to be so lean that they don’t really taste like pork. Local producers tend to use heirloom breeds that have more fat, hence more flavor. The pork at Elemental…doesn’t. Taste. Like. Chicken. This sandwich was perfect.

Unfortunately, I was so full after this meal that I couldn’t even think about dessert. I would have loved to check out the Ollie Pops, which are brown cow-esque confections made by Milk & Honey-vanilla gelato coated in chocolate-or one of Chef Loomis’s own creations. I look forward to going back for dinner and hopefully saving room for dessert this time…though I have heard from more than one person that trying the Sunday brunch is a necessity. We were able to spend a few minutes talking to the chef before we left and he reiterated the importance of elevating the menu by offering simple food from local purveyors. The quality of the food makes his job much easier-when it starts that fresh and amazing, you don’t have to do much to it before you serve it to guests. (***Note: in late August/early September Chef Loomis and Elemental parted ways. Chef Loomis has since moved on to 1885 Grill and Elemental has changed their menu but vowed to continue their mission of serving fresh, local, high-quality food.)

Our total for lunch before tip was about $26…not too bad for a locally-produced, upscale lunch in a beautiful atmosphere. I have to be honest, I’d read mixed review on Urbanspoon…but it appears that most of those were from the earliest days after Elemental’s opening, and I didn’t experience any of the downsides that were mentioned in those reviews. As always, I would encourage you to go and check it out for yourself…I don’t think you’ll be sorry (I wasn’t!).

Elemental is located at 313 Manufacturer’s Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405. They are open Monday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. `You can call them at 423-648-9160. Check out their website, elementalrestaurant.com. You can also “like” them on Facebook and 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.

Terra Nostra Tapas & Wine-December 15, 2012

December 16, 2012

Yes, there are now two restaurants in Chattanooga with the word “Terra” in the name. Yes, I wrote about the other one (Terra Mae Bistro) yesterday. It is sheer coincidence that I am writing about Terra Nostra Tapas & Wine today. I purchased a Groupon for Terra Nostra some time back (September? October?) that was specifically to be used in December. I’m having surgery Friday so we figured if we were going to use this thing, now was the time….so we made our reservation.

We’ve never eaten tapas (basically, a meal comprised of “small plates” or small portions of everything, ranging from appetizers to salads to items that would normally be served in a larger portion as a main dish). I have a funny story about tapas, though, and will forever associate this story with Terra Nostra: several years back, when Philip worked at Unum, he was having a conversation with a lady at work about restaurants. He mentioned that he really wanted to try the tapas restaurant. She thought he said “topless” restaurant and punched him in the arm in shock. Um, no. Anyway…

Philip had to drop me off because we were running way late after an unsuccessful attempt to take a self-portrait with our camera (set up on the tripod, with a timer). I was wearing stilettos and we did not see the sign in the front that says “parking in rear”, so Philip dropped me at the front door and parked in Coolidge Park. Oops. Oh well. I then entered the restaurant and told the hostess, “I have a Haymaker….I mean, I have a reservation for Haymaker…” Good grief. I was seated immediately and the hostess brought water to our table. Our server, Catherine, came to introduce herself and I perused the menu while waiting for Philip.

The menu is divided into seafood, meat, and vegetarian sections, and each of those sections is divided into hot and cold tapas. A triangle signals house specialties and a little squiggly that kind of looks like a backward 6 indicates gluten-free items. We knew almost immediately that we wanted some bacon-stuffed dates with Spanish blue cheese-a house specialty. Catherine agreed that this was a good choice. They came out quickly and, well, wow. The sweet date, the salty bacon (not overpowering but a nice background note) and the pungent blue cheese worked perfectly together. These didn’t last long, so we had to make another decision (making decisions here: not easy).

Upon Catherine’s recommendation, we ordered the avocado and shrimp, baby shrimp tossed in remoulade, served on an avocado half with a side salad with white wine vinaigrette. Shrimp and avocado? Yes please. We also ordered the spinach filo (similar to spanakopita, phyllo/filo dough stuffed with spinach, onions, and feta). Sadly, Catherine returned to our table and told us that she had just found out they were out of avocado (tear!). We decided instead to order the smoked salmon, served with capers, Boursin cheese, and housemade bread. While I was disappointed that I didn’t get to try the avocado and shrimp, I thought that the smoked salmon was delicious. It was wonderfully salty and smoky and paired perfectly with the herby Boursin (I puffy-heart love Boursin) and the soft yet crusty bread. I even ate some capers. Happily. The spinach filo was delicious, the cheese melting out of the hot pastry, the spinach seasoned just right and cooked till perfectly tender. It was served with a side salad and their white wine vinaigrette was pretty much perfect.

Finally, we decided to order a prime beef empanada (another house specialty): beef, onions, raisins, and olives stuffed into a puff pastry, and Darda’s artichoke dip, with roasted onions and a panko crumble. The artichoke dip came out first, bubbling and looking like someone’s hot chicken casserole (and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing). The dip was cheesy and creamy, the panko crumbs on top buttered and crispy. There were some wheat crackers served with it, and they were okay…but I was happy eating it with a fork. It was wonderful, but then I have to admit that you could put artichokes in just about anything and I’d love it. Philip liked it too, though, so it must have been good. There was just a slight peppery spice to it that I didn’t quite catch until I’d eaten several bites. Mmmm. The empanada was tasty too…I liked it more than Philip did, though. The spiced beef tasted of cinnamon (admittedly, different for my American tastebuds, but interesting. In my opinion, it worked) and sweetness, with salty whole green olives hanging out. Bravely I ate an olive…..that was a big step for me. They are not usually my favorite, but I felt like they worked beautifully with the meat.

Dessert was not an easy decision for us. Philip has a knee-jerk reaction to seeing crème brûlée on a dessert menu, which is, of course, to order it. I was interested in the flan, though, with Mexican chocolate, coconut, and Brandy Alexander. In the end, we ordered both. Good decision. The vanilla bean crème brûlée was topped with sugar so burnt it was bitter (this is a very, very good thing) and cracked into shards when we tapped it with our spoons. The bottom was full of black flecks of vanilla bean, and Philip’s eyes rolled back into his head when he took a bite. The chocolate flan was spicy on the back end, creamy and a little gelatinous at the same time (Catherine had described it to us as a cross between Jell-o and pudding) and so, so darkly chocolate. Both were worth ordering again.

This wasn’t an inexpensive meal….before our $40 Groupon, the total was $56 and some change. The food was amazing, though, and to some degree you are paying for the experience. The atmosphere is fun and Catherine was a terrific server, making helpful suggestions and handling Philip’s sarcastic humor like a pro. Supposedly the sangria is fantastic here, and I was so, so tempted to try one, except that (as you all well know) I hate wine so I probably would have ended up being very unhappy. They definitely have something for everyone, as the vegetarian menu was fairly large and I definitely could have made my entire meal off of it (Pear and walnut quesadilla? Artisan cheese tasting? Asparagus au gratin? Yes, yes, and yes….). Don’t go expecting a quick, inexpensive meal…but go. Just do it.

Terra Nostra is located at 105 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37405. They are open Monday-Thursday, 4:30-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4:30-11:00 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30-9:00 p.m. You can call them at 423-634-0238 or email them at info@terranostratapas.com. Check out their website: http://www.terranostratapas.com and like them on Facebook.

Terra Mae Bistro-Chef’s Table Premier, 12.12.12

December 14, 2012

A few weeks ago I was followed on Twitter by an upcoming local restaurant, Terra Mae, located at Stone Fort Inn, a bed and breakfast on East 10th Street. I need to make an effort to go to Stone Fort for breakfast one of these days, but I haven’t quite yet. Anyway…back to Terra Mae. I was invited to their Chef’s Table Premier, which was a nine-dish sampler lunch served on the day of their opening.

Upon entering the first thing that you notice is how beautiful the restaurant is; it has been completely remodeled and they did a wonderful job. The lights on the ceiling and the wall of wines in the bar line your walk to the dining area, where beautiful light pours in the large windows. Gorgeous glass vases and bright flower arrangements alternately adorned tables, and the tiny salt and pepper shakers made me smile.

They call themselves an “Appalachian Bistro” and specialize in locally sourced (indigenous is the word that Troy, the general manager used) foods. If you are a regular Chattavore reader, you probably recognize names like Link 41, Crabtree Farms, and Circle S Farm-some of my favorite farmers market vendors. Those are just a few of the names on the Terra Mae menu. Chef Robert Stockwell specializes in a unique twist on Southern cooking as well as “deconstructing” dishes (instead of my trying to explain that here….see the chicken & dumplings below). He and his crew could be seen preparing our meals in the open kitchen (unfortunately, I didn’t catch Chef Robert in this photo).

Almost immediately after being seated, guests were presented with an amuse-bouche (literally “mouth teaser” or a bite-sized hors d’oeuvre) of cucumber, lemon aioli, smoked salmon, and a sunflower shoot (boy, I love sunflower shoots!). I didn’t really consider myself a smoked salmon fan prior to this…but perhaps I’ve eaten the wrong smoked salmon in the past? This was delicious, all the way around. And beautiful to boot.

After the amuse-bouche each guest was served the house salad, Lee and Gordon greens with Crabtree tomatoes, spicy candied walnuts, blue cheese, julienned beets (don’t they look like red tortilla strips?) and chardonnay vinaigrette. I loved the tang of the blue cheese (it was so tangy it burned my tongue a little!) with the cool tomato and the spicy (yes, they were spicy!) walnuts. Next came the appetizers (all dishes from here on were served to be shared among three or four diners) starting with smoked stuffed scallop-scallops stuffed with Link 41 andouille sausage, wrapped in prosciutto, and served with sunflower shoots and red pepper coulis. I didn’t think that I liked sausage, but I guess it should be no surprise that Link 41 proved me wrong. This was a delicious combination. Truffle-infused roasted beets came next, served with smoked feta. If you think you don’t like beets, you should at least give roasted beets a try if you haven’t already…they changed my mind for sure. Served with feta cheese, they were perfect. Finally, we were served a port-wine marinated foie gras torchon (which is foie cooked molded in cheesecloth as opposed to a terrine mold), served with poached pears and a brioche slice. Now, I am pretty sure that I have discussed this here before…I am not much for organ meats, and, while my husband loves foie gras (fattened goose liver, if you didn’t know) I have never been able to bring myself to try (I’m baring my picky-eater soul here) but I did taste it. I didn’t hate it, but I do think it is probably an acquired taste, though the seasoned foie gras eaters around me seemed pretty excited, so it must have been pretty tasty. The pears were absolutely delicious.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I got pretty excited about what we were served next: a Kobe burger served on a brioche bun with Sequatchie Cove farmstead cheese, housemade jowl bacon, mushroom pesto, housemade pickles, and Lee and Gordon lettuce with triple-fried parmesan fries. Forgive me for being so unsophisticated as to get all gaga over being served a burger, but you know that I am a burger girl. This one was quite delicious, the beef cooked just right, the bun a little crisp around the edges, the pickles lending just the right amount of sour, and the parmesan fries (so thick that I find it to be a minor miracle that they were not only cooked through, they were soft and fluffy inside) a crisp, cheesy, and perfectly salty accompaniment.

Next was roasted kingfish (black from a dousing of squid ink) served over poached wild mushrooms, spinach puree, and mussel cream with sorrel. I don’t think that I have ever had kingfish before, and I found this to be a wonderful texture, cooked just right, and not overly fishy. Mushrooms are one of those foods that gets me all excited, and these were amazing swiped through the mussel cream (by the way, the flowers are edible).

Next, the chicken and dumplings, deconstructed: chicken, cooked sous-vide (vacuum sealed and cooked in a water bath) and sliced, served alongside large, round “dumplings” with asparagus, tiny diced squash, chard, and a sauce. The chicken was amazingly tender (as sous-vide meats tend to be) and seasoned perfectly. The dumplings had a great flavor but I’m not going to lie….I’m just all about the traditional Southern flat dumpling. The asparagus and chard were perfectly cooked.

Finally, dessert consisted of a sampling of everything on the dessert menu (pictured clockwise from left): a deconstructed lemon meringue pie, a flourless chocolate cake, caramelized honey panna cotta (usually served with pistachio sponge cake), and white chocolate bread pudding. The chocolate cake and the bread pudding were perfectly lovely but what I think of as “the usual suspects”-easy to find on a dessert menu. The lemon meringue pie was sooooo lemony, and if you live in my world, that is a very good thing. I love all things lemon, and this little sliver was no exception. My favorite, though, was the panna cotta. Shut your mouth. This honey-infused creamy little gem made me want to grab the plate and fight off my fellow sharers with my fork…but I didn’t. It was amazing. Coffee was served as well, and while I didn’t take any (though I wished that I had as I fought off the after-lunch energy drain!), I took a photo of the beautiful mug being enjoyed by the diner to my right.

Terra Mae officially opened for business on Wednesday night, 12.12.12. They have a unique menu, offering several items that you will not likely find in other area restaurants, and executed it very well. The staff is open to suggestions and want their menu to reflect the sorts of things that local want to eat-after all, what good is local food if you aren’t making it the way the locals want it? I wish them all the success in the world and can’t wait to return for dinner with Philip one day soon!

Terra Mae Bistro is located at 120A East 10th Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open Wednesday-Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. You can call them at 423-267-7866. Check out their website, www.terramae.org. You can also like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter (@TerraMaeBistro).