Nashville - "must tries"

If you are venturing to Nashville in the near future for business, fun, to hear some country music or to check out Vanderbuilt, there are a few neighborhood hot spots you should check out. I say 'neighborhood' because, similar to Jersey, Nashville also has townships or areas with names that are known by the population but not on a map. When you have a friend driving you around saying this is such and such and such and such you start to think you have crossed 50 different town lines. I do not recall all the specific neighborhood names of the restaurant locations, however, they are all in the Nashville zip code.

Tin Angel for a date night or business dinner
Puckett's for weekend brunch
Burger Up for a gathering of beer loving friends
Sweet Cece's - see prior posting in regards to frozen yogurt


Tin Angel has forever ruined eggplant Parmesan for me. Theirs dubbed 'Inside out Eggplant Parm' was by far the best I have ever had, and one I still continue to crave to this day. There were slices of eggplant breaded with panko and baked. The breading was crisp but the eggplant was soft and not at all hard to chew through as eggplant can be if not cooked properly. In between the layers of eggplant was a mixture of ricotta, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses with a hint of pesto. The whole thing was served topped with some marinara sauce and seated over a grilled vegetable medley (onions, sweet peppers, zucchini). I came home to Boston from that meal, to find eggplant parm in the cafeteria at work on Monday. I was so excited. I got it - took one bite and spit it out in disappointment and now I'm not sure if I can ever eat eggplant parm again unless it is the inside out version from Tin Angel!

Puckett's was a cool mid-atlantic area staple. Most of the stores also sell groceries but the location we frequented in the heart of downtown-touristy Nashville, did not. We had to start off with fried green tomatoes of course, which came with a great chipotle dipping sauce, which cut the friedness and added some zing.

I followed that up with a Red Neck Burrito, which was their famous pulled pork, baked beans and house made BBQ sauce in a soft tortilla, which was then grilled on the flattop. I found that I needed to add more BBQ sauce with each bite, partially due to the deliciousness of the sauce and partly due to the fact that I thought the burrito could use a little more moisture (it wasn't dry and I don't want to give that impression, the meat was perfect, but like a pasta that cooks to long in its sauce and absorbs it all and is somewhat gloppy - that was what the burrito was like). My side of turnip greens was mushy and lacked flavor - I don't think they even added salt to them, BUTTTT the smoked pulled pork was pretty worth the trip!! Other hits at Puckett's were 'Meat and Three' as in three sides and a BLT.








Burger Up did have a damn good burger and an even better beer list with many locally brewed favorites. I got ground lamb with goat cheese, arugula, caramelized onions and Dijon mustard. I was torn between ordering the truffle fries or the sweet potato fries, so what do you do when you can't decide? You convince people sitting at the bar to let you try theirs so you can make your own decision! Sweet potato fries came out on top for me, slightly sprinkled with very coarse sea salt! I would not, however, recommend the onion rings. We were so excited for them the whole plane ride and they were a big disappointment. The onion pieces were fine, but they seemed to be covered in dough and deep fried - it was as if you were eating an onion donut - definitely not cool!! Caroline and I also split a Caesar salad which was HUGE and very fresh. The house-made croutons were light and airy and well seasoned, not covered in salt and onion or garlic powder like many of them are.