Blue Plate Cafe

Feb28 by Sarah

Recently Cary and I hopped down the Memphis to visit some of our family. I’ve been visiting Memphis (Cary’s home town) for seven years and this was the first time that he took me to the Blue Plate Cafe. I thought maybe it was a little over-rated and that’s why we had never been, but boy was I wrong. (After I asked him, it turns out it was just poor scheduling and lack of opportunity.)

The biscuits were my favorite. I’ve been in the South my whole life and am a self-professed carb lover. These came to the table warm, had a delightfully buttery crisp top and were soft and doughy on the inside. (We recently had some biscuits at a restaurant that I love. Cary asked me what I thought about them… I said they were ok, but not as good as the Blue Plate. These are now my gold standard.)

The Belgium waffle was hot (Really, so much about good breakfast food is about the temperature it is served. A cold waffle just tastes like mush.) and had a delightfully crispy texture. It was so big, I could only eat about half of it. Of course, it could have been that biscuit or two I had as an appetizer…

Cary enjoyed the omelet with skillet potatoes. The potatoes had a nice crispy brown exterior, while maintaining a moist interior. The omelet was fluffy with a good mixture of sausage and cheese.

The entire Blue Plate Cafe experience was a pleasure and we will be visiting again when we are in Memphis.

White Oak Kitchen and Cocktails

Jan31 by Sarah

While we were in Atlanta, we decided to try White Oak Kitchen and Cocktails for New Year’s Eve. White Oak Kitchen is an upscale restaurant featuring a spin on Southern food.

With the word cocktail in the name, we expected a variety of specialty drinks and we were not disappointed. Their specialty cocktail menu featured drinks with names like Jolene (Tito’s vodka, lime, grapefruit, and orange blossom flowers), Sweet Home (Rum, King’s Ginger, and cranberry juice), and Murmur (vodka, blackberry sage tea and coke). I tried Rocket Science with Hendrick’s Gin and pomegranate juice. The rim was coated with crushed sweet tarts. The sweet tarts balanced the gin very well and surprisingly the drink was tasty, but not too sweet. It was great.

The Pimento Cheese appetizer had fried green tomatoes stacked on a spicy strawberry compote with pimento cheese between the layers of tomatoes. The pimento cheese was a little spicy and complimented the fried green tomatoes well. I know that fried green tomatoes are sometimes served with goat cheese, which I find to be a very strong taste to pair with the lighter flavors of the tomato. I was concerned that the pimento cheese would be similar, but it wasn’t.

The lamb chops were cooked to a perfect medium, and were served with wild mushroom fricassee. It was also served with candied bacon Brussels spouts, which were a little underdone.

The steak was served with a squash and zucchini medley and mashed potatoes. The steak was tender and basically melted in one’s mouth.

The whole meal had been delightful so far. The drinks, appetizers and entrees were great and the service was really phenomenal. We were a little surprised with the desserts. The ideas of the desserts we ordered seemed good, but there were just a little lacking. For example, the special was white chocolate bread pudding with homemade peppermint ice cream. Both of these things sounded delicious and I assumed they would be served independently of each other. Apparently the ice cream was supposed to function as a sauce for the bread pudding, but it just didn’t work. The flavors clashed a bit and because there was no true sauce the bread pudding came across dry. We did go early for dinner and I got the feeling that the chef tinkered with the meal throughout the evening, so maybe it improved as the night went on.

Cary ordered the creme brulee and we had high hopes for it. It was topped with poached pears, whipped cream, and a sprig of mint. The taste of the brulee was great, but the area under the pear did not have the crispy sugar topping, which was a huge disappointment.

Even though the desserts seemed off, the rest of the meal was great and we would visit White Oak Kitchen again.

Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint

Jan17 by Sarah

To celebrate the New Year, we took a trip to Atlanta, GA. We stayed downtown and enjoyed touring the World of Coke, as well as getting some much needed rest. We decided to try a restaurant that was in walking distance of our hotel for dinner. After looking at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint, we decided to give it a try. We did not get reservations, which at first looked like it might have been a mistake, however, we did get seated fairly quickly in the bar area.

The cocktail menu was pretty extensive, featuring drink with names like The Color Purple (grape vodka and lemonade), The Juke (citron vodka and pineapple), and the Sweet Georgia Peach-tini (Georgia peach 360 vodka and peach nectar). Since I was in Atlanta and love peaches, I decided to try the peach-tini. I was afraid it would be a really sweet drink, but was pleasantly surprised that it was not. As someone who is really picky about peach flavors, this was nice.

I didn’t exactly know what to expect when we ordered the crawfish bruschetta. The description said it would be a crawfish stew, topped with cheddar cheese on toast points. The crawfish topping was not quite the texture of stew. It was more like a thick paste. The crispness of the toast points negated the pastiness of the crawfish stew, so things balanced well in the texture department. The flavor of the stew was nice, quite spicy as good crawfish dishes usually are.

The Caesar salad featured sauteed shrimp on a bed of Romaine lettuce topped with Parmesan cheese and cracked pepper croutons. I was a little disappointed with the Parmesan cheese. I really like shaved Parmesan on my salads, so it’s really just a personal preference. I also felt like the Caesar dressing could have been a little spicier.

The gumbo had large chunks of andouille sausage, shrimp, crawfish, scallops, mixed vegetables with a dollop of white rice. The gumbo was pleasantly spicy.

We ate here on a Sunday evening and they had a very nice house band. If extra charges bother you, they do add a $5 entertainment fee per person during the dinner hour. The music was great.

The Bakery and Cafe at Rose Cottage

Oct22 by Sarah

Recently we left the Bug with his grandparents and took a weekend trip to Callaway Gardens. While in the area, we stumbled upon the Bakery and Cafe at Rose Cottage run by chef John Makin.

The grilled pear and brie sandwich is served warm on cranberry walnut bread. It was the best upscale grilled cheese sandwich that either of us had eaten. The sweetness of the pears and the cranberry bread really complimented the brie.

Cary ordered the roast beef sandwich with the soup of the day, which was potato leek. The soup was the star of the entire meal. The potato leek soup was extremely smooth, almost like a broth. The flavors blended so well, it’s almost indescribable. It was a great compliment to the tangy cheddar on the medium rare roast beef sandwich.

If you visit Callaway gardens, you should definitely stop by the Bakery and Cafe at Rose Cottage. Order the soup. You will thank us!

Summer Fun, Part 3

Aug18 by Sarah

On our way to State College, we stopped by Primanti Brothers and had one of their “Almost Famous” sandwiches. We were planning on staying that night around Pittsburgh, but all the hotels were booked. Being from the South, which apparently has an abundance of hotels, I was a little shocked. We had to drive to State College after dinner and finally found a hotel about 11:30pm that evening. Whew.
The next day began the conference. Cary and the Bug had a great time exploring the city while I was busy learning all sorts of chemistry education stuff. They decided we needed to try Herwig’s Austrian Bistro.

The restaurant serves a little snark with its food, which is entertaining.

Cary enjoyed the Bratwurstplatte, which featured two pork sausages served with potato salad, sauerkraut and a rather potent mustard.

The Wienerschnitzel was a thinly breaded veal cutlet served with slaw and potato salad. The slaw was more like a salad with a creamy dill dressing. While everything was delicious, the potato salad was my favorite. It was simple, with a slight vinegar flavor.

After dinner, we went to the Berkey Creamery at Penn State. Seriously the best ice cream I have ever had. We went twice and I tried the chocolate chip cookie dough and the vanilla bean chocolate chip. Very nice.

Summer Fun, part 2

Aug15 by Sarah

Our next summer trip took us to Penn State for a chemistry education conference. We decided to travel by car and basically ate our way to State College!

Our first stop was in Lexington, KY for dinner at Tolly Ho. We got a Ho Burger, complete with Ho sauce. I’m real mature, so I giggled through the whole meal. The food was great too.

For lunch the next day, we stopped by Hillbilly Hotdogs.

The restaurant boasts a 10lb Big Bad Bubba burger, which some brave soul did order while we were there. It was quite large. I ordered the smaller version, the Big Bad Bubba’s Baby Sister Bertha Burger. It was perfectly cooked and delicious.

The garlic ranch fries were my favorite. The crispy fries were covered with ranch dressing, garlic salt, cheese and bacon. Delicious. We were especially naughty and ordered extra ranch to dip the fries in.

The Hillbilly Dog was a deep fried hotdog with chili, mustard, onions and slaw. It was a messy bunch of deliciousness!

The Pizza Dog was topped with pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and fried pepperoni.

There was only one waitress on the very busy Saturday when we visited. We had to wait quite a while, but the food was worth it!

Summer Fun, Part 1

Aug11 by Sarah

So, remember when I said I was looking forward to summer because I would have time to write posts and visit farmer’s markets? Yeah…. right…. So, it turns out that as a college professor I’m just as busy (if not busier) in the summer as I am during the school year. This year I was involved in a really interesting, awesome summer research project that left very little time for anything else.

We did find the time to take two really nice trips this summer, one for fun and one for work. We went to Seacrest, FL with my family for some relaxing fun in the sun. We ate at lots of lovely places including Flip Flops Grill, Hurricane Oyster Bar, The Local Catch, La Crema Tapas and Chocolate, and Cafe 30A. While all the places were lovely, the food at Cafe 30A was really amazing. As an added bonus, if you eat between 5pm and 6pm, all entries are half off.

The pan seared snapper was served on a spicy jambalaya risotto with an heirloom tomato salsa. The spice of the risotto really enhanced the understated flavor of the snapper.

The filet mignon was perfectly tender and juicy. It was served on Yukon gold mashed potatoes, topped with blue cheese, and decorated with carrots and asparagus.

For dessert, the apple raisin bread pudding was served with a cinnamon ice cream and topped with a bourbon sauce. This was a perfect pairing of lightly flavored ice cream and rich cake (can you call bread pudding cake… I don’t really feel like it is a pudding… hmm..).

The best thing about Cafe 30A is that they are very child friendly. No dirty looks and the waiters even talked to our Bug and picked up toys. It was really a great dining experience for the whole family.

Wandering Wednesday: The Carnegie Deli

Jan19 by Cary

On a trip to NYC over the summer, we got the opportunity to take in a lot of fabulous deli foods that just don’t show up down in Nashville.

Every meal starts with a both dill and sweet pickles, that are both tangy and sweet, but at the same time garlicky and smooth. Kind of a juxtaposition, but there are not your typical Vlasics.

That monstrosity you see above is the Carnegie’s version of a turkey-bacon club. It is seriously at good 10-12 inches tall and absolutely impossible to put in one’s month. Yes, I know it’s far too much to eat in even two (maybe three) sittings, but you can’t blame NYC for going big. As far as taste goes, it wasn’t anything you wouldn’t expect from a turkey club, that therein lies it’s beauty. Like most of everything else in NYC, they just do what they do well, and subscribe to the go-big or go-home theory.

The corned beef sandwiches at the Carnegie are likewise huge, but definitely not bland. The corned beef just about falls apart and has a taste unlike roast beef that emphasizes the beefiness of the cut but doesn’t have any textural issues like brisket sometimes does.

The half pastrami, half corned beef sandwich is a peppery, beefy slice of heaven that puts what you find in Nashville grocery stores to shame. The pieces fall apart and each bit of pepper and other seasoning.

The beef and potato Knish was, despite looking heavy and a bit unappetizing, actually light and with a crispy thin crust.

Of course, cheesecake is one of the great things at the Carnegie, and can even do without the cherry topping you see above. The cake is heavy and dense, slightly sweet, and doesn’t have the slightest hint of cream cheese when you bite into it, like you often do when having cream cheese outside of NYC.

Wandering Wednesday: Magnolia Bakery in NYC

Jan12 by Sarah

While we were in NYC, we thought we would stop by the Magnolia Bakery and try a few cupcakes. The nice thing about the cupcakes, is that they were simple and reminded us of the cupcakes we used to make with our moms. Many times I think cupcake companies try to hard, making sickly sweet concoctions with piles on thick icing. Not the case at The Magnolia Bakery.

From top left to right, we tried a chocolate cupcake with white icing in the center, basically an upscale version of a Ding Dong. It was very good. The red velvet cupcake was a bit of a disappointment. The cake had a nice flavor, but the icing had almost none. After much discussion, we think they may have left out the salt in the icing.

On the bottom left is a yellow cupcake with chocolate icing. This was my favorite. It was very simple and reminded me of the cupcakes I used to make with my mom. The carrot cake cupcake was a bit spicy and had a nice, not too sweet cream cheese icing. The very traditional chocolate with vanilla icing was Cary’s favorite for the same reason that I liked the yellow cupcakes.

The Magnolia Bakery was wonderful and if you are in the area it is a great stop!

Wandering Wednesday: Tony’s Pasta Shop & Trattoria

Nov10 by Sarah

A few weeks ago, we had to run to Chattanooga for a quick business trip. We had time to eat lunch at one restaurant. While there are many great choices in the downtown Chattanooga area (hello Sticky Fingers), we decided to eat at one of our favorites Tony’s Pasta Shop & Trattoria in the Bluff View Art District. If you are traveling to Chattanooga, the Bluff View Art District is a fantastic area to visit. There are several great restaurants, the Hunter Art Museum, and the Walnut Street Bridge, all within walking distance.

Upon ordering, garlic bread was delivered to our table. It had a crusty exterior and a pleasantly soft interior that was speckled with whole garlic cloves. The bread is accompanied by a Parmesan cheese soaked in olive oil.

The chicken Parmesan sub sandwich was served with french fries. The french fries were average, but the sub was very good. It featured lots of crispy chicken, plenty of warm mozzarella cheese and a slightly sweet tomato sauce.

The eggplant Parmesan was delicious. The eggplant had a crispy exterior with a slightly soft interior. The dish also featured homemade noodles with a typical tomato sauce.

One of the most intriguing items on Tony’s menu is a build your own pasta feature. They have a plethora of noodles, sauces and toppings to build your perfect pasta. While we didn’t build our own pasta this visit, we will on our next!

Tony’s Pasta Shop & Trattoria

212 High St
Chattanooga, TN 37403

The Nashville Fork

Category Archives: Travel