Cornertable does Nashville: Loveless Cafe and Pancake Pantry

Wow… Nashville is quite a town. I barely know where to begin. If you have never been to a Honkey Tonk, its time to go. It’s a mix between a random college bar, the set of Days of Thunder and the Talkhouse in Amagansett, NY. The first time I went to Nashville, we went to a bar called The Stage. There was a live band, and it was obvious they had followers (some cougars, some servicemen and women). A guy even proposed to his girlfriend on the stage. How romantic… I’m sure they will remember everything with fantastic beer goggles.

Onto the good stuff… about a week before I went to Nashville for the first time, I was watching the food network and they had an entire episode dedicated to the wonderful food of Nashville, TN. The two takeaways I got were the Pancake Pantry and Loveless Café.

Pancake Pantry… let’s just start with the line. They don’t take reservations and won’t take your cell phone or even your name. You just have to stand in line…in the heat and sun. They do give you water in Dixie cups, which is nice. Anyway, I heard this place makes the “best pancakes ever.” This is coming from people who actually live in Nashville and are still willing to wait in line. So, that is a good sign. I tried the regular pancakes. I know what you are thinking… when there are a million pancakes to choose from, how could I possibly choose the regular ones?! Well, its simple, people. I just like to keep it real. The Food Network show just went on and on about the special recipe. I wanted to taste it, in it's true, unaltered form. Turns out, it was delish. BUT, I can honestly say that I have eaten a better pancake… I haven’t been to Clinton Street Bakery yet, but my fave pancake is at The Place in the West Village. They are twice as fluffy. The Pancake Pantry’s pancakes were just flat and regular looking. Maybe I was expecting too much out of a pancake. But sorry… it is what it is… just a pancake.

Now, Loveless Café is in a whole world of its own. It’s about 20 minutes outside of the city of Nashville. When I asked a couple people around, would they prefer Pancake Pantry or Loveless Café, they said Loveless for real down-home cooking. Since I had already been to the Pantry, I went with my parents and boyfriend to Loveless Café. Then, 1 hour and 45 minutes later, we were able to sit. Yes, it was that long of a wait. Granted, they are situated in a small make-shift town like atmosphere, so if you have 20-30 minutes to fill, you can. But almost two? No thanks… So, we drove off with their beeper and came back in an hour. (One issue with doing this is that the beeper makes a really annoying and constant beeping sound since it out of range).

Loveless Café is famous for their biscuits (of which Martha Stewart was denied the recipe) and the fried chicken. So, since I’m a fake-a-tarian now, I ordered the chicken fingers. I really couldn’t go all the way like my fellow diners and order the sampler. I would have passed out. Even the chicken fingers came with two sides, of which I got creamed corn (best I’ve ever had) and hash brown casserole. Yes…. I ate chicken fingers, creamed corn and hash brown casserole for lunch. There goes the last nine years of low blood pressure and low cholesterol. I gross myself out.

Back to the biscuits. They were awesome. In my humble opinion, the secret ingredient is pancake mix… because they really did smell, taste and feel like pancakes. That is it. You heard it here first folks. I am the master of secret recipe discovery.

The sampler was three of your choice of meatloaf, fried chicken, pulled pork, catfish or ham (don’t forget the two sides, in case the entrée wasn’t enough). It is hard for me to even explain what the plates looked like when they came to the table. I mean, the four of us (granted mine was considerably smaller) could have fed a family of 15 with the amount we had. But, no one was willing to compromise and share. When in Rome/Nashville!

Speaking of Athens… ok maybe not, but I needed a segue and figured since I was talking about Rome and it is in Europe and so is Greece..., if you have never been to Nashville, you must also check out the full size replica of the Parthenon. No good reason to tell you… just wanted to.

I heart Restaurant Week...

http://nycgo.com/?event=view.article&id=171992&cid=srw_coke_event_062909

Reason 41 to not like Restaurant Week... Who are they catering too? Don't you think that they should be catering to real NYers? The people that actually live here and might go to these restaurants more than once in every 6-7 years (assuming that tourists visit here that many times in their lifetime). How about people that work? Make money for the city's economy? Those people cannot go to a summer event from noon-2 on a weekday. When am I going to see something that is geared towards people who eat their breakfast and lunch at their desk? Then, I will accept restaurant week....maybe.

Anywho... back to your regular scheduled programming...

Convivio

Tucked away in the corner of Tudor City, which someone not from NYC may not even know exists, is the cool little spot Convivio. Even though I saw the sign, I still did not think we were in the right place. I am not sure what I expected, but this was not it. The inside is decorated in a hip chic fashion, with bright oranges against a stark white background. The entire restaurant is understated, in a good way. The tables are not too close together, although I did hear a great conversation from the loud talker to my right. She was very into the NYC foodie scene and apparently has been EVERYwhere and wasn’t afraid to tell EVERYone. Her friends were über impressed. Sadly, I was slightly impressed also. She not only knew about the hip restaurants, but also knew about the owners/chef/gossip, etc. Nevertheless, she just sounded so ridiculous and annoying, yet made good people watching/listening. The mother and daughter next to me weren’t quite as exciting. Ok, ok, I know… This isn’t craigslist’s missed connections (awesome – check it out if you never have).

“OUR MENU IS RECOMMENDED AS A $ 59.00 FOUR COURSE PRIX FIXE”

That is awesome btw. Only $59 for a 4 course meal? Granted, I’m sure the dishes are smaller and you are forced to order a dessert, but still great!

We chose a number of the specials for the evening as our dishes, so you won’t be able to find them on the menu. We had the 4 course tasting menu, starting out with the prawn salad special and the fritedda. Usually I would not start with a soup, since it’s so filling and I like to be able to eat the rest of my meal. But, I went for it. The fritedda is a soup made from fava beans, English peas and artichoke toped with ricotta cheese and pancetta. It was amazing. I love a good pea soup, but this wasn’t heavy on the pea taste. It was a nice combination of pureed artichoke, fava beans (which I happen to love) and peas. The soup was not overly thick and creamy either. I am going to pretend that it had no dairy… just puree of vegetables. The cheese and pancetta just added a meaty flavor to balance out the dish.

This pasta tasted fresh and different. Squid Ink pasta with squid… that’s a lot of squids. Yet, this squid confused me… the waiter told me it was “like calamari” but, I didn’t taste calamari… It was chewier and tasteless. I could have done without it.

Malloreddus – Sardinian saffron gnocchetti, crab, sea urchin – This pasta was excellent with a great balance of the tender gnocchetti, the buttery uni, and crab.

I had some sort of fish. I think it was halibut. I remember thinking it was good, but can’t for the life of me remember what it came with! Oh well for YOU. You should go out to dinner with me more. I can’t continue to do this on my own!...

Costolette di Vitello: The veal chop was crusted with parmesan and was served with polenta croutons, onion salad, veal juice. Ohhhhh polenta croutons. Why do I always flock to the interesting and fun side dishes rather than the main? Granted, there is only so much you can do to a main, in this case veal chop. The veal was good, perfectly cooked, juicy, but it was the sauces and additions that made the dish.

The waiter and sommelier were very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. I tried the flat prosecco on the sommelier’s suggestion and it was excellent. I tend to drink prosecco when out with the girls, but never had (or knew that it was available) it flat. He also chose me a nice dry white for my dinner. The evening was calming and delicious. I definitely recommend this spot for a date, dinner with your parents, or really, anytime. I did try to make a reservation for 8 people and they only have one table available to seat that many, so it is not good for large groups.

I’ll be updating the blog with one of Michael White’s other restaurants shortly… because I just can’t get enough.

Basta Pasta

In case you were wondering… some restaurants do not open until 6pm on a Saturday night. What happened to me that I 1) went to dinner that early on a Saturday and 2) didn’t care? I love Basta Pasta. It is a great neighborhood spot… that really isn’t in a neighborhood in particular since its on 17th between 5th and 6th; pretty random area. A group of super friendly Japanese guys runs it and they have a knack for making updated Italian food.

We started out with the Insalata di Cesare - Basta Pasta’s original romaine lettuce Caesar salad. Wow… fancy. Just kidding. It was just a way for us to get an appetizer with greens. I enjoy a good starter salad.

One of my biggest food pet peeves is a crab cake without any crab. You know what I’m talking about; the crab dishes that come with mostly breading and something crunchy but not enough pieces of crabmeat. Luckily for them (cause I’m kind of a big deal), Basta Pasta’s crab dish had plenty of meat to go around (plus, not fried!) I could have done without the grapefruit jelly. However, that is only because I can’t stand grapefruit. I think the citrus and the consistency of the jelly is probably a good combination with the crab… maybe orange jelly? Just a thought… the apple and daikon were a nice side. I love green apples and daikon, although seemingly tasteless, does add a bit of a crunch to the dish. BTW – if you are thinking of ordering: Tortino di Granchio – Crab Meat, avocado, Green Apples, Yukon Gold Potatoes and basil aioli with grapefruit jelly, daikon radishes & chayote

Another patron tipped us off to the specialty of the house was the pasta in a cheese wheel. What is that exactly? See here (to the left). They bring out a huge block of parmesan, melt a bowl shaped area, put the pasta in and toss it around. It was definitely the biggest piece of cheese I ever cut… I mean saw… On the menu its called Spaghetti con Prosciutto d Parmigiano, which is spaghetti with parmigiano reggiano & parma prosciutto. I actually thought it was going to be a little too cheesy and greasy, but it was not at all. It tasted as if the pasta was cooked lightly in butter and then fresh partially melted cheese pieces were tossed throughout. The prosciutto was a nice salty addition to this savory dish.

My date got the Orecchiette al Pollo Organico as his main. Kind of a change from the usual for him, as the meat he orders tends to be closer to the gamey type and farther from the ordinary. The dish is Orecchiette pasta with free-range chicken ragu, fresh tomatoes and sliced prosciutto. The chicken ragu was a step up from what I could make at home (I’m assuming here since its pretty obvious that I don’t cook from all my posts).

The pasta here is just good. Not as good as Babbo (which will be talked about in a future post) but, for a random neighborhood spot, it just can’t be beat.

Anthony David's: CornerTable does Hoboken

Yes, sometimes I find myself in Hoboken. I used to be scared. Scared of admitting there was a place in Jersey that wasn’t too bad. Scared of leaving the little city I live in. But, I’m over it. I’m getting over myself one day at a time.

On my way to self destruction…I mean discovery… I am allowing myself to experience the culinary mastery that is Hoboken, NJ. I have eaten at a couple places around town, but never went so far to blog about it! Whoa. Calm down there.

Anthony Davids wasn’t our first choice, but it was on “the list” so I’m glad we got to it. It was Mother’s Day, so there were people dressed up with families and babies and mommies. There I was in a t-shirt and a baseball cap (Go Marlins!). So… no worries, they take all kinds. Onto the purpose of this blog, since I can wax poetic all day.

We started with a hearty yet crisp romaine salad with caesar vinaigrette, parmesan (shaved and sliced) and a crostini dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and an olive tapenade. Of course I needed to try the Lobster Risotto with saffron and crisp peas. My only complaint was that the rice was more my-mom’s-paella, less good restaurant’s risotto. Granted, the description did say saffron, but I was thinking just yellow rice. The crisp peas were great as peas always are, so that made up for it a little bit. I had a taste of the lamb, which was very meaty, like a steak, not the tender juicy lamb I’m used to. Yet again, the dish was saved by the accompaniment, the blue cheese mashed potatoes. You can only imagine the smelly creaminess of it all.

The outdoor seating was a plus, as Hoboken is a cute little town, which I will soon call home. But, I’m a little scared if this is some of the best that Hoboken has to offer. I’ll still come back into the city for the good stuff.

CornerTable Barcelona Edition! : Commerc 24

Well, my boyfriend is, as you might have realized, very into food. When we decided to go to Barcelona, Spain for a quick jaunt, I knew I would be in for it on the eating front. So, he did a bunch of research and found this place Commerc 24 (named for its location’s number and street). It was a quiet, dark and loungy restaurant, decorated with a modern bourgeois flair, with a lot of red, black and yellow. We weren’t seated for 10 minutes when the waiter asked if we had been there before and started to explain the menu, which was the point where he was quickly stopped and told that we wanted the Grand Festival Tasting. Yes, even the name of the tasting menu sounded crazy. 12 courses later, I had finished one of the most unique meals I have ever had.

Luckily for me, they were nice enough to give us a list of the dishes we had on the menu. Two of the 12 courses, amuse bouche and dessert, were actually multiple small items. For the amuse we had: Olives stuffed with anchovies, golden macadamia nuts, chicharróns with guacahina, filo/parmesan/lime and basil, avocado and lobster makisand French oysters (Marennes d’oleron). Now, that may seem like a lot of food, and we were actually very shocked that this all came out at once, it was a little overwhelming and we tried to guess how many courses they would count it as. Turns out it was the first of many.

Course two: Marinated sardines with blood orange and wasabi. Ugh sardines… they are little gross and slimey. I tried my hardest to eat one, but I couldn’t even put it in my mouth.

Course three: Cold infusion with flowers, vegetables and clams. Wow. Not only was this dish really pretty and cool looking but it was also a great soup. The soup wasn’t too salty or heavy, it was just a perfect blend of light and flavorful.

Course Four: consommé with truffle, parmesan and egg. This dish was equally as interesting as the last. In the soup dish, as you can see pictured, was a trio of encased fillings. The white parmesan, the black truffle and the yellow egg. I tried each of them separately at first, and they tasted as they should (which was only a guess because I have never tasted a bubble of yellow egg, let alone a black truffle), but the kicker was to crush them all together to flavor the consume. I believe this was how it should have been eaten, but I couldn’t pass up tasting the flavors one by one.

Course five: Razor clam and tangerine Yakisoba – I don’t remember this one at all. I have been avioding clams in general ever since I found out I'm slightly allergic.

Course six: Pizza-sashimi with tuna. This is one of the favored dishes in the restaurant. It was decent, but not as wonderful and unique as the rest. The tuna sashimi, as with the next dish, was good, but the pieces were so small and I’m not totally sure that it should be considered pizza. It was more a cracker topped with tuna.

Course seven: Tune tartar. Same as above. Nothing special, but still good.

Course eight: Kinder Egg. After two basically mundane dishes, the eighth course came back with a vengeance. The hard shell of the egg was filled with a frothy, salty foam made of the egg whites. I have never eaten egg foam before, nor have I eaten out of an egg shell. It was almost like a salty dessert, because who really eats foam for a meal?

Course nine: Duck rice with foís gras. I didn’t eat this. Who really liked fois? WHO? Where are you and can you please explain to me why this is so popular? The rice was sticky it was flavored like duck....can't go wrong there...

Course ten: Sardines… I don’t really have much to say about this. I tried it, because hey… when in Rome (Spain). But, sardines are just gross little slimey things.

Course eleven: sirloin with roses and berries. Again with the flowers. Now I know I love roses in every form. The steak was a little well done, but the presentation, thin slivers of roses and a berry sauce was a great combination, bringing a little life to an otherwise dull piece of meat.

Course twelve: Dessert overload.

Mandarin-passion-mint

Muesli-yogurt-passion

Sable with pineapple and meringue

Bread, oil, chocolate and salt

Nougat with tuille cigar, chocolate and coffee

Black sesame Oreo with vanilla

Chocolates

Its too hard to go into the exact description of every dessert. There was A LOT of them. I was surprised when they brought everything out, the waiter didn’t say “TA DA!” at the culmination. My favorite dessert was the bread, oil, chocolate and salt. Not such a great menu description? Actually it was. It was literally a piece of bread, pieces of chocolate and an accompaniment of oil and salt. All my favorite things wrapped into one: starchy, sweet, salty, oily goodness. Ok, fine, some of the other dishes were more imaginative, but sometimes less is more, especially at the end of a 12 course meal. There was only so much I could take.

At least we didn’t have the wine pairing. I think that would have put me over the edge. Instead, we had a nice bottle of white which the server poured us throughout the meal. I really liked everything about this restaurant. I like to non-overbearing, yet great service; I liked the wine; I liked the interesting and unique food combinations and the glamorous presentation. I’ve only been to Barcelona for 3 days in my life, so I can’t say it’s the #1 place in the city and you definitely need to go there (ok, I’m pretty positive that Il Buli is the #1 place… in the world…) but, if you are looking for some place to spend the evening and perk up your sense, Commerc 24 is a good start.

Ok, ok, we also went to the famous Bar Pinotxo in the Boqueria. You MUST try it if you head to Barcelona. The Boqueria is the coolest food market on earth (that I have been too…). The seafood is ridiculous looking; huge lobsters with claws as big as my hand, crabs as big as my head, tuna steaks as big as my thigh (which is huge...I’m a food blogger). The owner/chef of Pinotxo, Juanito is awesome. Stop by and let him pick the plates for you. He is a legend in Barcelona and quite possibly the most photographed person in the Boqueria. He has been written up in magazines and is the cutest little funniest looking man ever. He served us wonderful cockle clams, squid with white beans and langoustines. They were all great.

*Random Note: Gwyneth Paltrow's random blog/email called GOOP mentioned this restaurant!

Allen and Delancy

The first time I went to Allen and Delancy was, I believe, one of my first dates with my boyfriend after officially becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. While some might think it would hold a special place in my heart, I must admit that it only holds a place in my subconscious because I was half-asleep (its amazing we are still together after that showing). I am not sure what it is about that place that raises my melatonin levels so much. Maybe it is the fact that there are no windows, or that it is so dimly lit you can barely see across the room, or the quiet lull of the background muzak. This time around, I was a little perkier.

There is a tasting menu, but we passed since we wanted other things. I’m not into seared/charred octopus. I started with the Vialone Nano Risotto with baby shrimp, English peas, peas shoots and mint. As I have said many times in the past, I love risotto. It’s really difficult for me to pass it up, especially with peas! Remember that Top Chef episode when Carla made the side of peas? My mouth was watering like crazy. The risotto was made perfectly, not too creamy, not too al dente. The worse thing that can happen to risotto is cooking it al dente. What’s the point? We also had the diver scallops with Israeli couscous, lemon confit and cauliflower capers. The scallops (my other fave) were great as well. This was the scallops off the appetizer section, not the raw bar, where I prefer the smaller Nantucket bay scallops. There were 4 huge scallops in the dish, which is more than I would normally expect for an appetizer, so I was pleasantly surprised. The scallops were seared to perfection, with no heavy salt water or fishy taste or smell. I’m glad cauliflower is sticking around in dishes. I was introduced to cauliflower puree as a substitute to mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and never turned back. Anything with an accompaniment of cauliflower puree is already on the right track.

For entrees, we had the Cioppino of Day Boat Halibut with Great South Bay clams, and seafood sausage and the Beef Ribeye with morels, asparagus, white pearl onions, potato purée. The Halibut was decent. It was well cooked and served in a broth filled with clams. I am not a huge fan of clams, especially now that my allergist told me I was allergic #2 out of 5. Nevertheless, I still went for it since he said it was not that big of a deal and it was up to me if I wanted to avoid them. So… of course… I ordered them immediately. One day I will listen and care about what I put into my body. The seafood sausage was ok, its just seafood mashed together and stuffed in a sausage like shape. I have seen it on multiple menus recently and still have no idea what’s actually in it. I guess it’s a part of new wave of side dishes. The ribeye was fantastic and cooked to perfection.

Even though we didn’t get this dessert this time, I can not fail to mention the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Tart with whole milk sorbet and whiskey-vanilla milkshake. I’m told (as I am not a dessert eater) that it is heavenly.

Our waiter was mostly M.I.A., which was not too bad because we were served in a decent amount of time after ordering. The drinks there are tops. They have a decent and random beer selection if you, or whomever you are with, is some sort of beer connoisseur. The bar scene is slightly more upbeat than the restaurant itself (maybe because you are near a window?) and you can eat at the bar and chat up the cute knowledgeable bartenders.

The LES is not as scary as it seems (for us west-siders). Yeah, it’s far, but it also has a lot to offer in terms of hot new restaurants and even two year old A&D. There are a couple of cute after dinner drink spots for a solid romantic date, but I don’t want to give away any (more) good secrets.