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.

Corner Table goes to Harbour Island, Bahamas

So, I went on a awesome little vacation this past weekend and figured I would share with my many (many) readers the culinary delights I experienced throughout the island.

If you haven’t taken a trip to the Bahamas this winter, now is the time to go! When its 20 degrees and a wintery mix outside, there is nothing that makes life seem worth living like a 75-degree walk on an empty pink sand beach. In addition, since you did so much walking, you might as well partake in America’s favorite past time… eating.
The island is very small, only 3x1 miles. Yet, it’s filled with culinary genius (as a good tourist trap should be).

First, we started out for lunch at Sip Sip (pictured left) to enjoy our greatest lobster quesadilla ever (pictured). It was a fight to the bitter end for those, as it was 86ed after we ordered, much to the dismay of a fellow customer. The Snapper sandwich, although not my first choice (we ate late so the menu was limited) was a great find as well. We loved Sip Sip so much, that we went back for lunch again two days later… and ordered the same thing. Dinner was split between The Landing (where we stayed) and Rock House (next door). Both hotels/restaurants are set on the harbor side of the island (vs the ocean side re: Sip Sip). The Landing is an island rustic laid-back hotel with friendly staff and even friendlier chickens. Rock House is island chic, with a more hip dining area and bar. Both dinners were excellent, although we decided to go back to Rock House for a second time. The best meal of the combined dinners was as follows: the Grouper at the Landing, the blackened Wahoo at the Rock House, the lobster and crab spring rolls at the Rock House and the best mozzarella and tomato stack I have ever experienced at the Rock House (ok, so now you can see why we went to Rock House twice.)

Also, the island has good places for a quick snack. I had the conch fritters at both Valentine’s Marina and Gusty’s. I prefer Gusty’s fritters, maybe because the owner, who was very excited as I believe we were his first customers, (they had just started opening for sunset) made them. However, Valentine’s did have amazing Grouper Fingers. They were salted and breaded to perfection. I guess Harbour Island just had great grouper. So, definitely try it when you are there.

Another famous treat (I say famous because the customs guy at the Nassau airport told me to go here) is Queen Conch. We got a made-to-order conch salad. The huge conchs were cut up and the vegetables (onions, etc) diced right in front of us at a stand on the side of the road (picture). They even had us taste it before we left to make sure it was spiced to our liking. That is what I call service. Supposedly, people like it there so much that they ask for tubs of this stuff to take home on the plane. I wasn’t a huge fan, but I guess I like my conch fried better than fresh.

Note to travelers: Do not drink the tap water there. I asked for it the first day and it was salt water (as is the shower water which made us smell GOOD….)