Dining
Two mobile food carts do not necessarily an edible convoy make, but the recent arrivals of I Dream of Weenie and The Veggie Café do make for some fun outdoor eating in East Nashville.
On a lazy afternoon last week, a hungry lunch crowd copped a squat on Woodland Street, where Alisa Martin was hawking hot dogs out of a hilarious mustard-yellow Volkswagen minibus-turned-vending-wagon. Some 20 picnickers with kids and canines in tow were lounging sur l’herbe on the beautifully landscaped lot between Wonders on Woodland and Art & Invention Gallery, lunching on an efficient menu of all-beef and tofu weenies with names like the “Slaw Dog,” “Frank and to the Point” and “Not a Dog.” When the specialty rolls from Provence ran out, apologies flowed like ketchup, but no one seemed to mind the substitution of standard-issue buns. IDOW serves lunch Tuesday through Saturday.
Meanwhile, at the corner of Riverside and McGavock, Dawn Fears and mom Marilyn Crutcher were doling out veggie-friendly meals at The Veggie Café. Business partners Fears, Crutcher and Shaterial Manghane pulled up last week to an empty lot in the burgeoning Riverside Village. The Veggie Café will operate out of a wagon until the fall, when it will take up residency at 1601 Riverside Drive in the building that formerly housed Royal Cleaners.
The $7 daily specials rotate, with veggie lasagna on Monday, Asian stir fry on Tuesday, burritos and quesadillas on Wednesday, and soup and salad on Thursday. We stopped by for Soul Food Friday and ordered a gorgeous plate of meatless meatloaf (oatmeal, walnuts, wheat and carrots with a tomato-sauce topping), steamed green beans, sweet potatoes and black bean soup with tomatoes and corn. Don’t miss the dairy-free strawberry-lemonade smoothie. The Veggie Café is open 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Playing chicken
Good-natured mayoral candidate David Briley did not win the battle for chicken supremacy at the Hot Chicken Festival on the Fourth of July. In the end, East Nashville resident Will Radford and the Fry Girls walked home with the garish red-and-yellow trophy, thanks to an alliterative recipe for a “fiery fusion of fowl and flame-infused flavors.”
The inaugural Hot Chicken Festival drew an estimated throng of 1,200 chickenheads to East Park to watch Briley, Radford and four other amateur cooking teams compete, while professional chicken purveyors Prince’s, 400 Degrees and Bolton’s supplied the crowd with their tried-and-true recipes. By all accounts, the event was a huge success, and with such a feather in its cap, the festival should surely fly again next year.
But who’s going to make it happen?
This year’s festival was part of Mayor Purcell’s Celebrate Nashville, a series of events marking the 200th anniversary of Nashville. With no Celebrate Nashville next year, there’s no obvious vehicle for a chicken festival, unless someone—wink, wink—steps in.
We’re
no political strategist, but it seems like Councilman Briley could
still find glory in hot chicken. If he promises the city a second
annual Hot Chicken Festival under his mayoral wing, we can think of at
least 1,200 votes he might claim. The Briley for Mayor campaign better
act fast, before the Bob Clement Idea Factory co-opts hot chicken for
Idea No. 31.
Click here for more photos of the Hot Chicken Festival.