Food >>

• Best New Restaurant (Everyday Dining)
  City House
  Germantown residents should blame chef Tandy Wilson for their next property tax hike, because his coolly understated restaurant adds inestimable value to the historic neighborhood. The former art studio—with exposed brick walls, limestone and wood accents and a gleaming stainless-steel... More >>
• Best Hamburger (1 Comment)
  PM Cafe
  We usually have to make an educated guess about the supreme sammy, but this year we conducted an exhaustive—if not scientific—survey of burger-and-bun stacks. PM's eight-ounce flame-kissed patty—infused with minced onions sautéed in butter and licked with a glaze of... More >>
• Best Place for a Lazy Lunch
  Savarino's Cucina
  Never mind that Savarino's serves some of the best sandwiches, pasta and pastries in town (not to mention a stuffed pepper to die for). Head in for lunch any weekday, and there's a better-than-50/50 chance you'll be treated to conversation with some of Nashville's most colorful characters, among... More >>
• Best Cupcakes (1 Comment)
  Cuppycakes Bakery & Confections
  Is it the portion? The portability? The entrepreneurial entry point for women? Whatever the case, as with pet rocks in 1975, the Rubik's cube in 1980 and the Cheetah Girls, like, yesterday, the time is now for the cupcake, which has moved like Michael Corleone on the layer cake and the sheet... More >>
• Best Late-Night Hangout
  Athens Family Restaurant
  Here's to you, third-shift police officers, nurses, Colonial Bread bakers and Federal Express package-sorters. Here's to you, cabbies and bail bondsmen. Here's to you, bartenders, servers, cooks and musicians. Here's to you, strippers, bouncers and Hustler cashiers. Here's to all of you who ever... More >>
• Best Sandwich
  Mitchell Delicatessen
  Not only did the arrival of Mitchell Delicatessen earlier this year help fill the East Side's dearth of under-$10 dining options, it did so in grand style. How many restaurants in Nashville (or the country, for that matter) offer a lamb-with-mint-raita sandwich, a muffuletta and a Vietnamese... More >>
• Best Onion Rings
  The Dog of Nashville
  Good onion rings are hard to come by. Overwhelmingly in Nashville, they're far too reliant on breading, which often rips off mid-bite, leaving you with a stringy, greasy, flat onion loop and a mouthful of soggy breadcrumbs. And that's why The Dog of Nashville's onion rings are a godsend.... More >>
• Best Fish Taco
  La Hacienda Taqueria
  While fish tacos and restaurants named La Hacienda can be found all over town, the best of both can be found on Nolensville just south of I-440. Other fish tacos range from fried to fancy, but the F-word for La Hacienda Taqueria's is fresh. Starting with soft corn tortillas straight from the La... More >>
• Best Late-Night Lunch Cart (1 Comment)
  Mas Tacos Por Favor!
  It isn't just vibrant colors that make Teresa Mason's taco wagon the most head-turning vehicle since the Partridge Family's bus. Stocked with succulent chicken tacos, her disco-era Winnebago was an instant hit at this year's Tomato Art Festival, drawing a line down the block. These days, repairs... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken (1 Comment)
  Bailey & Cato Family Restaurant
  You'll want to pop a Caduet before taking on the chicken at Bailey & Cato's. Blood pressure and cholesterol levels elevate the minute you lay eyes on this East Nashville cottage restaurant, which looks like a scene from road-foodie Michael Stern's wet dream. Once inside, you'll encounter... More >>
• Best New Restaurant (When Someone Else Is Buying)
  Andrew Chadwick's at Rutledge Hill
  When we sought the most extravagant use for an IRS stimulus check, we turned to Andrew Chadwick. The baby-faced chef with the Ritz-Carlton résumé delivered a tasting menu of oysters, lobster, rabbit, venison and truffles, with plates artistically composed like vibrant expressionist... More >>
• Best New Meat-and-Three (1 Comment)
  At the Table
  Robert Hudson's cheery Southern-food buffet—stacked with homemade mashed potatoes, fresh-off-the-cob fried corn and some of the best fried fish we've found—has the makings of a lunchtime landmark. In fact, we think it's enough to get people talking about the gritty neighborhood... More >>
• Best Barbecue in Nashville (2 Comments)
  Dee's Q
  If we're expanding the range to Brentwood and beyond, no question: The winner is Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint in Nolensville, where pitmaster Patrick Martin is spreading the gospel of slow-cooked 'cue with pulled pork and ribs that make carnivores shed greasy tears. But it's a good 20 minutes down... More >>
• Best Gyoza
  Ken's Sushi
  Potstickers are the perfect food: firm and yielding on the outside, savory on the inside, spiced with the tang of a good dipping sauce. Just about any dumpling on a menu calls my name fetchingly, but the Japanese variant—gyoza—is the ideal form, lighter and spicier than its Chinese... More >>
• Best Extravagant Sushi Roll
  Shrimp Pad Thai Roll, Batter'd and Fried
  Considering the diverse array of sushi available to Nashvillians eager to get a fix, I feel almost awkward singling out this particularly sinful blend of shrimp, egg, spices, sauces, peanuts and peppers. But the truth of it is this: I have no problem shelling out $10 a roll for this marvelous... More >>
• Best Tequila Bar
  Agave Tequila Lounge
  Considering our office is two blocks from Agave, there's no reason why we shouldn't drink there more often—besides the hallway-avoiding, cringe-worthy occurrences that sometimes result from combining co-workers and tequila, that is. Inside the dusky confines of this festive cantina, more... More >>
• Best Thai Dish
  Hung Ray Curry, Siam Café
  If there's anyone out there who has yet to experience the decadent bliss of a Thai curry—the heat! The tang!! The coconut milk!!!—you are missing out on one of mankind's most brilliant comfort foods. I'm a green-curry girl myself, but Siam Café has converted me with their... More >>
• Best Place to Eat Thai Food and Race Go-Karts (1 Comment)
  Sukho Thai
  This is it—the supercollider where the palate-pleasing spiciness of Thai cuisine meets a rip-roaring rampage of go-kart annihilation, where the smells of pad kra pao and lawnmower-engine exhaust fuse into a perfect storm of pure adrenaline. Located on Music Valley Drive, this surprisingly... More >>
• Best New Ethnic Dining Destination
  Bell Road/Blue Hole Road
  How did two of Nashville's best new ethnic restaurants—one a Thai/Laotian noodle joint, the other veg-friendly Mexican—end up in the same Antioch strip mall, across from the teensy windmills, putting cages and go-kart tracks of a miniature golf complex? (Go-karts and Thai may be... More >>
• Best Ethiopian
  Gojo
  Ahmed and Shemsia Maregn transformed the mercurial cinderblock restaurant on Thompson Lane into a cheery oasis, offering a sample of the flavors and tradition of Ethiopian dining. If you order off the menu, your items all arrive on a large tray covered with injera and dotted with various lentils... More >>
• Best British Invasion
  Global Market/Whole Foods
  For a taste of the Old Sod, look no further than Global Market (918 Vine Street, near the Adventure Science Center) and Whole Foods. Here homesick Anglophiles will find PG Tips teas, Heinz salad cream and the top names in British junk food: Hula Hoops, Hob Nobs, Ginger Nuts, Twiglets and Walkers... More >>
• Best Slice of Birmingham in Nashville
  Watermark/Miro District
  For more than 20 years, Nashvillians who had the good sense (and good fortune) to include dinner at Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar and Grill in their Birmingham travels wondered aloud, "Why can't we have a restaurant like that in Nashville?" Three years ago, local health care entrepreneur Jerry... More >>
• Best Tea Party
  The Hermitage Hotel
  Save this serene, luxe outing for the next time the world seems all just a bit too much. Thursday through Sunday, afternoon tea in the grand Beaux Arts lobby of the historic Hermitage Hotel is a splendid affair, complete with multi-tiered trays of smoked salmon sandwiches, chocolate-covered... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Firefly Grill
  You'll probably see owner Curt Cole while you're dining at his quirky Green Hills cottage, unless he's at the Amish market picking up a flat of strawberries or tomatoes. The four-year-old Firefly shines with a no-nonsense menu dotted with local produce and fresh-baked artisan breads. Go for the... More >>
• Best Trendsetter
  tayst
  While everyone is hemming and hawing behind the wheel of their SUV about saving the earth, tayst chef-owner Jeremy Barlow is biking to his Hillsboro Road eatery—where he swaps paraffin candles for beeswax, runs a recycling program and reduces water output in the kitchen sinks. The mad... More >>
• Best Trend of the Moment (Post Cupcakes)
  Coffeehouses
  A decade ago, as Starbucks sprouted faster than kudzu in Middle Tennessee soil, the region's mom-and-pop coffeehouses took a noticeable hit. Now it's the Evil Empire that's reeling from overexpansion, while independently owned and operated java joints are starting to flourish once again,... More >>
• Best New Food Event
  Franklin Food & Spirits Festival
  Combining hot grills and heavy meats in blazing summer sun sounds like a recipe for misery (see also: Music City Hot Chicken Festival). But this winner-on-arrival made the noonday suffering worthwhile last May by luring legends of real-deal barbecue (such as Carolina pitmaster Ed Mitchell) to... More >>
• Best Food Event When Money Is No Object (2 Comments)
  James Beard Dinner
  If you've got time and money on your side, then cross your fingers that chef Martha Stamps reprises the meal she hosted this summer for the James Beard Foundation. Stamps corralled some of the best chefs in the Southeast in the Belle Meade carriage house, where they produced a six-course feast... More >>
• Best Food Promotion
  Nashville Originals Restaurant Week
  Anyone who's scrabbled for discounted Nashville Originals gift certificates knows that getting a bargain on dinner can be a pain in the ass. Maybe that's why there was an almost grasshopper-and-the-ant lack of urgency leading up to Nashville's inaugural Restaurant Week, when all you had to do... More >>
• Best Food Promotion
  Nashville Originals Restaurant Week
  Anyone who's scrabbled for discounted Nashville Originals gift certificates knows that getting a bargain on dinner can be a pain in the ass. Maybe that's why there was an almost grasshopper-and-the-ant lack of urgency leading up to Nashville's inaugural Restaurant Week, when all you had to do... More >>
• Best Lunch for a Cause
  First Harvest Café
  Next time your office lunch bunch heads out on Friday, steer them to Metro Center to the Second Harvest demonstration kitchen, where chef Mark Rubin delivers an all-you-can-eat buffet for $12. It's a casual, plastic-plate affair with a menu that rotates through themes such as French, Cajun and... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  Eastland Café
  Everyone loves a cheap, stiff drink after a long day of work—something to relax the mind before a strenuous evening of shuffling between political calamity on MSNBC and human calamity on VH1's sideshow I Love Money. So what makes the $5 martini at Eastland Café better than the $5... More >>
• Best Charity Event
  Dining Out for Life
  Let's admit it: Whatever the reason for dropping some of your hard-earned dough in Chez Bistro Café—entertainment, romance, business, a special occasion, convenience, laziness—most are fairly self-indulgent. One night in April every year, Nashville CARES sets a place for... More >>
• Best New Restaurants in Williamson County
  Sol/Wild Ginger
  This category could alternately be called Best Reason to Get a GPS, because Sol—the Mexican sister of Jason McConnell's Red Pony—and Wild Ginger, the sleek Asian-fusion indie in Cool Springs, are seducing even the most resolutely urban of the doughnut-county-dreaders to drive south... More >>
• Best Margarita
  Rosepepper Cantina/FooBar
  We can't say for certain, but we suspect extra lime juice or even a splash of soda is Rosepepper's secret. While the East Nashville cantina offers a variety of colors and flavors (among them a fluorescent blueberry concoction), a straightforward margarita on the rocks is enough for us to deem... More >>
• Best Patio
  Rumours East
  Patio, schmatio. The structure that bridges the back door of Rumours East and the expanse of green lawn in the rear of the yard is a pergola, for Pete's sake. The cozy arbor is multi-tiered to mimic the roofline of the Victorian home it accessorizes, and it's furnished with sturdy wooden tables... More >>
• Best Restaurants We Miss
  Tombstones Aplenty
  Amid so many restaurant arrivals, it was also a year of goodbyes, as we bid adieu to some of our favorite—or at least oldest—eateries. Rest in peace, Nola's and your sweet artery-clogging chivito. Thanks for the memories, Nick & Rudy. You too, New Orleans Manor. Sorry you... More >>
• Best Restaurants We Miss
  Tombstones Aplenty
  Amid so many restaurant arrivals, it was also a year of goodbyes, as we bid adieu to some of our favorite—or at least oldest—eateries. Rest in peace, Nola's and your sweet artery-clogging chivito. Thanks for the memories, Nick & Rudy. You too, New Orleans Manor. Sorry you... More >>
• Best Marriage of Restaurant and Chef
  Joe Shaw, The Standard
  When Standard owner Joshua Smith brought the historic townhouse on Rosa Parks Boulevard back to life, the restaurant lacked culinary muscle to match its architectural bones. Enter Joe Shaw, alumnus of Watermark, who brought his passion for Southern cuisine to the gracious former residence. Many... More >>
• Best Growing Trend
  Multiple Farmers' Markets
  "Where are the onions grown?" I asked the produce manager, expecting to hear West Tennessee or Texas. I nearly fell over when he said, "Bakertown Road." Onions growing in Antioch? Does that mean we've been spared becoming another Atlanta? Local farmers' markets and produce stands have more... More >>
• Best Chef (1 Comment)
  Deb Paquette, Zola
  We're not the first ones to call Chef Deb tops. She hit Gourmet magazine's list of best restaurants a few years back, and her Zola ranks perennially on the lists of Nashville favorites. But the Mistress of the Extra Ingredient—she's known for using seemingly endless and unrelated flavors,... More >>
• Best Reinvention of a Restaurant
  360 Bistro
  When relocated Seattle chef John David Crow departed Wildwood Oak-Fired Kitchen last fall, it wasn't long before he landed at the wine bar formerly known as The Grape, where owners Nick Jacobson and Joe Gordy were in the process of separating from the Atlanta-based Grape chain. Almost overnight,... More >>
• Best Breakfast Buffet
  2 Rivers Grille, Nashville Airport Marriott
  For most eaters, the words "breakfast buffet" conjure up soupy eggs, withered bacon and grease-swimming potatoes languishing in steam-table hell—perfect fare for a dinner-theater production of Glengarry Glen Ross in Snakebite, Ala. At this plush hotel restaurant high on a hill off Elm Hill... More >>
• Best Anticipated Boutique Opening
  Karen Elson and Amy Patterson
  Before she married Jack White and became a rock-star wife, the auburn-haired British singer and model Karen Elson was already rocking Vogue with her otherworldly glow and once-shaved eyebrows. So while news of the local glamazon opening her own boutique on Belmont Boulevard with former Venus... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Jeans
  Two Elle
  I don't wear jeans, but my wife does—and I can say from experience that shopping for jeans, for her, is not very much fun. Which ends up being not much fun for me, either. This year for her birthday I bought a gift certificate to Two Elle, the charming little boutique on 12th Avenue South.... More >>
• Best Place to Find Brand-Name Shoes, Cheap
  Marti & Liz
  Once upon a time there was a charming pair of peacock-feathered Stuart Weitzmans that ended up stolen on New Year's Eve. Thank God and Carrie Bradshaw they came from Marti & Liz and only cost $30. The selection at this Cool Springs shoe bazaar of original finds can be hit or miss,... More >>
• Best Place to Buy a Last-Minute Gift
  Alegria
  A leather artisan, Alegria owner Bill Breyer has another talent: spatial relations. He's squeezed a Buckhead-sized assortment of gift ideas into this tiny East Nashville shop, where you'll find something for everyone—especially if that someone has a taste for irony and craftiness. Breyer... More >>
• Best Place for Used-Media Bargains
  McKay Used Books & CDs
  It's not the wide aisles, diverse selection or incredibly knowledgeable staff that makes McKay the best place for secondhand media in the city. It's not even the remarkable finds that even the most casual shopper can discover on a ramble through its expansive Westside location. No, what makes... More >>
• Best Up-and-Coming Hairstylist (1 Comment)
  Sarah Shepherd
  Nashville is blessed with people who know how to do hair, and well. But a good hair experience moves beyond shaping and styling, often into realms of theater and espionage—and for that you need a stylist who hasn't yet become a tonsorial supernova. To get someone you'll tell people you... More >>
• Best Brazilian Bikini Wax (15 Comments)
  Gracie's
  A native Brazilian who trained in Paris, Cindy Gracie apparently knows of what she speaks—namely, the hot wax removal of all pubic hair, save for a thin "landing strip" in the front. Sources say that Gracie manages to make a potentially nerve-racking experience seem like a simple haircut.... More >>
• Best Doctor
  Judson Rogers, M.D.
  Jud Rogers left a group practice several years ago to start his own one-doc office, where he and a small staff tend to patients as if they were real human beings. (As if!) It's like visiting Mayberry's town doctor, except Rogers is both urbane (some folks speculate that he shares a wardrobe with... More >>