Food & Drink >>

• Best Restaurant
  Zola
  Yawn. I still love Zola. Year in, year out, Zola tops the list. Lord knows, for purposes of editorial variety I'd love to tell you one of Nashville's other excellent restaurants—City House, Flyte, Watermark, Capitol Grille, Margot Café, Miro, tayst, Miel, F. Scott's or Giovanni... More >>
• Best New Restaurant
  ChaChah
  There's a lot to say about Arnold Myint's latest Belmont landmark: From the vibrant canvases on warm white walls, to the crisp candied Asian pears floating in icy martinis, Myint seizes every opportunity to delight the senses. But no matter how creative and carnal the Asian-inspired... More >>
• Best Chef
  Jeremy Barlow, tayst
  To decide this category, we used to weigh a range of variables from food quality to presentation to price. No more. Now the Scene just holds a contest—Iron Fork—in which the best chefs we can find battle it out over a secret ingredient to determine kitchen supremacy. This spring,... More >>
• Best Meal Under $10
  Zavós
  Brothers Niko and David Gehrke's Greek eatery across from the Family Wash is just the kind of restaurant East Nashville needs more of—a place to get a fresh, delicious dinner for under a sawbuck. The menu features recipes from the homeland masterminded by their mother Eleni, and nearly all... More >>
• Best Dining Trend
  Eating in Fields
  Rather than dragging the harvest into the kitchens, chefs met the crops halfway this year, staging rustically elaborate (or elaborately rustic?) feasts in the fields where the food came from. Chef Martha Stamps teamed up with the movable feast Outstanding in the Field to host a dinner at... More >>
• Best Brunch
  Miel
  An alternate title for this category could be Best Place for a Culinary Campout, because I'd like to reserve the same table at Miel for Saturday dinner and Sunday brunch and just spend the night. After a lingering evening of foie gras, escargots and trout in Seema and Jimmy Phillips' sleek... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Farmers' Market
  West Nashville Farmers' Market
  Remember that scene in Something's Gotta Give, when Frances McDormand picks up Keanu Reeves at the farmstand in the Hamptons? Regardless of how you feel about Keanu Reeves, at least you can admit that all that farm-fresh produce made your heart skip a beat. In the spirit of that bountiful... More >>
• Best Affordable Luxury
  1808 Grille
  If you're headed to 1808 for dinner, brace your wallet. But if you're looking for a noontime retreat, the so-called Panini Parlor delivers surprising bang for your buck. The parlor isn't actually a separate room, but a nickname for the mix-and-match menu of grilled sandwiches. Choose a meat from... More >>
• Best Vietnamese Not On Charlotte Pike
  Far East Vietnamese
  Maybe it's not time to overthrow the beloved West Nashville landmarks Miss Saigon and Kien Giang by awarding an absolute title of Best Vietnamese to an upstart, but the sleek Asian eatery in the historic building at Martin Corner has made a valiant East Side debut with a menu of fresh homemade... More >>
• Best New Cool Trend
  Snowballs
  Fleur de Lis Flavors in the Farmers' Market, the Snowball Stand in Hillsboro Village and The Jolly Rogue in East Nashville brought a blizzard of frozen fun to town this summer, with their fluffy cups of shaved ice drizzled with vibrant syrups, coconut milk and cream. From the ubiquitous wedding... More >>
• Best Live Alternative to the Food Network
  The Curious Gourmet
  Go ahead, sit home and watch Guy Fiore while you eat Pringles on the couch. Or for $50 you can enroll in one of this appealing Franklin cookware shop's demonstration cooking classes, performed in a small but handsomely designed show kitchen outfitted with a giant overhead mirror for maximum... More >>
• Best Tea
  Partners Tea Co.
  After years of exploring the tea routes firsthand, globetrotter Sarah Scarborough turned her passion for travel into a fair-trade company that promotes women in the tea trade around the world. Drawing on sources from across Africa and Asia, Scarborough and business partner Jodi Banks create and... More >>
• Best Breakfast Secret (2 Comments)
  Nashville Biscuit House
  Tucked away on Gallatin Road in what had to have been the edifice of an old, long-gone fast food place, there lies the kind of fine breakfast that can soothe killer hangovers and broken hearts alike. If you're looking for breakfast (not brunch, which is an entirely different animal), there's... More >>
• Best Place for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
  Fido
  The old dogs whose favorite trick was to fetch coffee and a muffin at the Hillsboro Village coffee shop have dug up a pleasant surprise: Suddenly the muffins at Fido are great! And breakfast is just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to chef John Stephenson's focus on seasonal and local cuisine and... More >>
• Best Dinner Before a Movie
  Kalamata's
  If you're on the way to the Green Hills Regal, there's no more efficient spot to grab a quick healthy bite than Maher Fawaz's friendly eatery. On weekend evenings, a dulcet guitar duet accompanies the fresh repertoire of gyros, falafel, Greek salads and grilled tuna. Save room for the homemade... More >>
• Best Sunday Dinner
  City House
  We're not sure if we have Jesus or football to blame, but very few of Nashville's finest dining establishments are open on Sundays. Capitalizing on this dearth of options, Tandy Wilson's City House offers a special Sunday menu that's lighter on the entrées and heavier on the pizzas, which... More >>
• Best Expansion News
  Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint
  We hear that as early as November, Patrick Martin is moving his Nolensville BBQ outfit to a bigger, better, badder location. And not a moment too soon: On weekend nights, business at the current Martin's is so good that you can wait 20 minutes just to reach the counter to order. As for concerns... More >>
• Best New Spot for Ladies Who Lunch
  Belle
  Brian Hainley's pretty restaurant has been operating at the historic Belle Meade Plantation for only a month, but the LWL—and some of their gentlemen, too—are buzzing about the polished room, with its white cloths and single rosebuds on the tables, and the modern Southern repertoire... More >>
• Best Cupcake
  The Cupcake Collection
  You want to see a tempest in a teapot? Then log onto Bites, the Scene’s food blog, and declare your preference for one cupcake above the many in Nashville’s crowded cupcake landscape. Blessed are we to have so many tiny cakes to choose from—Dulce, Cuppycakes, Gigi’s, The... More >>
• Best Beverage Alternative to Coffee
  Fresh Blends
  Sometimes it’s not the dark roast so much as it is the light banter that makes coffee so addictive. So if you’ve got to kick the caffeine, or even if it’s just too hot outside to lap a latte, don’t give up the ritual of morning chitchat at your favorite way-station between... More >>
• Best Cheap Takeout
  Satay Thai Grill
  When the back of the throat starts to tickle, the mind wanders first to the takeout counter at Satay, then to the pharmacy. Tom yum soup—bobbing with chicken, fresh cilantro and hunks of tomato—offers more curative power than a Z-pack, and owner Tong Prasertinh serves up the soothing... More >>
• Best Soul Food
  Swett's
  A Nashville institution for decades, the Swett family restaurants—particularly the original Clifton location—are still among the few places in Nashville where people of all backgrounds and origins routinely mingle without anyone even thinking about it. If you like cornbread,... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken
  Southern Bred
  For people who prefer chicken with a deep-bronze and hard-wrought fryer-thickened coating, Sharon Johnson's Trinity Lane meat-and-three is not the choice of champions. But for those of us who appreciate a delicate, blond finish with a whisper-light texture akin to tempura, Southern Bred is best... More >>
• Best Hot Wings
  Knockout Wings
  They're neither the hottest nor the biggest wings in town: Mojo Grill's fine radioactive flippers have them beat on both counts. But bigger wings are harder to cook properly, and hotter wings tend to leave you screaming at both ends without tasting much in the middle. This Jefferson Street... More >>
• Best Boudin
  Re'Je's Grab & Go
  The Cajun specialty boudin (pronounced "boo-DAN") is a sausage casing stuffed with a mixture of rice and organ meat. Appetizing, huh? It is if you're buying it from a rice cooker at some Gas 'n' Sip near Lake Charles, La., where it may be the world's greatest convenience-store food, but we... More >>
• Best Fried Pies
  Mayo's & Mahalia Jackson's Fried Pies & Chicken
  Not long ago, I ordered a fried peach pie at Erika White's chicken stand on Jefferson and stepped aside so the woman behind me could order. To her dismay, I'd gotten the day's last pie—but her voice was so full of hurt that I offered her half mine. She took a bite, fluttered her eyes, and... More >>
• Best Frozen Yogurt
  Sweet CeCe's
  A slew of young Nashvillians just might grow up as hypochondriacs, thanks to the cheery serve-yourself froyo store located in the same building as some of the city's most popular pediatricians. Who begrudges going for a check-up when there's peanut butter-and-vanilla swirl with crumbled candy... More >>
• Best Seasonal Novelty
  Popcorn Ice Cream, Pied Piper
  Every fall, as pennant season begins, Jenny Piper begins popping batches of popcorn, stirring them into her ice cream mix, then straining out the kernels and hulls. The popcorn mostly vanishes, but it leaves behind a trompe la langue taste that uncannily evokes a tub of hot buttered—only... More >>
• Best Flatbread
  U.S.A. Bakery
  One of the city's best-kept secrets, this Persian bakery stashed behind Gorilla's Mufflers on a side street off Nolensville Road is housed in a building much harder to notice than the U-Haul rental on the opposite corner. Walk inside, head back past the grocery stocked with take-home meals,... More >>
• Best New Sandwich
  "Stevie B.," Savarino's
  >Named for Tennessee Titans head of security Steve Burke, The Stevie B. has quickly vaulted to the top of the heap at our favorite Hillsboro Village hang, duking it out with Savarino's stalwarts such as Italian cold-cut masterpiece The Ed Pontieri and The Frank Dileo, a rendezvous of sausage and... More >>
• Best Chocolate
  Olive & Sinclair
  Bean-to-bar chocolate makers are the new microbreweries, popping up across the country to capitalize on the increasingly refined tastes of American consumers. Nashville's entry into this competitive, highly discerning market is Olive & Sinclair, Scott Witherow's "Southern Artisan" chocolate... More >>
• Best Local Institution Worth Saving
  Family Wash
  After hearing rumors of its imminent demise, a fan of this popular East Side venue fired off an email blast. The bottom line was that current economic conditions had hit the venerable Wash so hard that owner Jamie Rubin could no longer make ends meet. The bad news spread like a pub on fire, and... More >>
• Best Place to Get Lunch, a Wedding Ring, a Fifth of Bourbon, a Payday Candy Bar and a PayDay Loan in One Stop
  Wendell Smith's Corner
  Since 1952, Wendell Smith's West Nashville micro-mall has been the last stop for people trying to get the hell out of town. Okay, that's my imagination. But there's something about Wendell's neon-and-stone-block wonderland that conjures dreams of illicit elopements and fedora-wearing bad guys on... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Spices
  Apna Bazaar
  Tell the truth: Doesn't it burn your butter biscuits to pay $4 for a 1-ounce jar of cinnamon? Sure it does. So don't. Instead, swing by 3808 Nolensville Pike once every couple of years for a 3- or 4-ounce bag at half the price. Cinnamon, ginger, cloves, fennel, peppercorns, plus... More >>
• Best Butter
  Rock Springs Dairy
  Butter, by its very nature, is amazing, but when you strip all of the corporate evilness out of it and get it straight from the source, it's downright life-changing. The butter from Rock Springs Dairy in Wildersville, Tenn., delivers the ecstasy. We were raised on Land O' Lakes and partially... More >>
• Best Allergy Medication (2 Comments)
  Tennessee USA Honey Farm's Dark Wildflower Honey
  We don't have any science to back that up, but we do have a number of decades of allergy experience under our belt. We know that since we began consuming Goodlettsville honey producer Tennessee USA's wild honey, would you believe, our previously debilitating sinus problems have all but... More >>
• Best Place for Fresh Herbs
  Gardens of Babylon
  If you do a quick cost/benefit analysis, keeping an herb garden is one of the best decisions a cook can make. Four bucks for a sprig of basil in a plastic box? Pshaw! We've got bushels of it for a fraction of the cost! With a little tender loving care and some plants from the fine folks at... More >>
• Best Reason Wake Up Early On A Saturday
  Nashville Farmers' Market
  Sure, it borders on sacrilegious to spend Saturday morning doing your grocery shopping, but it's the best time to buy the best local ingredients. Whether it's sweet tomato juice from Howell's Farm Store for your Bloody Marys, feta cheese or chèvre from Kira's Kids Dairy or thick-cut bacon... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Insane Amounts of Pecans
  The Produce Place
  One of the best food investments we've made lately was a 5-pound bag of Georgia pecans for $40 at The Produce Place last fall. Five pounds of pecans means you can not only do all of your holiday cooking but also consume them by the fistful straight out of the bag, without feeling guilt. Think... More >>
• Best Beef
  Walnut Hills Farm
  We bought 20 pounds of sirloin from Walnut Hill in Bethpage, Tenn., this spring for my sister-in-law's wedding and it was pure torture. How am I supposed to resist the lure of grass-fed, dry-aged, all-natural beefy goodness? Cutting that much wonderful meat for kabobs without just eating it raw... More >>
• Best Booze Sop
  Athens Family Resturaunt
  Whether it's on the way back from the bar or on the way out of hangover hell, the best way to cure what ails ya is probably on the Athens menu. For us it's a Western omelet with whole-wheat toast, potatoes, a cup of coffee and a glass of water. With a friendly attentive staff that calmly absorbs... More >>
• Best Service, Weird Wedding Edition
  The Acorn
  The staff of the West End eatery deserves an award for putting up with us and our crazy family. The groom was an hour late, dressed like Frankenstein, and the family was freaking out. Also, the groom forgot to tell the preacher when to show up. Oops. And there was a giant cardboard castle, too,... More >>
• Best CSA
  Delvin Farms
  Delvin is our veggie hook-up, and we've been so consistently satisfied that we haven't shopped around. But every community supported agriculture organization deserves an award—Henley Acres, the much beloved Fresh Harvest, all of them—for bringing high-quality, environmentally... More >>
• Best Mexican Restaurant with a View
  Fiesta Mexicana
  Perched high above Fourth Avenue South, the outdoor deck of this festive burrito-and-taco eatery offers splendid views of Nashville's always improving skyline, making it one of downtown's most popular choices for al fresco dining. Owner Esther Gonzales employs a diligent and gracious staff, who... More >>
• Best Big-City Coffee Shop
  Dunn Bros. Coffee
  Want some tasty coffee in an urbane, yet quirky, space? At 2-year-old Dunn Bros., you can enjoy a latte in the main area (perfect for watching the hustle and bustle at the intersection of Church and Fourth) or repair to the secluded back room. Affable husband-and-wife team Kevan and Fawn Ker... More >>
• Best Overlooked Indian
  Cuisine of India
  In a city that boasts a plethora of dal, saag and tandoori chicken, Hillsboro Village-based Cuisine of India often hovers below the radar when it comes to the question of best Indian cuisine. But those who dine at C of I know the place serves aloo gobi and basmati rice with the same skill and... More >>
• Best Thai Atmosphere
  International Market & Restaurant
  The lovably feisty Ms. Patti Myint has created a tofu-and-noodles institution on Belmont Boulevard, where her 35-year-old Thai eatery/Asian market oozes character and quirkiness. In the cramped dining room-cum-grocery aisles—crowded with plants, groceries and happy diners—the scent... More >>
• Best Brotherly Love Involving Pizza
  Venito's Pizza
  Venito's Pizza owner Merdan Ibrahim has employed his younger brothers (up to four at a time) at his Church Street eatery, and the family affair works well. Merdan is hands-on, often delivering pies himself. The Ibrahims hail from Northern Iraq, where an uncle lost his life under Saddam Hussein's... More >>
• Best Cocktail Trend
  Using Liquor as a Mixer
  Historically, the training-wheels beverage of amateur drunks could usually be described by the following formula: well liquor + sweet carbonated mixer + sliced citrus fruit garnish. Luckily, modern mixologists at establishments such as Rumba, Past Perfect, Flyte, Virago and The Patterson House... More >>
• Best Booze News
  The Liquor Dam Is Cracking
  While the bill to permit the sale of wine in grocery stores stalled again in committee, it did garner a warmer reception and a broader scope of debate than in years past. New laws passed during this legislative session also allow the distillation of spirits in 41 counties in addition to the... More >>
• Best Industrial Relocations
  Corsair Artisan Spirits and Yazoo Brewing Co.
  Thanks to the new ordinance authorizing the "manufacture of intoxicating liquors" in Davidson County, two young liquor-preneurs behind Corsair Artisan Spirits will bring some of their booze-brewing business from Kentucky to the current location of Yazoo Brewery in Marathon Village. Meanwhile,... More >>
• Best Alternative to Drinking Alone
  Wine Tastings at Vinea
  The Wine Education Series sponsored by Vinea, Omni Beverage and Fido provides a six-week curriculum covering the history of wine, various varietals and meritages, flavor profiles and structures, as well as tasty small-plate pairings from Fido chef John Stephenson. Vinea's periodic Saturday... More >>
• Best Place to Chart Downtown's Growth
  Mad Platter
  When Marcia and Craig Jervis debuted the dining room at the corner of Sixth and Monroe in 1980, the then-affordable area of Germantown had deteriorated from a prosperous suburb where church services were conducted in German to a district of boarding houses, flophouses and absentee landlords.... More >>
• Best Catering for a Big, Hungry Crowd
  Copper Kettle
  Good as the meat-and-three is at the beloved downtown and Granny White stores, don't be fooled into thinking that's all there is. The catering menu is much wider. The Mediterranean spread is a 5-foot-long array of dips, vegetables, cheeses, marinated artichokes, local tomatoes and bread. There's... More >>
• Best Dairy Trend
  Unhomogenized Milk
  Lighten coffee with unhomogenized milk, and you get gorgeous cream-colored bits of glorious butterfat melting into the dark roast, mellowing it and leaving glowing beads on top. It's not a beverage—it's a meal. And where can you experience this deliciousness? Hatcher Family Dairy products... More >>
• Best Chance at Seeing Eternity in Your Fellow Man
  Meal Service at the Campus for Human Development
  If your group/office/club wants a worthwhile project, call up the Campus, a.k.a. Room in the Inn, and offer to bring lunch. You'll serve 200 of the city's most vulnerable but interesting residents, and you'll never view homeless people, their lives or your life the same thereafter. The... More >>
• Best Fusion of High and Low Culture
  Venison Carpaccio at Midtown Cafe
  Deer meat just doesn't get the respect and glamour bestowed upon more exotic meats such as ostrich or bison. So it seldom enjoys the august carpaccio treatment of being shaved, pounded and displayed like minimalist artwork on a white platter with toast points, mustard and a drizzle of expensive... More >>
• Best Reason to Await Cold Weather
  Mayan Hot Chocolate, Crema
  The last time proprietor Rachel Lehman told us she'd stopped serving her signature hot chocolate for the season, we looked so crestfallen that she actually winced. But the frost has an appointment with the pumpkin, and that means the return of her throat-burning, sinus-clearing cocoa spiced with... More >>
• Best Meals to Look Forward To
  Table 3, M Street and Chez Lis
  If the tough economy has a bright side, it's that Culinary Darwinism is thinning the herd and only the fittest of the foodies are surviving. Count among those survivors the restaurateurs behind F. Scott's, Virago and Lime. In the coming months F. Scott's team Elise Loehr, Wendy Burch and Will... More >>
• Best Paycheck Buster
  Sephora
  Armchair economists define the Lipstick Index as a method of gauging the market's health: When the economy is weak, lipstick sales go up because it's a cheap, simple luxury many women can easily afford. It's something to keep in mind when entering Sephora: It's the little treat of a lush, creamy... More >>
• Best Burger
  Gabby's Burgers & Fries
  I can't help but notice that more than any other recommendation I made this year I sent people to Doug Havron's friendly burger house in the shadow of Greer Stadium. Even when TDOT tore up the road and posted 36 miles of detour signs, I still sent people there. Because for under $6, I can't find... More >>