Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Events Fork Time!
Posted by Carrington Fox on Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 2:17 PM
See you tonight at Iron Fork! Doors open at 6 p.m. at LP Field—I mean, Kitchen Coliseum. Tune in tomorrow for complete coverage, and be sure to say hello if you see us.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Bites / Events Table Manners
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Tonight is Dining Out For Life, so if you dine in any one of 55 restaurants a portion of your bill will go to Nashville Cares' programs for people living with HIV/AIDS. I'd love it if you'd join me at Wild Iris.
Which brings me to this: I've been busily arranging a group of diners for the Wild Iris. It's a good thing I'm not in charge of the reservation book on a regular basis, because I clumsily stacked the dining room with a flight of 7 p.m. reservations. I can only hope the folks at the Iris can forgive my ham-handedness. But it brings up a point I'd like to discuss.
I recently got a question from a reader asking about seating protocol. She and a friend had an early reservation in a chic new hot spot, where they ordered dinner and a few drinks and were still sipping cocktails when their server asked them to please vacate their table for the next group. Needless to say, she felt a little dissed, especially while other groups were drinking cocktails, sans dinner at the adjacent tables. Is this standard operating procedure? What should happen in this type of situation?
Monday, April 28, 2008
Events Congratulations to Molly F. and Sloopy
Posted by Carrington Fox on Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:36 PM
We have two winners in our concurrent contests for the Iron Fork tickets.
As much as we hate to reward anyone for introducing the notion of pork belly-flavored pig rectum into the collective consciousness, we gotta give it up for Molly F.
Equally creative was Sloopy's recipe for the Vacation Sunburn Madwich—grilled pineapple, coconut mayo, slow-roasted pork and bacon on Hawaiian bread. Like they say, tan fat is better than pale fat.
You can collect your pairs of Iron Fork tickets at Will Call on Wednesday night. Doors open at 6 p.m.
You can buy Iron Fork tickets here.
Friday, April 25, 2008
News Fired & Iced
Posted by Carrington Fox on Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 11:00 AM
After only a few short months, Fire & Ice Grill has closed. The short-lived Italian-American restaurant at 1805 Church St. was a project of Sitar restaurant owner Naresh Kumar and his nephew Benny Kumar. Prior to the launch of Fire & Ice, Naresh Kumar briefly operated Indian restaurant Madras Bhavan in the location.
With a sprawling menu of homemade pizzas, beef tips and various sandwiches, Fire & Ice was a time-intensive and non-lucrative project for the team, who have now purchased a gas station. Kumar has no plans to fill the spot, which is adjacent to the recently opened Suraj restaurant.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Foods Do Me a Flavor
Posted by Carrington Fox on Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 3:50 PM
I must have been blinded by hunger while shopping for groceries today, because I mistakenly picked up a bag of cherry-flavored Craisins in lieu of the regular dried cranberries.
I'm sorry? Cherry-flavored dried cranberries? What's wrong with cranberry-flavored cranberries? Sure, I understood when Sunsweet started spritzing prunes with essence of lemon. Prunes are brown and drab, and they had become the perennial butt of constipation jokes. They clearly have an image problem, so if a little dab of citrus and a splash of yellow on the packaging helps eliminate the laxative stigma, I say spritz away. Or change your name to dried plums. Whatever works for you.
But cranberries, what have you got to be embarrassed about? Sure, there's the slightly delicate business about being good for yeast infections. But it's not like you've become synonymous with all things vaginal. And if you had, do you really think adding a cherry on the package helps matters? The extra flavor just gives you a slight hint of desperation—and cough syrup.
In the craven world of brand extensions, what's next? Orange-flavored grapefruit? Sprite-flavored Coke? Lettuce-flavored salad?
And so, Bites readers, I pose the question to you. Your next challenge in the quest for free Iron Fork tickets is to come up with the most absurdly redundant flavor layering.
And don't try saying bacon-flavored bacon. That would be just plain ridiculous.
Events Dine Out For Life April 29
Posted by Carrington Fox on Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 2:54 PM
If only every fundraiser were as simple as Dining Out For Life. All you do is eat a meal, and the restaurant gives a portion of your bill to Nashville Cares' programs to help people living with AIDS. There's no entry fee, no drink tickets and no crappy silent auction. Just a festive dinner (and also, in some cases, lunch) in one of 55 generous restaurants.
I'll be dining at Wild Iris that evening, tucking into a plate of chef Mike Kidd's pan-seared salmon with salsa verde served on baby greens with warm cherry tomatoes and Parmesan-roasted potatoes. Please join me at the Iris, or check out this list for dozens of other participating restaurants, who will donate anywhere from 30 to 105 percent of the proceeds from lunch and/or dinner.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Events We Have a Winner! The Iron Fork Tickets Go To...
Posted by Carrington Fox on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 4:18 PM
While canned bananas, high fructose corn syrup and pig rectum all sound delicious, we've decided to save those Secret Ingredients for another day—possibly for a future installment of Madwiches.
The two free tickets to the April 30 debut of Iron Fork go to Tobin the Gnome for his heartless response of live catfish. We're not saying it was the best response—because, remember, we were looking for bad suggestions, like horse testicles (thank you, Mr. Pink), and we'd quite like to see a catfish throwdown among Deb Paquette, Sean Norton, Clay Greenberg, Bobby Benjamin and Will Uhlhorn. We're just saying we want to make sure Tobin the Gnome will be at Iron Fork...so we can introduce him to Claudia.
It's not exactly fair, but then again, we make the rules.
For another chance to win a pair of Iron Fork tickets, see Steve Haruch's insane post about Madwiches. Or you can purchase tickets here.
Bites Nashville Insane Sandwich 1: The Happy Family
Posted by Steve Haruch on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 2:33 PM
For the inaugural Bites insane sandwich (henceforth to be known as a Madwich), we look to the Chinese-American restaurant menu for inspiration. The happy family, though it varies in execution, always presents itself for the indecisive diner with its harmonious combination of beef, chicken and shrimp.
As Prince once said, "Let's get nuts."
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Restaurants Fish & Bitch
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 9:08 PM
My Stepford wife-colleague and I strolled down the hill from the Scene office yesterday for lunch at Agave Tequila Lounge. While munching fresh tortilla chips and salsa under the lazy ceiling fans, we agreed that the front porch of the faux hacienda might be the best venue in the urban landscape to while away a lunch hour pissing and moaning about sleep deprivation, pink eye and my broken microwave.
However, when the Scene’s Best of Nashville issue rolls around in October, don’t expect to see Agave taking home any honors for best fish taco. Despite the appetizing description of mahi marinated in coconut and cilantro and served with roasted pineapple salsa, three tacos with rice and beans for $9 offered little more than a few pasty cubes of soggy, overcooked fish and a smattering of diced citrus virtually suffocated inside cold flour tortillas. No cabbage, no special sauce, no green salsa. No good.
What’s more, Agave doesn’t serve iced tea.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we won’t be back. We minivan-driving Scene employees are sluts for a nice patio. Which, come to think of it, is probably why they don’t serve iced tea. With endless refills, lemons and Splenda, we could have sat there all day—bitching quite happily.
Located at 118 12th Ave. S. (Phone: 254-9997), Agave serves lunch Monday through Friday and dinner nightly. Bar opens at 4 p.m.
News T Minus Three and Counting
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 2:22 PM
T's Tuscan Bar & Grill, the rustic-Italian restaurant filling the void left by the recently shuttered Trace, will open by Friday, says owner Michael Tangredi. All that remains on the punch list is a few plumbing issues.
Originally scheduled to open today, T's is the second nameplate in the Tangredi family's troika of Italian-themed eateries. The flagship Tangredi's Italian Kitchen has been running for two years on Elliston Place, and Michael T's: An American Grill is set to open in the former Division Street location of Country Life this spring.
T's will serve a menu of rustic-Italian-inspired cuisine, such as grilled mahi with crabmeat cream sauce, grouper parmesan and a variety of steaks. Located at 2000 Belcourt Ave. (phone: 386-0069), Tangredi's will serve lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
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