Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Party Mix Alphabet City: Eating Through Nashville One Letter At A Time
Posted by Jim Ridley on Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 10:56 AM
Every week somebody tips me to another cool Nashville food blog, and my hat is off to Claudia for passing along Nashville Eats Its ABCs—the ongoing adventures of Frank, Hank and Eddie, three intrepid culinary explorers who have vowed to eat their way across Nashville in alphabetical order. I picture them as Nashville's answer to the Warriors, bopping their way home from Arnold's to Z's Deli across a hostile cityscape studded with steam tables.
Right now they're on at least their third crossing at E for Ellendale's, the Donelson lunch buffet housed in a spacious old Elm Hill Pike residence. As reported, the variety of selections sounds a little iffy—buffalo wings, Swedish meatballs, vegetable lasagna, pork tenderloin and cheese fondue?—but Hank assures us that all is well:
Buffets scare me. That’s a fact. So when we walked into Ellendales and saw that the lunch buffet was the main attraction...I had my reservations. However...after taking a walk down the buffet line...seeing a cook swapping out dishes for freshly cooked ones...and realizing this wasn’t your fried shrimp, chocolate pudding and pancakes buffet...I went for it. The food was actually really good. Some of the highlights included fresh fruit and salads (boring)...some mighty fine Swedish meatballs (I don’t know what makes a meatball Swedish...but let’s just go with it), oversized buffalo wings with blue cheese, cheese fondue, chocolate fondue and a couple pasta dishes. I pretty much got a little bit of everything...and enjoyed almost all of it. For $10.95...it was actually a pretty good deal. Add to that a health score of 98 and the fact that it’s fairly easy to get to off the highway...I’ll probably be back.
The guys mention that they've had trouble finding restaurants beginning with Q, X, I and Y. (I notice they haven't done Yanni's Mediterranean Grill, so heads up.) If there's an eatery out there having a hard time getting publicity, you might consider temporarily adding an X before your name. Just a thought.
Comments (2)
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Ellendale's has homemade cinnamon ice cream...mmmmmmm...
Some I's:
-In Dyer Need Cafe (do prepositions count?)
-Ichiban
-Istanbul Cafe
That's all I've got right now...
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funny enough, i was at ellendale's today for a long lunch with my ex. we skipped the buffet and ordered salads. i had the tuna nicoise - not so good. he had the curried chicken salad that came in a pineapple shell. i didn't even ask him and he didn't even say...
but i'd think the buffet would be the way to go for sure if only for variety and value. but we just wanted a lite bite somewhere quiet to talk.
if i worked in the area, i'd find a few things on the menu and perhaps go on occasion. but i'm rarely out that way so there's no reason to ever go back. at least not for me.
but these guys? they are on a mission. A - Z. their 3rd trip around. you just gotta love it.
