There are entire websites and Facebook groups dedicated to gone-but-not-forgotten Nashville restaurants. But aside from lots of bemoaning, nobody ever really does anything about it. Nashville chef Jeremy Barlow of SloCo/Insert Chef Here in 12South, however, has decided to shine a spotlight on our fallen heroes and actually bring some of them back for fun pop-up recreations at his flexible restaurant space at 2905 12th Ave. S.
After a little crowdsourcing, Barlow has come up with a list of 54 beloved but bygone local restaurants, ranging from fancy spots like The Wild Boar and Mario’s to more casual eateries such as Omni Hut and Hog Heaven. After compiling the list, Barlow set up a bracket, March Madness-style, to determine a final champion based on fan voting.
I’ve actually seen a video of Barlow drawing the names at random to determine who went where in the bracket, but just like in the NCAA Tourney, some interesting storylines and curious occurrences showed up in the final bracket. For example, since there were only 54 entries, eight restaurants received first-round byes. One of them was tayst — Barlow’s beloved restaurant that happened to be a block from my house. I would have stuffed the ballot box for that one anyway, so it’s no big deal that tasty gets a free pass to the second round, where it will have to prove its mettle against the winner of the brutal Sasso/Faison’s first-round matchup.
My friend Kim Totzke will probably feel conflicted about another early pairing of Provence and Ombi, both institutions where Kim was an important part of management. She can’t lose, but she can’t win either. Other intriguing first-round pairings include the fine dining of The Wild Board against the meat-and-three classic Sylvan Park, as well as a similar situation of Mario’s vs. Belle Meade Cafeteria.
Chef Deb Paquette was intimately involved in several of the entrants, including odds-on favorite Zola’s, Cakewalk Cafe, Bound’ry and Tin Angel. Vegetarians will be forced to make a tough early choice as Slice of Life faces off against Silly Goose, and bar patrons who don’t remember much of the ’90s will have to pick between perennial enablers Iguana and The Gold Rush.
Like any good prognosticator, I’m going to go ahead and pick the Final Four right now. I’m guessing Cakewalk, Family Wash, tayst and Sunset Grille, with possible sleepers to consider ranging from F. Scott’s to Tin Angel to Mad Platter. Of course, if those cranky oldsters from the Facebook groups find out about this, Ireland’s is a lock!
If you want your voice to be heard, you can vote up to 10 times a day at the restaurant bracket website. First-round voting will last for three days, followed by two days for round two and 24 hours for each of the remaining rounds, so visit early and often. Barlow’s plan is to take the top eight and give them each a pop-up treatment at Insert Chef Here, and he even hopes that any past staff from the restaurants will reach out to help him cook the food as faithfully as possible. (Maybe we’ll finally figure out the real secret to Ireland’s iconic Stake n’ Biskets!)
