The Brazilians have left the building—3805 Green Hills Village Drive, that is. Gone are the dark-haired, olive-skinned gauchos dressed in black pants, white shirts and blood-red ties, wielding glinting knives as they slice slabs of juicy meat from huge skewers. In their place: youthful Nashvillians dressed in black pants, French-blue shirts and long aprons juggling service trays loaded with glasses of sweet tea, bowls of tortilla soup and Caesar salad and plates of burgers and fries. Last March, Green Hills Grille—the friendly neighborhood dining room—announced that the imminent expiration of its lease on June 30 would necessitate a departure from its 16-year home on Hillsboro Drive. The curving side street that connects Hillsboro Road to Hillsboro Circle was frequently a navigational nightmare at prime dining times, as cars jammed the entrance to the Grille, midway between the bustling Bread & Company corner lot on the Hillsboro Road end, and a series of eateries (now including Noshville, which looks like a keeper) in the opposite direction. After the announcement, this became a frequent question: “Do you know where Green Hills Grille is going?” As it turns out, just days before its closure, the restaurant joined the ranks of Nashville addresses that begin with the phrase, “It’s where fill-in-the-blank used to be.” In this case, the answer was a two-parter: “It’s where Fire of Brazil used to be—you know, where The Cooker used to be.” The qualifier was needed thanks to the brief tenure of the Atlanta-headquartered churrascaria chain, which never quite caught fire in Green Hills. The Brazilian-born concept, offering large quantities of a variety of flame-grilled meats, has been executed by several companies and proven quite successful in other parts of the country, particularly in areas that attract large numbers of tourists and business travelers. But, its prix fixe rate of $39.50 per person—while not unreasonable for the walk-around salad bar and all-you-can-eat meat—couldn’t compete with the other choices in the concourse. With Regal Cinemas as a popular destination, Bistro 215 is a better fit for the dinner-and-a-movie date (not to mention casual-upscale dining), while Cheeseburger Charlie’s teems with families and teens most nights. Meanwhile, from the sidewalk outside the restaurant, the main dining room of Fire of Brazil rarely looked full. You had to wonder what happened to all that food at the end of the night. On June 28, FOB gauchos holstered their knives, hung up their skewers and rode off into the sunset. Almost immediately, Specialty Restaurant Development in Maitland, Fla.—now the parent company of four Green Hills Grilles—announced it would take over the vacated property on the campus of the Green Hills mall. The Hillsboro Drive location served its last customer on June 30. Then, according to GM Erin Addotta, the restaurant spent the next two days moving to the new digs, and another two weeks installing kitchen equipment, painting, placing furniture, hanging art and making new hires to supplement the staff. Green Hills Grille reopened on July 18, barely missing a beat. According to Addotta, they’ve added about 20 seats, upping their capacity to 270, with plans to construct an outdoor patio within the next couple of months. The booths and many of the tables made the move from Hillsboro Drive, as did the plants and the artwork. The bar area, directly behind the hostess desk, is a little darker and warmer than the one in the original store; the main dining room is lit by skylight during the day, but the pink bulbs in the evening can make reading the menu a challenge for some eyes. Longtime customers—and they are legion—probably have the menu memorized by now, so they won’t need their reading glasses. The slate of starters, soups, salads, sandwiches, specialties, pastas and desserts has not changed a whit, though specials that run for month at a time add some variety. Our party on a Monday night included hardcore veterans who can trace their patronage back to 1990, some who had visited intermittently over the years, and first-timers. Though the experience level varied, everyone was pleased. Service was efficient, and paced according to the table’s desire. Had we been trying to catch a 7 o’clock show, I have no doubt we could have been in and out in under an hour. But we were catching up after a summer’s separation, so engaged in conversation that our server had to come back several times to obtain our order, though she never exhibited any impatience. The length of the menu—39 core items not including variations or side dishes—and the rosy hue of the lighting also contributed to our pokiness. We stalled for time on our entrées by starting with the signature spinach-and-artichoke dip and the Bayou Fondue, which (according to the vets at the table) was once a favorite on the standard menu, but now only makes an appearance about once a year on the monthly specials. That’s too bad, because while the dip is tasty, it is nearly an antique and fairly common around town. The Bayou Fondue is a nice twist on that cheesy-spicy Lazy Boy classic, Rotel with seafood. We used the chips from the spinach dip to supplement the toast points that came with the fondue. I would lobby for that to be returned to starting lineup, particularly with football season on the way. We were pleased with the entrée-portioned Sunburst Salad, a light composition of mixed greens with fresh blueberries, Roma tomatoes, roast chicken strips, feta cheese and pecans, tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. The chicken Portobello was a plump breast smothered with thick slices of the meaty mushroom in a rich brown sauce, which also covered the smashed potatoes. A gently flavored tomato cream sauce on chicken strips and linguine provides a safe choice for children looking to expand beyond spaghetti and meatballs. Both the burger and tuna were marred by sitting too long on the grill or under the heat lamp, turning the requested medium-rare to medium-well on both. The large tangle of shoestring fries were perfectly crisped, so irresistible in their golden heap that they were grabbed from every point on the table. The fudge brownie à la mode, served hot, was commandeered by the teenage girls at the table, who are still years away from the consequences their mothers would suffer from the same indulgence. The call-ahead policy for seating (Addotta recommends phoning in as you are leaving your house to put your name on the list) likewise remains the same, and is recommended. Fire of Brazil may have flamed out, but Green Hills Grille is smoking in its new home. “Our longtime customers have moved here with us,” Addotta says, “but the foot traffic to the theaters and the mall has brought us a lot of new faces.” If you’d prefer to eat at home, call ahead for curbside carryout (463-7385) and a runner will bring the food to your car; park in one of the three designated spaces at the end of the sidewalk toward the building where the Green Hills library used to be.
