Prime South Meats is Nathan Gifford’s and Andy Fields’ East Nashville smoke shop perhaps best known for their Gifford’s Bacon, which appears on restaurant menus and in grocery store refrigerated cases around town. But they also supply the smoked bologna for some of the most popular sandwiches at the already indispensable East Side Banh Mi sandwich shop at 1000 Gallatin Ave.
It’s natural for these two culinary powerhouses to come together for a special event on Saturday, May 29, that they’re calling a Whole Hog Banh Mi Bash. The event will be held at Prime South headquarters at 1109 Straightway Ave., starting at noon and running until 4 p.m. or whenever they sell the last sandwich. East Side owners Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton have collaborated with the smoking butchers at Prime South to create a special menu that centers around two 75-pound heritage hogs that will be cooked on site to be part of a special banh mi served on Nguyen’s excellent baguettes with all the traditional trimmings.
To accompany the sandwiches, Nguyen and Newton will be bringing their fabulous roasted strawberry limeade, Viet slaw, beef jerky, Zapps chips and a salted butterscotch lard cookie for dessert. (Well, they’ll be bringing more than one cookie, but that’s how it goes in menu-speak.) They also promise lots of cold beer and cold water, live music and the chance to hang out on the patio with the personable staff of both operations. Prime South will be selling its products at retail during the event, so you can stock your larder with bacon, bologna and salami.
The event is free, but they do ask that you R.S.V.P. in advance at the event website so they know how much beer to bring. I’m planning to attend, so the answer to that question is “a lot!”
