My appreciation for dining out on Hanukkah has been well-documented — particularly since 2016 through my annual love letter to Butcher & Bee’s Hanukkah dinner. Well this year, not only is Butcher & Bee expanding its dinner from two nights to three (with two seats nightly), but there are also a couple other restaurants in town offering Hanukkah dishes.
Quick reminder that in the Jewish faith, Hanukkah isn’t a particularly significant holiday — at least in terms of religious observance. But because it falls around Christmas (this year from Dec. 14 through 22), it tends to get more attention than it otherwise would.
At its most basic, the story of Hanukkah is that a certain quantity of oil that was supposed to be enough to keep a ceremonial temple lamp lit for one night instead lasted for eight nights. To honor that miracle (apocryphal or not), almost all of the holiday’s traditional foods are fried in oil, foremost among them potato pancakes called latkes and jelly-filled doughnuts called sufganiyot. This year in Nashville, there are at least three restaurants where you can enjoy such a fried festival.
At Sadie’s in Edgehill Village, the Hanukkah menu is available for dining or takeout, and everything is available à la carte. Options include sweet potato latkes with apple butter and herbed sour cream and matzoh ball soup with duck confit and green onion (a definite glow-up from traditional takes on the classic soup).
Sadie's Hanukkah sweet potato latkes
The braised brisket with caramelized onions, rainbow carrots and potato kugel is served in portions designed to be eaten by two (or with leftovers for the rest of the week). The sufganiyot are filled with strawberry preserves. You can add to your meal with one of two certified kosher wines for the holidays, either a merlot from Golan Winery “Yardon” or a chardonnay from Gilgal Winery, both from Galilee-Golan Heights, Israel. Place takeout orders or make reservations online.
The Butcher & Bee dinner is once again held in The Rose Room, the restaurant’s private event space. This year, there will be one large U-shaped table seating 24, so guests can easily talk with each other and share a family-style communal feast.
Executive chef Scott Littman (no relation, I just love his food) always offers modern takes on traditional recipes, and this year is no exception. He’s already started making lamb bacon to use in a Reuben-style hash with sauerkraut. The menu will also include a roasted chicken with fennel and citrus, a winter salad, mushroom pilaf for vegans and brisket. And of course, no Hanukkah at Butcher & Bee would be complete without the signature whipped feta on a latke. The dinners are prix fixe — $75 for adults, $25 for kids. There are two seats each night — Dec. 20, 21 and 22 — and reservations should be made online.
“People look forward to it, and they’re excited to have it be a thing on their to-do list,” Littman says of the now-annual dinner. “We get a lot of repeat guests.”
In September this year, Chicago’s Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants opened their first Nashville restaurant, Aba. (They’ve since opened another, Sushi-san.) Aba means “father” in Hebrew, and in just a few months the Wedgewood-Houston location has become a patriarch in local Mediterranean dining. Between Dec. 14 and 22, Aba is adding Hanukkah potato, parmesan and Brussels sprout latkes to the dine-in menu. They are served with garlic labneh and apple chutney and can be ordered with the restaurant’s other Mediterranean-inspired dishes, including Aba’s take on whipped feta. (Chef/partner CJ Jacobson was surprised by how much whipped feta Aba has been selling in Nashville.) Tables at Aba are in demand, even when it is not Hanukkah, so reservations are recommended.
Aba's potato, parmesan and Brussels sprout latkes
