Today’s Takeout Pick: Greenery Co.

Much of the restaurant industry has had to rapidly change its business model due to COVID-19, and we’re highlighting the Nashville places that are attempting to stay open. We will give you a critic’s pick for a restaurant and a dish, as well as a running list of restaurants still open that you can support. Today's pick: Greenery Co.

It seems like only yesterday that I was commenting on how nice it was that Hillsboro Village has a spate of new healthier dining options. Oh wait, it was only yesterday — I told you about the recent opening of Anzie Blue. Add that to the new Banh Mi and Roll+ on the ground floor of the Moxy, and you’ve got a pretty good base for some cleaner eating.

Well, we Hillsboro Villagers have hit the trifecta with the brand new addition of Greenery Co. in the former Provence space, which is in the midst of a carryout-only soft opening through the rest of December. I know that the standard operating procedure for writing about a new restaurant is to wait until it's been open for a little while and has a chance work out the kinks, but I’ll admit I couldn’t wait to see what was going on in there after so many months of construction. Truth be told, I’m pretty sure I was the first customer. No pressure, right?

The restaurant needn’t have worried, because it seems to have hit the ground running. First off, you won’t believe that this is the same building that held Provence, with its intentionally dingy decor that's reminiscent of a French cafe that has some years under its belt. The new space is crisp, clean and modern, with an open kitchen in the main dining space on the right side of the building as you enter. That is, if you could enter. Greenery Co. is still waiting for some doors and windows, and during its carryout-only test ride, patrons enter an empty space on the left side to pick up their orders. Owners Caroline Gaston and Whitney Abblitt hope to perhaps utilize that space for morning yoga classes or event rental once all the furniture arrives and they begin dine-in service.

The menu is pretty expansive, and the kitchen seemed well-staffed to handle the variety. Assuring me that while there is plenty of healthy food, they certainly aren’t vegetarians, I scanned the menu to make my selections from an array of salads and bowls, plus a long list of ingredients for customizing your own greenery. For a starter, I was intrigued by a carrot pimento cheese snack served with house crackers. Figuring that the carrots made it healthy, I dug in. Admittedly, the carrots didn’t do much to the taste, but the creamy cheese and slight sting of pepper chunks made for a darned respectable dip, and those house crackers were fantastic. At just $5, that will be a regular add-on to future orders.

Knowing that I would be walking my meal back home on a cold day, I didn’t expect my warm bowl to be warm when I returned, and then I showed up late for my scheduled pickup. Fortunately, I had selected the chipotle shrimp bowl, which didn’t suffer at all from being served closer to salad temperature. The blackened shrimp were cooked very well, and the huge bowl overflowed with wild rice, avocados, green apples crunchy purple cabbage cilantro and tortilla strips. Ordinarily, you’d think that a dish like that might need a little editing, but topped with a delicious honey chipotle vinaigrette, each bite was a new adventure as I experimented with flavor and textural combinations. Apple and shrimp? Surprisingly good together. Tortillas, cabbage and avocado in the next bite? Olé! The dressing provided a nice link between all the flavors, except the cilantro, which I had to remove before my cilantro-phobic girlfriend would let me enter the kitchen.

She ordered the chicken pesto salad, and was as enthused with her choice as I was with mine. Either salad would have made for a shareable meal for both of us (as long as we threw in that pimento cheese,) so the $12.50-$13.50 prices seemed appropriate if you have someone to split it with. In fact, the customizable salads come with your choice of up to two bases from a list of ingredients like quinoa, wild rice and various lettuces, plus up to four toppings ranging from cherry tomatoes and marinated beets to toasted pumpkin seeds, and then you get to choose two dressings. So you can see how easy it would be to create two separate salads out of one big bowl, each with your preferred dressing on the side.

The chicken pesto salad featured a spring mix (must be from Chile where it's still spring?), roasted chicken chunks, cherry tomatoes, parm, roasted broccoli, fresh basil and a pesto vinaigrette. And can we talk a minute about the clever inclusion of crispy spiced toasted chickpeas to add texture instead of croutons? Because most of the time, unless they were made fresh using amazing bread in the hands of a talented cook, croutons are garbage. Either they shatter when you try to stab them with your fork or they just fall off of each bite onto the table, forcing you to make multiple efforts to eat the same damn crouton! (/rant)

But the chickpeas were an ideal topping to this salad that benefited from well-roasted brassica and garlicky pesto. My girlfriend preferred hers, and I preferred mine, but neither one of us was disappointed when we made our ritualistic plate swap halfway through the meal. Wait, we’re the only ones who do that?

Not wanting to go completely off-brand with all this healthy eating, I did finish off the meal with a fabulous triple chocolate chip cookie, barely held together with what appeared to be an entire stick of butter. At least I burned off some calories walking there and back. If you can’t or don’t want to walk, Greenery Co. is holding a few parking spots right in front of the store for carryout customers, and the 14 designated parking spots in the lot behind the building has been one of the most deeply held secrets of those of us who frequent the Village for years. Oops. Well, you can’t say that you don’t occasionally learn something here at Bites.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Greenery Co.! I can’t wait to come back and plow through the rest of your menu.

Greenery Co.

1705 21st Ave. S.

615-915-1235

Open Daily 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

#CarryOutandCarryOn

Below is a list of Nashville restaurants (with links) remaining open for takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 shutdown. While some may have had existing relationships with delivery providers, most of this list are offering the service for the first time. Most offer curbside pickup, but check when you order. As this list is a moving target, please leave any changes, suggestions or omissions in the comments.

Chris Chamberlain

Places with takeout or delivery as of Thursday, Dec 9

Chris Chamberlain

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