Today's Takeout Pick: Shotgun Willie’s

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. Each day 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, a takeout-pick that is also a new restaurant: Shotgun Willie’s.

It's been almost a year since I told you that Shotgun Willie’s — the delicious, Central Texas-style barbecue food truck that was once beloved and then left us bereft — was slated to return, this time to a brick-and-mortar space. Well, it has been an interesting year, hasn’t it? Yet, in the middle of meat shortages, reduced capacity, and permitting and inspection delays due to tornadoes, Shotgun Willie’s finally opened its doors for the first time last week.

Certainly, this is not how Owner Bill Laviolette planned to unveil his Lone Star-style smokehouse in Inglewood. But on Saturday at 11 a.m. he was slicing takeout-only orders of pork, brisket, ribs and chicken in the old Barnes Produce space at 4000 Gallatin Ave.

“The way things are unfolding in the world as a whole, I really had no expectations of how things would go," Laviolette says. "But it could not have gone better in spite of all the weirdness."

The plan had always been to be open Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m. until the barbecue sells out. And that is the current schedule, except that it is takeout-only, and the creative, Texas-themed kitschy decorated space is taped off in six-foot increments instead of housing a few tables. Laviolette refers to that decor, some of which was donated by loyal customers, as “Texpherma.” “The Dollar Tree near the Inglewood Kroger saw a spike in picture frame sales as I was framing everything people dropped off.”

There was a line snaking through the parking lot on Saturday (a socially distanced, mask-wearing line). Shotgun Willie’s sold out in two-and-a-half hours on opening day (brisket and mac-and-cheese sold out first), and within about three-and-a-half hours the next day, so if you have your heart set on the prime-beef brisket (which you should), you ought to get there early.

Disinfected, laminated menus are passed out to those standing in line. There’s also a menu hanging on the wall and a hand-sanitizer station inside. Laviolette thought about the takeout-only as being akin to the food-truck days, so everything felt familiar to him, despite the chaos. He was in his element, greeting masked customers and making people feel like family ... from six feet away. When appropriate, he may add seating for up to 16 people inside, and maybe a patio space similar to what Walden down the street offers.

Menu options include pork shoulder, half-chicken, the aforementioned prime-beef brisket, chopped beef (from the same brisket), sausage and pork ribs. Sides include potato salad, mac-and-cheese, cole slaw and a pork-heavy four-bean salad. The potato salad is the right creaminess without being overly mayo'd, and the cole slaw is crisp, vinegar perfection. The brisket plate is $16 and includes two sides. Sanitize your hands and then grab a cold drink out of a vintage cooler.

Desserts were absent on opening day, but will include banana pudding, Texas sheet cake and other sweets. And Laviolette knows baked goods as well as barbecue. He helped launch the Yeast Nashville bakery. (His ex-wife Sara still runs the bakery on Woodland.) Because of the nationwide meat shortages, Shotgun Willie’s is not currently taking preorders or phone orders. Show up and wait.

I decided not to eat meat while quarantining during Safer at Home (my only cheat so far had been Jim’s Spaghetti Sauce, about which I already waxed poetic in the Scene), and as a result ... well, let’s just say I had a hankering. I was in line on opening day to get some of the prime-beef brisket. It was as good as it was in 2016 and worth the asphalt-parking-lot-on-a-hot-day wait.

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.

Margaret Littman

Places with takeout or delivery as of Tuesday, May 19

Margaret Littman

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