Today's Takeout Pick: The Café at Thistle Farms

Much of the restaurant industry has had to rapidly change its business model due to COVID-19, and we’re trying to highlight 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: The Café at Thistle Farms.

Have you ever had feta on eggs? I’ve always considered myself a sharp cheddar girl, but that changed the last magical time I was actually at The Café at Thistle Farms. I set up shop, as usual, at my wide-open window seat facing Charlotte Avenue and ordered the Farmhouse Breakfast Bowl. It’s a kitchen-sink situation — home fries, peppers, spinach, tomatoes, scrambled eggs and choice of Broadbent bacon, sausage, or avocado — and it comes with spicy ketchup (a must with eggs, don’t @ me) and a sprinkle of feta. I was hesitant. The salty, crumbly Greek cheese doesn’t melt, and non-gooey cheese on hot food is grounds for beheading in my book. But feta works, in part because it doesn’t melt, so you get some firm, piquant bites with your soft, fluffy eggs. Tack on the fact that they’ll gladly give you a side of cilantro-lime ranch for anything on the menu and you can see why breakfast at Thistle Farms was a tragic casualty of quarantine.

Keyword: was. According to a recent Instagram post, their tables are spaced and ready for our triumphant (but still measured, separate and responsible!) return to pre-COVID life. Swing by at 11 a.m. Monday and then 7 a.m. each day thereafter. Or if you’re staying home in an abundance of caution, continue to enjoy Thistle Farms via takeout or delivery.

You must start with their ethereal buttermilk pancakes, which are even more stellar drizzled with their sweet-and-tart blueberry-lemon syrup. After that, enjoy any number of Southern staples such as egg or chicken salad, a solid TBA (turkey-bacon-avocado) or The Egg Stack. The latter is a less-played-out take on avocado toast, served open-faced on farmhouse white with fried egg, pesto, avocado, arugula, tomato, Sriracha aioli and feta. It all comes back to feta, baby! Except when it comes back to cake. On that note, it’d be worth your while to call and see if strawberry cake is on the menu, and to beg them to give you a whole one if so. Finish your order with iced coffee. While everyone was at home perfecting sourdough, I was attempting to make cold brew, and let me tell you: it SUCKS. The yield is stupid small if you like it strong, which explains why places charge $4 a cup. Make it once and you’ll never question that again.

Call 615-953-6440 for takeout, order via Postmates or stop by (distantly!). While you’re at it, refresh your memory of Thistle Farms' great work here and remember what all the wise women there say: #LoveFeedsEveryBody.

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.

Ashley Brantley

Places with takeout or delivery as of Friday, May 8

Ashley Brantley

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