Today's Takeout Pick: Twilight Tavern

Much of the restaurant industry has had to change its business model in a couple of weeks 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: Twilight Tavern.

There are a few nonnegotiables when it comes to good bar food. One is french fries, which I personally like well-seasoned and crunchy at first, but I like them even more once they’re room-temp and soggy. Yeah, I said it. The second is dipping sauces. We could be cute and call them salad dressings, but that’s a secondary purpose, and we all know it. If I’m eating bar food, I want to be able to dunk everything on the table into creamy honey mustard, tangy barbecue sauce or, most importantly, not-too-thick Ranch dressing. (If you serve Ranch where you can flip the cup upside down and the dressing stays in place, there’s a deep fryer in hell with your name on it.)

The third nonnegotiable is a fried appetizer that’s something you know and love, but with a twist. The ravioli sticks at Mafiaoza’s are a prime example: a gooey yet crispy hybrid of mozzarella sticks and toasted ravioli. The Original Corner Pub cheese beans are another — they're billed as mozzarella sticks that are neither sticks nor mozzarella. Instead they are bite-size balls of fried cheddar and hot pepper-jack that come with not one but three dipping sauces, because C-Pub is the O.G. of bar food. Finally, you have our newest entry into the bar-food canon: Twilight Tavern’s Seoul Rolls. The deep-fried egg rolls are stuffed with Korean-seasoned chicken and served with habanero-lime sauce. Paired with an order of fries, they’re the bar-food trifecta in one box.

The mission-style chicken wings at Twilight are also a must, twice-cooked and covered with a spicy Asian rub and toasted dry chilies. They're flavorful, crunchy and not too hot, and I recommend swapping the habanero-lime sauce they come with for the carrot-ginger. Both are good, but the latter won’t overwhelm the wings. Better yet? Order all the sauces. They’ve got 13 or so dunk-worthy varieties that are all highly enjoyable to have on hand in captivity. After that, you’re on your own. This is bar food, after all, so you’ve got the usual suspects: a solid jerk-chicken wrap, a gut-busting gussied-up plate of fries — theirs come with gravy in a random, delicious nod to our Canadian neighbors — and a chef salad I like to get when I’m pretending I still care. While you’re picking up your food, take a pass at the monster beer menu, which they’ve priced to sell. You can also get all their drafts in 32- and 64-ounce growlers, so have one of those filled up and your fries ought to reach peak crisp-sogginess by the time you’re ready to dunk ‘em at home. Yeah, I said it. Again.

Twilight Tavern is open daily for takeout. Call 615-953-7001 to order.

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 (the bottom list) 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 Thursday, April 16

Ashley Brantley

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