If you've been waiting to try a hot local restaurant or putting off that celebratory night out, Nashville Originals is giving foodies reason to celebrate next week. From Sept. 15-21, the confederation of local restaurateurs is hosting its first Restaurant Week. For just $20.08, participants are offering a prix fixe menu that places some of the city's best restaurants at roughly the price range of an Outback Steakhouse.
Some of the restaurants already have their menus available on the Nashville Originals site. Zola, for example, will serve baby paella, pan con tomate and dessert, while Rumba offers such entrées as Jamaican jerk pork and zarzuela ("a Spanish-style bouillabaisse with fish, shrimp, mussels & flash-fried potatoes in tomato-saffron broth").
You'd be wise to start making reservations immediately. This will be huge. To get the most out of this blue-moon-rare event, we offer a few practical tips:
• Try going on a weeknight, as the weekends will almost certainly fill to capacity. Late evenings will probably be your best bet for spur-of-the-moment dinner plans.
• Make reservations. That's right—pry your fingers from the keyboard and your eyes from Bites and pick up the phone. Now. Nashvillians are notorious for waiting to commit to an event until the last moment, but this is not the time.
• Revisit an old favorite. If you've been busy chasing the hot new place of the moment, take this chance to catch up with what's already here. Reacquaint yourself with the mad culinary skillz of 2008 Iron Fork champion Deb Paquette at Zola. Check out Mirror's new comfort-food menu. Welcome chef Jake Stearns back to the kitchen at Flyte. Taste the difference at Nashville's first all-green restaurant, Tayst.
• Take a chance on a restaurant you may not have tried. We recommend the underrated Mambu and Rumba, both tops. With prices this low—it's easy to blow $100 on a single meal at several participating restaurants—you could easily try two or three places without guilt.
To help, after the jump we have a list of the participating restaurants to date.
