Matt Charette grew up in Massachusetts and is a die-hard Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Patriots fan, but he’s not nearly so fond of Northern winters. After being stationed in the South while he was in the service, he decided he liked the weather better below the Mason-Dixon line; music drew him to Nashville, where he eventually landed a job as general manager of the Wildhorse Saloon. While looking around for a part of town to open his own business, East Nashville kept coming up, and it was there he found a vacant cinder-block building and a landlord willing to take a chance on a fledgling business plan.
In 2003, Charette opened Beyond the Edge on South 11th Street, adding a sports bar to the mix of dining and entertainment options in Five Points. Last year, the same landlord handed over the keys to what had been a barber shop and Laundromat around the corner on Woodland Street, and now, with the Feb. 2 opening of Batter’d & Fried Boston Seafood House, Five Points also has a New England-style fish house.
“There were a couple of places in Palmer where I grew up that looked sort of like Irish pubs but served seafood,” Charette explains. “We went all the time, and I go whenever I go home. I missed that down here, so I decided to try to re-create that.”
There are bars in both rooms of Batter’d & Fried, though the room to the right lends itself more to dining; the smaller room to the left has a pub-bier ambience, with a television tuned to sports and Boston team memorabilia covering the walls. Either way you turn, the same menu serves the entire restaurant, and other than a couple of apps and a chicken tender basket, it takes a route from the sea to the fryer: fish and chips, fried clam strips, fried oysters, fried shrimp, fried scallops and fried grouper tenders, all presented in a basket with a bag of pub fries. Raw oysters are also available, and chef Mike Malloy—a nice Irish boy—will forsake the fryer when it comes to daily specials.
Batter’d & Fried, at 1008 Woodland St., is open for lunch weekdays from 10:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner is served 4:30-9:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, and until 10:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The bar stays open later. Phone: 226-9283.
Family business
When Aubrey Bean opened Judge Bean’s Bar-B-Que, transplanted Texans flocked to his tin-roofed roadhouse on Wedgewood Avenue, intoxicated by the smell of burning mesquite and smoked brisket. When he moved to The Gulch, they jumped in the saddle and came right along with him. Can brother Rooster Beane inspire the same devoted following in Franklin? If the crowds bellying up to the bar at Mickey Roos Texas Style Barbecue are any indication, it looks like he’s in it for the long haul. Mickey Roos, which combines Rooster Beane’s name with partner Mickey Bodden’s, opened in mid-December after the two men overhauled a La Hacienda restaurant, transforming it into a classic Texas barbecue joint.
A Tennessean by birth, Rooster spent 12 years in Dallas, logging some playing time with the Cowboys. He returned to Nashville 15 years ago, operated an apparel business specializing in UT wear (T for Tennessee, not Texas), then helped his brother out for a bit before deciding the time was right to stake his own claim on the barbecue circuit. (Rooster also decided to keep the “e” his father added to the family name years ago, while Aubrey opted to return to the original spelling.)
While Rooster pulls for the Vols—his son played football for Big Orange—his ’cue is all Long Horn: brisket, sausage, ribs, boot-kickin’ beans (hot) and Lone Star beans (not). He concedes to local barbecue tradition on one item: baby back pork ribs, but these are slow-cooked over mesquite wood, not hickory. While there are some similarities on the two menus, Mickey Roos has one thing the Judge refuses to allow in his court: a salad, albeit one that can be topped with smoked brisket. Rooster says he and his brother use different seasonings for their meats.
He also claims his brisket is better than his brother’s. “He’s older than me, so I learned from him and made mine better. I was a better athlete, too.” Those sound like fightin’ words, but Rooster’s just funnin’ and insists it’s nothing but brotherly love between him and Aubrey.
Mickey Roos has a kid’s menu for little buckaroos, and for momma and daddy there’s a full bar with beer, wine and whiskey. The restaurant is open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. seven days a week, at 509 Hillsboro Road in Franklin, with live music Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. Phone: 599-5993.
Fishing expedition
The Southern Restaurant Group is hoping tourists and locals will take the bait at its new restaurant-entertainment concept, Caney Fork Fish Camp. This ain’t the company’s first fishin’ rodeo. The group, headed by brash entrepreneur Danny York, was once involved with Dave Wachtel in the Uncle Bud’s chain, and it currently owns Santa Fe Cattle Company restaurants in several states, The Merchants on Broadway, Mère Bulles in Brentwood and Bistro 215 in Green Hills.
Some months ago, York purchased the building that once housed the legendary Nashville Palace, most famous for being the place where Randy Travis used to sling burgers between sets. York knew the neighborhood—there’s a Santa Fe restaurant right down Music Valley Drive in the vast Opryland footprint—and he put Bistro 215’s Steven Smithing in charge of the project. The large building lent itself to a themed restaurant, a concept that has seen tremendous success in nearby Opry Mills, with Rainforest Café and The Aquarium. Caney Fork takes its decorating cues from another Mills monster, Bass Pro Shops.
Within the rustic, wood-sided building is now an indoor cabin and porch, a restored 1939 Dodge flatbed truck cab, two fireplaces and a 3,500-gallon pond complete with a waterfall and live fish (for viewing, not catching or eating). And for outdoorsmen and -women who can’t bear to leave technology too far behind, there are multiple plasma televisions in the bar—don’t want to miss any of those thrilling fishing shows.
Just as he did for Bistro 215, Steven’s brother Christopher Smithing is creating the food profile—that’s restaurant-concept-speak for the menu—a repertoire of the usual country-cookin’ suspects: ribs, meatloaf, barbecue pork, fried fish, fried shellfish and fried chicken. The restaurant has a full bar and is open 4 p.m.-midnight Monday through Friday and 11 a.m.-midnight Saturday and Sunday. Caney Fork Fish Camp is at 2400 Music Valley Dr. Phone: 724-1200.
Meanwhile, back in Green Hills…
The smoke has finally cleared from the kitchen fire that shut the doors of Bistro 215 for most of January. In its former life as Princeton’s Grill, the restaurant struggled to find an audience, despite its proximity to the Regal Green Hills Cinema 16. So a little over a year ago, corporate boss Danny York brought in Steven Smithing, whose decade-plus service at Green Hills Grille earned him a stellar reputation in the industry, to oversee the switcheroo of the preppy Princeton’s to a more sophisticated, upscale French-inspired neighborhood bistro. By all accounts, that transformation has been quite successful—until the fire temporarily halted business.
As Bistro 215 gets back up and running for 2006, some new—albeit familiar—faces are emerging. Garth Nash came on board as general manager and sommelier, having done similar duty at Morton’s and Bound’ry. Doris Daniels, whom Smithing claims knows everyone in Green Hills thanks to her 20 years behind the maître d’ stand at Green Hills Grille, is now at Bistro’s front door in the evenings. And Michael Cribb, one of Nashville’s most peripatetic kitchen gurus, has been named executive chef and will oversee food, wine and special projects. Expect to see some menu changes in both content and style; the French-language translation printed on one side will give way to the wine list, which is currently printed on a separate sheet.
Meanwhile, Green Hills Grille has dropped out of the three-way weekday breakfast competition on Hillsboro Circle, having failed to lure away nearby Bread & Company’s croissant club or Noshville’s bagel bunch. The restaurant now serves brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Observers have to wonder what the departure of Smithing and Daniels portends for the future of this longtime neighborhood fixture.
Loco for cocoa
The Mall at Green Hills continues to grow its portfolio of tony, upscale tenants with an addition sure to please chocoholics. Godiva Chocolatier will stock its Classic Gold Ballotins, Chocolate Decadence, Signature Truffles and Platinum Collection, as well as seasonal goodies when especially sweet occasions like Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas roll around. The Mall store will also carry beverages and chocolate-dipped fruits.
But when it comes to chocolate, why not revel in indulgence? On Friday, March 3, Morton’s, The Steakhouse invites hedonists to take a pleasure plunge with its Fine Wine and Decadent Chocolate tasting event. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the restaurant’s private-dining boardroom, participants will learn which combinations of wine and chocolate make beautiful music together. The tasting will pair Morton’s chocolate desserts, including Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Velvet Petit Fours and chocolate truffles, with Bonterra Vineyards Merlot, Dry Sack Sherry, Mariah Zinfandel and Sandeman Founders Reserve Porto. Taking center stage will be a flowing chocolate fountain, and guests are encouraged to dive in. Reservations for the $40-per-person event are requested; call Julie Turner at 259-4558.
Send news and tips to kwest@nashvillescene.com.
