Autumn green dumplings
Nashville has of course had good vegetarian restaurants for a long time. In fact, I pulled together a list of some of the city’s best vegan and vegetarian outposts earlier this year. But we haven’t really had a fine-dining vegetarian spot — a place to put on, well, your fanciest pants and have a multicourse plant-centric meal. Until now. Until Fancypants.
The team who brought us Butcher & Bee and Redheaded Stranger also brings us this East Side excuse to eat vegetables. Fancypants is not strictly vegetarian. You can add on a ribeye steak, and I’m sure it is delicious. But I’ve been too focused on the produce-heavy section of the menu to try it. There are nine vegetarian dishes listed, and just like at a meat-and-three, you pick three. The prix fixe is $70 for all three, and they’re coursed out over the evening. It’s a lot of food, but well-plated and well-paced, particularly if you enjoy one of Fancypants’ signature cocktails in between courses. I have yet to taste anything I haven’t liked, but the kitchen’s finesse with root vegetables has produced some of my favorites.
This summer’s turnip-noodle lasagna made me think about turnips differently. Now, this fall’s rutabaga dumpling, served with horseradish oil, is a combination of flavors that is hearty but not heavy. The experience reminds me of New York’s Dirt Candy; Washington, D.C.’s Oyster, Oyster; and my old haunt, Chicago’s Green Zebra (RIP), in that no one is trying to trick you into eating vegetables. This isn’t a bit of “this tastes just like meat!” sleight-of-hand. It’s the result of a kitchen that loves vegetables and wants to show you what it can do. While there’s no dress code, the decor and the specialness of the menu make me want to get fancy.
