Customers line up at the new Proper Bagel on Belmont Boulevard on Sunday.
Here's a wrap-up of what's new from last week and what's coming up.
• Proper Bagel has opened at 2011 Belmont Blvd. across from Belmont University. Early reports from the soft opening indicate they serve what is indeed a proper New York-style bagel, plus other goodies like smoked salmon and herring, along with Barista Parlor coffee. I tried a plain bagel, which was quite good. The restaurant offers an assortment of flavors — including two varieties of pumpernickel — and bagel sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. No official hours are posted yet, but likely to be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
• L&L Restaurant Equipment owner Tamay Ozari plans to renovate the former hosiery factory on Charlotte Avenue into a "marketplace with restaurants and shops plus office space," Getahn Ward of The Tennessean reports. The project will be called "Factory of Nashville" (no relation to The Factory at Franklin).
I spent some time inside the building in 2014, when Ozari's plan was to turn the space into "New York-style lofts." No doubt the neighborhood opposition and planning commission hurdles faced by other residential developments nearby contribute to the change in direction, though the possibility for high-density housing exists in additional space behind the building as well as at a property closer to downtown.
• This Friday and Saturday is the annual Tennessee Cheesecake Dock Sale. This year, the sale moves to Tennessee Cheesecake's new factory in Lebanon. But $12 cheesecakes are definitely worth the drive. More information is on the Tennessee Cheesecake website.
• The trouble for Chipotle continues, though the company is making every effort to fight the E. coli that has affected many of its restaurants, negatively affecting sales across the country as well as the stock price. This Wired article has a good summary of the issues. The problem is exacerbated by the company's commitment to fresh and locally sourced ingredients, which makes it difficult to trace and alleviate problem areas. As a result, some ingredients now come prepared (such as shredded cheese) to cut down on the opportunity for contamination. The chain will close all restaurants on Feb. 8 for employees to have training on E. coli and other foodborne illnesses and how to prevent them.
• Be on the lookout for two new series coming soon. First, esteemed Southern chef Virginia Willis is currently in the pre-production phase of Secrets of the Southern Table with WBGH to air on PBS. Production is set to take place over the summer and fall of this year, ostensibly to air some time in 2017. Michael Pollan — whose documentary, In Defense of Food debuted on PBS recently — has a new series, Cooked, debuting on Netflix Feb. 18. The series is just four episodes, each focused on "the physical elements used throughout the history of cooking: fire, water, air and earth."
• Over the weekend, The New York Times published an op-ed piece by Bettina Elias Siegel of "The Lunch Tray." The piece discusses some of the root causes of perceived poor quality in the nation's school lunches: money and demand. It's a good read if you've been following my series on school lunches (part three coming soon!). There's been a lot of focus in our school on hard skills such as early reading and computer literacy, but I am hopeful that incorporating more learning about food and nutrition into the curriculum can help alleviate the core problems of kids' difficulties in school and life.
