So, what’s new? Sadly, when it comes to the Nashville restaurant industry, the answer is, not much. Perusing the latest Scene “Dining Guide” for restaurants that have opened in the last six months, I could find less than a dozen, most of them casual burger-deli-coffee shop places in outlying neighborhoods.
Opening soon is The Jubilee Restaurant, a multi-faceted complex representing a multimillion-dollar investment on Jefferson Street. It is hoped that the restaurant will spark a rebirth for entertainment and business in the beleaguered neighborhood. Jubilee, designed to capture the decor of Jefferson Street in its heydey of the ’40s and ’50s, will offer fine dining, a traditional show kitchen, a cigar lounge and bar, live music, and a Gospel brunch on Sundays.
In the meanwhile, diners looking for something new will have more luck finding it in all the old places. Several local spots have made menu changes for the season, some more radical than others.
♦ Zola, at 3001 West End Ave., has added several enticing items to its adventurous menu. The new starter I look most forward to sampling is the Zola Conejo, rabbit loin coated with a green olive, almond, and raisin chutney, wrapped with prosciutto and grilled, served with mashed potatoes and Spanish sherry sauce.
Two salads make auspicious debuts: Mes Amis, distinguished by a confit of gizzards; and one with warm roasted beets and spinach. Francophiles will order the Burgundy Duck Cassoulet or the Poussin de la Maison, a roasted, stuffed, 12-ounce petit chicken. Paella makes a comeback channeled through Grandma Zola’s recipe that combines mussels, fresh fish, scallops, shrimp, and homemade chorizo in a Spanish jambon risotto. And three new entrées comprise a section called “Tastes of the South”: a grilled pork tenderloin, a veal tenderloin, and a fried chicken and green tomato casserole (also available vegetarian style). Zola kicked off their 1999 Wine Dinner Season with “A Taste of Italy” in mid-February. The five-course dinners are held the third Tuesday of every month, and are priced at $60 per person, inclusive. There are just 36 seats available for each, so reservations are a must (320-7778). The next dinner on March 16, “A Taste of Provence,” will feature Chef Deb Paquette’s delightful culinary concoctions and wines Ernie Paquette brought back from a recent trip to the Rhône Valley and the south of France.
♦ The Tin Angel, just down the road at 3201 West End Ave., has also bulked up its menu for the cold-weather months. Look for Le Peta Nikita at lunch, a spicy Australian roasted leg of lamb with ratatouille, raita, carrots, and peas in a pita bowl. New on the dinner table are a seared duck breast with black lentils and couscous, a cumin-and-fennel-seeded pork tenderloin with Southwestern succotash, and lamb shank reduction, braised in wine sauce with roasted carrots.
♦ If you find yourself with a late-night craving for fried calamari, satisfy your hunger at one of Nashville’s most popular night spots. The Trace introduced its late-night menu some time ago and is already adding a few new things to its repertoire of sandwiches, simple pasta, and the aforementioned calamari. Look for cracker-crust grilled pizza with either duck sausage or eggplant toppings.
Chef Freddy Brooker, who cooks with confident simplicity, continues to steer the Trace dinner menu in a bistro direction. Among the items that may spur a sense of déjà vu among those who have dined in gay Paree are an arugula salad with warmed brie and toasted pine nuts, a baby spoon spinach salad with French green lentils, fresh Amipure oysters on the half-shell served with sherry mignonette, steak with pommes frites and roasted mushrooms, tuna poivre with mashed potatoes, swordfish piccata, and braised lamb shank with creamy polenta.
♦ In 1997, Lin Cameron sold Sunshine Grocery and took over Mack’s Cafe, a venerable, meat ’n’ three, cop and musician hang-out that had long served late-night cravings for greasy fare.
The first make-over renovated and cleaned up the interior while turning the menu inside out. Mack’s regulars must have thought that they had had one too many at the sight of the roasted vegetable with cheese sandwich and California salad.
For her next trick, Cameron transforms Mack’s Cafe into Cafe Luna, “a bistro-style restaurant featuring New World cusine.” Much of the lunch menu remains the same, but Cafe Luna is now serving dinner on Friday and Saturday nights from 5:30-9:30 p.m.
On the starter slate are duck nachos, crab cakes, a soup of the day, and several salads. Among the eight entrées are shrimp cooked in chili adobo sauce, pork marsala, filet medallions with portobello mushrooms, and, for the vegetarians among us, gnocchi with spinach and pesto or brochettes of tofu. Entrées are all listed with a suggested wine. Cafe Luna, with an assist from local distributors, is also presenting frequent wine dinners. Cafe Luna is at 2007 Division St., 327-0700.
♦ Budding oenophiles will be pleased to learn that Sunset Grill has brought back their very popular wine tasting tutorials. Basic wine classes for beginners are on Tuesday nights from 5:45-6:45 and are $10 per person. The 10-week session began in late January with white wine basics. You can catch up with Cabernet Sauvignon on March 2, alternative reds on the 9th, dessert wines and ports on the 16th, and champagne on the 23rd. Monday night’s intermediate classes cost $15 per person and are held from 5:45-6:45, with more emphasis on regions. All classes are led by Craig Clift and Lloyd Gross, and reservations are recommended.
♦ There are two new restaurants that did not make it into the “Dining Guide.” Taj Majal is, as you might suspect, an Indian eatery. The Hickory Hollow-area bar carries King Fisher, Golden Eagle, Flying Horse and Taj Majal beers from India that you can quaff while viewing the big game on the 60-inch TV screen, an accoutrement no Indian restaurant should be without. Cricket, anyone?
Kyoto Sushi Bar and Japanese Restaurant has opened on 4th Avenue South, in the space formerly occupied by Jay’s Diner. I stopped by to pick up a menu last week and was impressed with the bright and airy room and beautiful trays of glistening nigiri fashioned by the sushi chef. Some of the rolls—rainbow, dynamite, and spider—have me wondering if there is a connection to Shintomi. Prices at Kyoto are lower than at the wildly popular Green Hills restaurant; it remains to be seen if the quality measures up to one of Nashville’s best.
