March Egerton was in town recently to promote his new book, Adventures in Cheap Eating: Nashville & Middle Tennessee (available for $9.95 in bookstores everywhere). There’s probably a genetic reason for March’s penchant for food-writing, even if his style does differ substantially from that of his father, the noted food writer/historian John Egerton.
March’s self-published soft-cover book includes brief, but descriptive, reviews of 105 local restaurants, diners, dives and dumps. Cheap, as he notes in the introduction, is relative—most of the restaurants he mentions offer full meals for $10 or less. There are the expected cheap eats, including International Market, Varallo’s and Mary’s Old Fashion Bar-B-Que; but he also comes up with ritzy bargains such as Bread and Company, The Corner Market and Clayton-Blackmon.
March and I have the same opinion when it comes to chain restaurants—we both rank them at the very bottom of the food chain. With the exception of Whitt’s and Corky’s, he doesn’t waste space cataloging lists of nachos, chicken fingers, fried cheese and pseudo-Caesars.
Instead, Egerton, who now lives and eats in Oregon, lauds the influx of immigrants to his hometown. To the spate of regional favorites such as turnip greens, catfish, biscuits and country ham, recent arrivals have added everything from a tortilla factory to vindaloo to pad thai.
In each critique, Egerton—who ate at every place he mentions—notes the restaurant’s best or signature dishes, and he offers some history or insider information. For instance, he informs readers that the original “Hap” of Hap Townes (real name: Gardner Townes) got into the food business in 1921, serving meals from a homemade pie wagon that he rolled to the Nashville Fairgrounds every day. Eventually, the business was passed on to Gardner’s nephew James, who also inherited his uncle’s nickname. March also reveals that Mack’s Country Cooking Cafe has been in business since the ’20s, when 21-year-old Guy McFarland opened the original on Brown Street. He records that Satsuma Tea Room was opened in 1918 by two home economics teachers of the female persuasion. And he reminds us that the Time to Eat Cafe was opened on Halloween Day 1994 by Betty Rollins, head waitress of the original Murphy Road Sylvan Park Restaurant for 26 years. Whew, that’s a lot of chocolate pie.
The usual suspects are on the list—Brown’s Diner, Rotier’s, Gerst Haus, Sylvan Park and Pancake Pantry, as well as many of my favorite meal deals, including Pizza Perfect, Thai Pattaya, Woodenknife’s, La Hacienda Taqueria, 12th & Porter and Hog Heaven.
There are plenty of out-of-town locations that I—obviously suffering from severe provincialism—was not familiar with: Granny Fishes’ House in Tullahoma, The Mason Jar in Hendersonville, The Beacon Light Tea Room in Bon Aqua and R & R Pit Bar-B-Q and Pub on—what do you know?—North First Street in Nashville.
While March was in town, I felt challenged. The only natural thing to do was to seek out cheap eats at some place he hadn’t been.
Which is what brought us to Nathan’s Italian Eatery on Murfreesboro Road. March could be forgiven for not including Nathan’s—which certainly qualifies as cheap and as an adventure, since it has only been open since August of ’94.
Even so, I had received more than one tip about Nathan’s on my 24-hour, call-in Nashville Scene voice mail. Nathan Lee—who, along with his wife, Danielle, runs the place—hails from an actual Italian family in the northeast, so he has the credentials.
These days at Nathan’s, a fully decorated Christmas tree hangs from the ceiling. It isn’t a weird Yankee custom; it’s just something Nathan saw somewhere and decided to duplicate in his own place. If you stop by after New Year’s, you’ll find yourself eyeball-to-eyeball with a large black-and-white poster of a very young Frank Sinatra.
Painted in red, green and white, Nathan’s might have been a burger joint in a previous life. The menu includes salads, sandwiches, pizza, pasta and three specials every day. The most expensive plate, served with garlic bread and small salad, is $4.25; specials go for as much as $4.50.
The antipasto—just $3.59 with ham, Genoa salami, provolone and Romano cheeses, banana peppers, sliced onion, lettuce and tomato—was a big hit at our table, thanks in large part to Danielle’s fabulous dressing. The dressing, heavy on the oregano and the perfect mix of oil and vinegar, even perked up the side salads. The garden salad, $2.25, offers more variety, with tomato, onion and Romano cheese.
Three favorite Philly-style sandwiches—meatball and mozzarella, sausage and mozzarella and the regulation hoagie (ham, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion and Italian dressing)—are on the board; each is $3.69. The sausage and meatball versions get pretty sloppy, what with the marinara sauce on top, but they’re worth the effort, especially the spicy sausage.
The vegetarian amongst us sampled the veggie stromboli, which she praised for “mozzarella and more mozzarella.” No lie. Kelly dug into the doughy mound, but she was disappointed in the proportion of veggies to mozzarella. Cheeseheads might disagree.
The serving of Danielle’s lasagna—which includes ground beef and sausage—was generous, but March, undaunted, plowed through it in record time. He says it was good. I’ll take his word for it. I’ll have to, since I didn’t get a bite.
The bland and sticky rigatoni ($4.25) was nothing to write home about, but the sausage on the side helped make up for the disappointment. Galyn was mightily displeased with the canned mushrooms in her spaghetti and mushroom sauce.
On the other hand, the cheese ravioli special was divine. Its plump pillows of nicely seasoned, creamy ricotta were the envy of my end of the table.
I ordered two calzones ($3.79 and $3.99) and a pizza to go. Thumbs up on the calzone—big and fat in an above-average dough, baked to a crusty golden brown. The pizza crust, on the other hand, was prefab, the type you can buy in hermetically sealed plastic at the grocery store. That may explain the price—just $5.95 for a 14-incher.
Nathan’s cannoli are much touted, even though they are not made on the premises. I prefer a more delicate pastry shell, but the thicker version does shield your teeth from the excruciatingly sweet filling of empastada cheese with chocolate chips.
Nathan’s is unique in at least one respect: It’s the only restaurant I know that comes equipped with a car wash. I didn’t take advantage of the service, but, apparently, you just leave your car behind the restaurant, and, by the time you’ve finished your spaghetti, your auto is sparkling clean.
Nathan’s enjoys a diverse clientele—workers from the Purity Dairies plant across the street, staffers from WKRN-Channel 2 just up the road, and salespeople from the numerous car dealerships close by, not to mention a devoted following from the police and fire departments.
For a few dollars more, you could eat better, and still eat cheaply, at Mama Mia’s or Sole Mio. But, given a choice between the rapidly reproducing Fazoli’s quick-service Italian chain and Nathan Lee’s “I’ll do it my way” adventure, my cheap money—and I’ll wager March Egerton’s too—is on Nathan’s.
Nathan’s Italian Eatery (244-9444) is located at 389 Murfreesboro Rd., across from Purity Dairies. Open 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Personal checks accepted. No credit cards.
