The CulinaryWoman Newsletter, 5/7/23

A dispatch from Nashville

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Nashville’s Booming Food Scene

As a business journalist, I’ve made many trips to Nashville. You may know it best as the capital of country music. The city also played a key role in the late 20th century automobile industry, as automakers such as Nissan and Saturn built car plants there. It subsequently became Nissan’s U.S. headquarters.

In the past 20 years, Nashville has absolutely boomed. The city itself has gained about 100,000 residents and is now just under 700,000 people. The metro area is about 1.2 million. Just a few years ago, neighborhoods like The Gulch and parts of downtown were just beginning to grow. Now, the buildings that I saw under construction in 2015 are done, and they’re building more new ones. As that has happened, Nashville has developed an outstanding food scene that stretches across the city.

I had the chance to dine at four different places during my visit last week to speak to the Nashville Jewish Book Series, and I saw the diversity in offerings, from traditional to trendy.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Nashville has great restaurants. It has all the elements: first, the reputation of the mid-South for delicious food. Like many places in the south, it’s a sociable place, with the added sophistication of newcomers from Chicago, New York, Atlanta and elsewhere.

And, Nashville has a sizable population of Millennials and Gen Z residents, whose influence can be readily seen.

Two spots with Zingerman’s connections

My list of places to eat included Biscuit Love and Taqueria del Sol, two places with direct connections to Zingerman’s. I met the founders of both at Camp Bacon in 2019 — Karl Worley, who started Biscuit Love, and Eddie Hernandez, the founder of Taqueria del Sol. Both encouraged me to stop in the next time I was in Nashville (Taqueria del Sol is based in Atlanta, but has two restaurants in Nashville).

You can see the Zingerman’s influence in both of them. As soon as I walked into the Biscuit Love location near Vanderbilt University, I got a friendly greeting from the staff at the front counter. The menu was clearly explained, and once I had placed my order, the clerk walked me to my table. As I waited for my food, I noticed clipboards behind the kitchen counter that looked like they contained step by step instructions on how to perform tasks, something evident in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.

A conversation with Aisha, the location’s general manager, confirmed my observations. Biscuit Love was emulating what staff members had learned in ZingTrain sessions. In face, Karl had recently brought four managers, including Aisha, to Ann Arbor take part in a ZingTrain seminar.

Although I could have talked Zingerman’s all day long, I also wanted to eat. My friend Lisa Marie White, previously a chef in New Orleans, is in charge of the baking program at Biscuit Love. She is responsible for the flakiest biscuits I’ve ever tasted. Those biscuits didn’t just split apart, they came apart in layers. (I made a Reel about them which you can see on my Instagram account). Lisa also is responsible for a rich cinnamon biscuit roll, an ideal blending of those two types of pastries.

All around me, guests were getting their food and being served with the same smiles. By the time I left, the restaurant had filled up and a line was forming — it’s not unusual for customers to endure a two-hour wait on weekends. Maybe next time, I’ll go directly there from the airport.

Taqueria del Sol had the same type of fast casual system, where you read the menu before you walk up to order, and your food is brought out to you. One of my Lyft drivers used to live across from a location in Atlanta, and he recommended the fish tacos, so I ordered those as well as jalapena cole slaw.

Co-owner Tony Halligan was working the dining room and stopped by to check on my meal. He insisted on bringing me some extras (I was making a mental note to double my afternoon walk) that included turnip greens, shrimp and corn chowder and an enchilada with green chile. Everything was delicious.

Sadly for that neighborhood, a developer has snapped up the 12th Avenue South location where I ate, but Tony owns another one in Nashville. As a taco lover, I wish I’d tried more of their variations. I’m definitely going back again.

Independent restaurants add dimension

Nashville’s growth means that its restaurant scene has pretty much everything, from upscale chain restaurants like Ruth’s Chris and Shake Shack, to independent restaurants. Flagging after my early flight, I ordered some boba tea and coffee from Win, a local bubble tea place, and it was delivered within 30 minutes. (One of my fellow guests at the Hampton Inn Green Hills looked longingly at my Vietnamese Coffee at breakfast the next day. I told him where to get some.)

I had the chance to eat at two small places: Lou, in East Nashville, and The Roze Pony, where my hosts took me after my book event. Either one would satisfy people who enjoy eating at imaginative restaurants. Lou’s vibe is definitely hipster, and it specializes in unusual wines. It’s a small cottage with a spacious outdoor patio in an emerging neighborhood.

The Roze Pony has the distinction of being open late, something that isn’t common in Nashville outside downtown. It had a lovely menu with good pastas and an excellent lemon sherbet. We were actually the first guests to try the latter, which you can see above. It was topped with cold-pressed lemon olive oil - a trend I’ve been seeing in frozen desserts - and candied poppy seeds.

The wide selection of restaurants in different parts of town is something that visitors and residents alike look for in successful cities. It takes a lot of dedication by owners and staff, as well as open-mindedness by customers to keep them going. Luckily, Nashville has all of that.

If you visit, by all means, enjoy the hustle and bustle of Broadway Avenue. I highly recommend visiting the National Museum of African American Music, which is right across the street from the Ryman Auditorium, considered a birthplace of country music. But, get beyond downtown Nashville and explore the city. You’ll find a multi-dimensional food scene that’s right up to date.

Jamie Oliver Stages An Italian Comeback

Nearly four years ago, English chef Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain ran aground, costing investors $103 million, and Oliver a personal loss of about $25 million.

Undaunted, Oliver is about the stage a restaurant comeback, Forbes reports. The unnamed restaurant is expected to be more upscale than the defunct Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurants, with locations set for London and across the U.K.

Jamie is also planning to expand his cooking school business, and to launch a line of chef quality prepared meals that will be sold via the Web.

You have to wonder, however, whether he isn’t getting too ambitious. When his restaurant chain sank, Oliver admitted that he didn’t have much business acumen, and no wonder. He rose to fame at just 24, when his television show, The Naked Chef, hit food television.

After that came more food television programs, a variety of cookbooks and his efforts to overhaul school lunches in both the U.K. and the United States. That didn’t leave time for the financial education that many chefs get by building and running their own places.

Moreover, Jamie is coming back to the market during a financial crisis in England that caused a conversation about whether King Charles should hold a lavish coronation ceremony (it was scaled back from Queen Elizabeth’s extravaganza).

But, given his international following, Jamie’s timing could pay off, as transatlantic travel picks up. We’ll see if the move is bold or misguided.

A Quiche For A King

Speaking of King Charles, his coronation activities include lunches that are being held across England. The suggested menu includes quiche, which is French in origin, and whose ingredients have raised a few eyebrows.

The official coronation quiche is a mix of spinach, tarragon and broad beans. I had to look up what those were, and it turns out they are fava beans. While you do see them on American menus, I’m more likely to equate fava beans with Anthony Hopkins and a fine chianti.

For that matter, I associate quiche with that famous line from When Harry Met Sally, “pesto is the quiche of the 80s.” I don’t eat it that often, and when I do, I can’t really imagine incorporating fava beans.

If you can’t locate them, or simply don’t like them, it’s okay to substitute lima beans. And if you don’t like lima beans, you could try chick peas. Better yet, maybe make a spinach quiche and skip the beans all together.

Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman

My visit to Chicago last month for the event honoring Ina Pinkney inspired me to write a series of tips on attending food festivals. My story for The Takeout looks at the best way to strategize, and also what to say to the celebrity chefs that you might meet.

I’m looking forward to visiting libraries across Michigan next month to talk about Satisfaction Guaranteed. I’ll be in Tecumseh, Gaylord, Empire and Bellaire. Please come by and I’ll be happy to sign copies of my book for you.

I’m setting up my speaking engagements for the rest of 2023 and into 2024. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to set up a program. You can find me at culinarywoman (at) gmail dot com.

I’m on Post (at) MickiMaynard and you can also follow the CulinaryWoman Facebook page. I’m (at) MichelineMaynard on Instagram.

Please stay well. I’ll see our paid subscribers tomorrow with Red Beans and Advice, and everyone else next Sunday.