Relax, It's Just Wine

If you haven’t seen P.J. Tobia’s story “Burgundy Bootlegger” in this week’s Scene, it’s worth reading about wine educator Melanie Armstrong's run-in with state alcohol officials. Anyone who’s ever met Melanie, whom P.J. aptly describes as a “bubbly brunette,” will agree it would make infinitely more sense to investigate her for pimping than for bootlegging. I went to one of her singles wine tastings (in moral support of a friend), and it was a great way to meet nice people in the comfortable setting of a Green Hills restaurant. Hardly an actionable affair.

Melanie has found a clever niche making wine-drinking informative and unpretentious. Let’s hope the story of her (laughable) time in jail does nothing more to her professional reputation than boost it, introducing her Wine University to more people.

You go, girl.

Holiday Dispatch: What a Crock!

Merry Christmas 1976! My mom gave me a Crock Pot! (Exclamation points intentional!)

Actually, it’s a Hamilton Beach Stay or Go. She also included a book of recipes for all-day cooking. I’ve got some chicken-onion-curry-chutney-apple concoction brewing right now—just six more hours to go! That leaves me plenty of time to have my Dorothy Hamill haircut trimmed and my Pinto detailed before getting supper on the TV trays in time for The Bionic Woman.

(I can’t help but notice that the book of recipes Mom included could be subtitled A Cream of Mushroom Anthology. Does anyone have any soup-free recipes?)

Getting Your Just Desserts

If you're headed to some holiday soirees, make an impression with one of Corrado Savarino's giant cannoli platters. Sixty bucks is all it takes to be sure you're invited back next year. Call ahead and give Corrado a half-hour or so to get it ready. They're made to order, and as many a Scene employee can attest, they're the best cannoli in Nashville. (Cannoli is the plural of cannoli, by the way.) The giant cannoli are available year-round.

But just for the holidays, Savarino's has a variety of gingerbread houses available to spice up your Christmas celebration.

Savarino's Cucina is at 2121 Belcourt Ave. in Hillsboro Village, Phone: 615-460-9878.

Kir's Lookin' at You

Last night at the Governor’s holiday party, I was delighted to be offered a Kir Royal, a bubbly cocktail of sparkling wine and black-currant liqueur. I had not had a Kir Royal—or its non-bubbly cousin, Kir—for years, and I’m going to make an effort to bring them back into my boozy repertoire. First of all, Kir and Kir Royal are great ways to neutralize lousy white wines. Second, they’re pretty. And third, they’re good conversation starters. Last night, for example, the crimson-hued cocktail temporarily diverted a room full of media and lawmakers from questions such as “Does the state need a $4 million underground party room?” and “Who considers food critics to be media?” to the more pressing query of “Why’s my champagne pink?”

The answer to the last question is crème de cassis. A liqueur flavored with black currants, crème de cassis was first reportedly mixed with white wine by Félix Kir, the mayor of Dijon, after World War II. Kir married cassis with white Burgundy and served the combination to out-of-town guests as a way to showcase two regional products. (Using that logic the governor might consider introducing a cocktail of Jack Daniel’s and meth. Beware if anyone ever offers you a Bredesen.)

The recipe for Kir is simple: Pour a small amount of crème de cassis into the bottom of a glass and fill the glass with white wine. The more elegant variation, Kir Royal (pictured in this photo swiped from Drinkalizer.com), substitutes sparkling wine and often adds a lemon twist. The result is a bubbly, colorful and slightly sweet concoction that goes down smooth enough to make you beer-goggle a Republican. And if a Kir Royal looks as festive as it did last night, under the flickering fluorescent lights of the third-floor meeting room in the Tennessee Tower, just think how glamorous it would be at the governor’s 2009 holiday party in a $4 million underground bunker.

She Was an American Grill (Raised on Promises…)

If you’ve been driving by the vacant Country Life restaurant in Midtown for the last decade, wondering what’s going on in that rustic cottage, you’ll be glad to know that dining life is returning to 1919 Division St. Michael Tangredi, owner of the 2-year-old Tangredi’s Italian Kitchen on Elliston Place, will take over the building in January and hopes to launch Michael T’s: An American Grill in March.

Michael T’s will serve lunch and dinner with an Italian- and Asian-accented American menu. Expect a roster of items such as grilled shrimp with cilantro and cracked pepper, dumplings, seared tuna salad, oyster-artichoke soup (a Tangredi family recipe familiar to Italian Kitchen patrons), pasta, steaks and wood-fired pizzas. Sandwiches will be priced in the $10 range. Entrées will range from $13 to $28. There will also be a tank with live lobsters.

Tangredi, whose family is steeped in the restaurant business in Birmingham, will shuttle back and forth between the Italian Kitchen and Michael T’s. While there will be some overlap between the two menus, Michael T’s will have a sit-down bar and will serve beer—unlike the original Tangredi’s, which is located too close to a school (the Princeton Review is next door) to get a beer license.

Burgermeister

Since it opened last month across from Whole Foods in Green Hills, I’ve been to Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries three times now. That’s more times than I’ve ordered a burger from McDonald’s—or any other nationwide fast-food chain—in the past 15 years. Life is too short, and arteries too narrow, to shave precious minutes from your existence with a fat-soaked beer coaster on a bun. After years of close encounters with Big Macs and (shudder) Krystal’s, you sometimes forget what a thing of unadorned wonder a humble cheeseburger can be.

Five Guys, though, is the closest thing I’ve ever had at a restaurant to a home-cooked burger—or more to the point, to the ideal of a home-cooked burger that I can never quite measure up to. The thing I like most about it is its Spartan simplicity. They serve burgers. Period. Well, OK, hot dogs—but there are no ill-advised attempts at chicken-parm sandwiches or pita pockets or wraps or what have you. They zero in on doing one thing extremely well, rather than attempt many things poorly.

Spread the Word

Rumours East, the sultry East Nashville outpost of Rumours Wine & Art Bar in 12South, is now open for weekend brunch. Chef Hernán Borda's menu bridges breakfast and lunch appetites with a roster that includes omelets, paninis, shrimp and grits, soup and salads. Now you can nurse a wine-induced hangover with a lingering meal, swinging on the garden patio or cuddled up next to a fireplace in the sprawling Victorian house. Located at 1112 Woodland St., Rumours East now serves brunch and lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

East Nashville Dispatch: Progress at Mad Donna's

There's an awning!

Première Harvest

It's Friday, and that means Second Harvest is hosting a First Harvest Café lunch in the demonstration kitchen of its Metro Center headquarters. Today's themed all-you-can-eat buffet is French cuisine. Ten bucks gets you a limitless paper plate of spinach salad, chicken Dijonnaise, boeuf Bourguignon and buttered egg noodles, glazed baby carrots with peas, and crêpes with fresh fruit sauce. Half of the fee goes to support Second Harvest's mission to feed the hungry in Middle Tennessee.

First Harvest Café serves lunch every Friday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 331 Great Circle Road, 329-3491.

Hill of Beans

If you think you smell an espresso-scented tipping point somewhere South of Broadway near the river, that's Crema, the coffee shop brewing in the burgeoning neighborhood of Rutledge Hill. Named for the foamy, golden brown extraction that develops in the filter and encrusts the top of an espresso serving, Crema (rhymes with “Emma”) is the latest food-forward (or beverage-forward, to be specific) establishment to hang up its shingle in the once-forgotten district of Rutledge Hill.

Dining Rooms at the Inns

If you're not tucked into a meal at home, dining on Dec. 25 can be a tricky proposition. Most businesses shut down for the holiday, and the conventional wisdom directs you to order Chinese food. But you might also try some of the following hotel restaurants (after the jump). If you have other ideas for Christmas Day dining, please post them on Bites.

Open House

Tandy Wilson and Anne Kostroski's Italian-inspired culinary haven, City House, debuts officially on Wednesday evening. After last weekend's soft opening, word is traveling quickly about the house-cured salami, fresh sausage and stunning pastries at Nashville's newest destination restaurant.

Alumni of Margot Café, pastry chef Kostroski and Wilson, who served as sous at Margot, got hitched a couple of years ago and took a newlywed-cooks' tour of Italy. Now, with Wilson at the stove and Kostroski manning the front of the house and the dessert roster, they're bringing a rustic taste of the boot to the quickly evolving enclave of Germantown, where the couple have transformed the former studio of sculptor Alan LeQuire into an “extraordinary” space (according to one enthusiastic early report), with a wood-fired pizza oven and open view of the kitchen.

Located at 1222 4th Ave. N. (736-5838), City House opens for dinner at 5 p.m. and is closed on Tuesday.

Bread and Circus

Unsure of what I wanted for lunch yesterday, I strolled aimlessly downtown from the Scene's Gulch office. On a lark, I decided to walk by the Panera I've watched under construction over the past month when visiting the downtown library. Lucky me, they had just opened that morning.

It being right in the middle of lunch, I expected a long wait after walking through the packed restaurant. But I was already set on my Sierra Turkey on whole grain, toasted, with roasted tomatoes and no onions. My expectations were happily crushed as the bank of cashiers with hovering trainers quickly sped through the waiting customers. Chef Timothy Jenkins informed me that the cashiers had trained for a full week to make sure the opening would go smoothly, and it apparently was going as planned.

The just-opened Panera is located at 401 Commerce in the new SunTrust building. They're open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the weekend. To-go orders can be phoned to 401-1171 or faxed to 401-1172.

Steaks on a Plane

Since the Philly cheesesteak has been the topic of much heated discussion on this blog—and frankly in our office—I decided to bring a few back when I returned from the City of Brotherly Love last night. I got them from one of my favorite spots in the world, Talk of the Town in South Philly. This place is a gem well known to Philly sports fans as it’s located right across from the stadiums where the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and 76ers play. Click the link and peruse the menus. If you’re not drooling in five minutes, check your pulse.

I brought back three varieties of classic Philadelphia sandwiches, pictured above.

Make the jump to hear descriptions of these delights…

Dial N for Nachos

It’s 10 p.m., you’re settling in for a long cold night of Scrubs reruns and the millionth TBS airing of Patrick Swayze in Black Dog, and only one thing could make the magic complete: a big honkin’ platter of nachos, guac and a quesadilla relleno. (We’re eating light ‘cause it’s late.) What to do?

If you live in the Lipscomb area, place a call to Jim’s Nachos, which opens this week in the former Shakes space at 4002 Granny White Pike between the Lipscomb Pizza Perfect and the Copper Kettle. Owner Miguel Dominguez promises a menu of sospechosos habituales along with one uncommon item: chicken soup from his own recipe. But here’s the real twist: Jim’s will offer delivery as well as takeout.

How well do nachos travel? I have my doubts. Surely someone has managed to make it across town with an unwilted Taco Bell chalupa. But the idea is tantalizing, and at least pizza is getting some competition. Maybe now somebody’ll start one of those joints that delivers fresh-baked cookies on demand. Jim’s is open Monday-Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Keep this number taped to the remote: 269-6032.

Daily Dish to Open in Franklin

Former Copper Kettle chef Sean Begin and his wife Linda will launch a new restaurant in Franklin this month. After selling their interest in Copper Kettle earlier this year, the couple are preparing to open Daily Dish, a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, in the former location of Grassland Grille.

With a culinary résumé that includes stints in Vail, Colo., Palm Beach, Fla., and Cape Cod, Mass., chef Sean moved to Nashville in 1994. He worked under chef Willie Thomas at Capitol Grille in the Hermitage Hotel before working for Bound'ry affiliate Big Guns Catering, where he was named Chef of the Year in 2001 by the Tennessee Restaurant Association. In 2002, Begin helped open Copper Kettle.

Daily Dish will combine Begin's various culinary experiences for a menu that includes traditional Southern cuisine, as well as items such as salad with glazed mahi mahi, grilled pesto-and-chicken salad, various sandwiches, paninis and milk shakes.

Located at 2205 Hillsboro Road, Daily Dish will be open Monday through Friday, serving breakfast from 6 to 10 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For updates on the restaurant opening, call 791-1255.

Top Holiday Card Idea

Not sure whether your friend is a Cabana boy or a Mambu man? Satisfy all your foodie friends with the Nashville Originals universal gift card, which works as currency at any of three dozen independent restaurants. You can purchase cards—in amounts between $25 and $1000—online or by calling 1-877-229-7299.

The Nashville Originals are a group of independent restaurateurs that have banded together to promote locally owned dining establishments as a unique part of the community. Restaurants must be one year old to join. Ombi, PM and Flyte World Dining & Wine have recently signed on as Originals. For a full list, visit nashvilleoriginals. com.

Stamps Signs

If you ask nicely, maybe she'll tell you how she makes those sweet potato biscuits so light and fluffy. Either way, chef Martha Stamps will sign your copy of The New, New Southern Basics cookbook, the re-issued edition of her how-to guide to regional cuisine. The owner of Martha's at the Plantation on the grounds of Belle Meade Plantation and author of four cookbooks, Stamps will speak and sign books at Borders Books and Music in Brentwood, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15. Borders is located at 330 Franklin Road, 221-8804.

Village People

Riverside Village, the burgeoning retail neighborhood in East Nashville, will add a new market to the mix when Mitchell Delicatessen opens next year. East Nashville resident David Mitchell, an alumnus of Wild Oats who currently works at Whole Foods' Grill at Green Hills, just signed a lease on the location next door to Sip Cafe. He plans to start building out the space in January in preparation for a spring launch.

Mitchell hopes to fill a void with healthy prepared foods in a neighborhood that has traditionally lacked such items. The deli-market will stock vegetables, meats, cheeses and to-go items and will have seating for 15 to 20 inside and more out back on a patio.

As part of an effort to focus on local foods, Mitchell is talking with local farmers about supplying meat and produce, and he hopes to create a farmers' market in the common courtyard behind the store. “It won't necessarily be upscale,” he says, “but a healthier approach and natural items.”

Mitchell wants to create a market that serves the community's needs, so he is asking people for ideas about products and local suppliers. Here's your chance to make a wish list.

Mitchell Delicatessen will be located at 1402 McGavock Pike.

Parco Reopens with New Owners–and Lunch

After months of speculation about whether Mr. And Mrs. Fu would ever reopen their subterranean restaurant in Printers Alley, Parco Cafe has finally reemerged with new ownership, lunch hours and—yes—booze.

June Oh, owner of Sapporo restaurant in Rivergate, recently purchased an interest in the restaurant from Chun and Tsuo Chuan Fu—who refer to themselves as Mr. And Mrs. Fu to spare everyone the challenge of pronunciation. A former culinary student of Mr. Fu, Oh will keep the menu of artistic dishes such as tea-smoked sea bass and lamb with baby bok choy, roasted peaches and passion fruit sauce. For now, she has also added a galette of shredded potatoes stuffed with orange roughy and grouper, and she plans to expand the repertoire of French-and-Asian cuisine to include Japanese elements, including sushi.

Despite long lamenting the stressful business of running a restaurant, the Fus are now headed to China to open another restaurant. Mr. Fu, whose diligence and skill know no bounds in the kitchen—as evidenced by the exquisite pastries that line the case inside the front door of Parco—will remain as a consultant to Oh. M.C. Chihombori, a former classmate of the Fus' son at Webb School in Bell Buckle, will continue to manage the front of the house.

Parco is now open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday noon to midnight. Parco Cafe is located at 207 Third Ave. N., with the entrance in Printers Alley, (phone: 259-7863).

Italian Ice

If you were wondering about the future of 1805 Church Street, the location that formerly housed Taste of India and the short-lived Madras Bhavan, wipe your mind clean of curries and naan. Starting Dec. 16, the building will raise an Italian flag when Fire-N-Ice Bar & Grill opens. A project of Madras Bhavan founder Naresh Kumar—who also owns Sitar—and his nephew Benny Kumar, Fire-N-Ice will serve a menu of American-Italian food, says Benny, who recently sold Brickstone Cafe in Nolensville.

With a fresh coat of sleek dark paint, new flooring and tall tables, Fire-N-Ice bears little resemblance to the tandoori-tinged days of Indian cuisine. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, Fire-N-Ice will feature Benny's recipes for marinated steak tips, homemade soups, chicken parm, pastas and pizzas, including a $5.99 lunch special. (Phone: 342-0028).

The Waffle Truth

Here's a worthy benefit at a price not even a Gnome would begrudge. This Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Downtown Presbyterian Church at the corner of Fifth and Church hosts its 81st annual Waffle Shop. For $6, you get a hefty hand-pressed waffle, grits, coffee or spiced tea, and your choice of sausage or a serving of turkey hash (made, by the way, from a recipe that predates the Depression).

The first Waffle Shop was held in 1926 to raise funds for the Presbyterian Women organization, back when Church Street was the beating heart of the city's retail. The street has changed, but the event hasn't—except that this year, for the first time in 81 years, men will lead the proceedings.

There will also be a bazaar offering baked goods as well as visual arts from church volunteers, and James Hoobler, senior curator at the Tennessee State Museum, will lead tours of the church's gorgeous Egyptian Revival sanctuary. All proceeds will benefit the church building's restoration fund, and tips for the meals will go toward the church's homeless ministry, whether providing for prescription drugs, ID cards or other expenses.

For advance tickets, call the church office at 254-7584.

Plantain Campaign

In this week's review of the Grill at Green Hills, the in-store restaurant at Whole Foods Market, I left out one of the most delicious details of my visits: the fried plantains. Deep fried to a dark caramel brown and sprinkled with kosher salt, the subtly sweet plantains currently accompany—and upstage—a smoked salmon dip that will roll off the menu as of Jan. 1.

While the replacement of the dip is nothing to cry over, I just might shed a tear into my Abita root beer if the plantains disappear for good. Chef Julia Helton is currently fine-tuning the menu for the New Year, and she says she is trying to find a home for the plantains, which, in my opinion, could be a creative alternative to French fries on the side of any sandwich. Just in case, I recommend lobbying her to keep them on the menu. Maybe we could stage a sit-in—for about 45 minutes around lunchtime.