Nashville Food Blog

The Belcourt's tapped into a grapevine goldmine with its monthly "Wine, Food & Film" events, which pair food-themed films with a pre-screening reception of wines from Village Wines and heavy snacks from Whole Foods. At $25 a ticket, the screenings tend to sell out well in advance of show time.

Here's Emily Bartlett Hines in this week's Scene discussing tonight's entry, the documentary Blood into Wine:

Metal fans and wine snobs have reputations as self-important, humorless demographics. So when a documentary follows Tool / A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan on his Arizona winemaking venture, you might expect a perfect storm of self-indulgent hubris. On the contrary: the trailer for Blood into Wine makes it look like the Spinal Tap of chardonnay. Directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke, it makes good use of Keenan's friends in the comedy world by casting them as absurd fictional characters -- Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (of Awesome Show, Great Job fame), and Keenan's sometime Puscifer bandmate Milla Jovovich. The trailer is hilarious, but Wine also has a real story to tell about Keenan's decision to abandon his music career in order to play head winemaker, and his struggle to get some respect for his small desert vineyard. Recommended even if you don't like Tool. See www.belcourt.org to buy tickets. 7 p.m. at The Belcourt.

The Belmont Mansion would like to invite you to join them Monday, March 15 in celebrating Adelicia Acklen's birthday by dining at one of the neighborhood's "Savor History" participating restaurants.

Here's the skinny:

"Savor History: a Neighborhood Dining Experience to benefit Historic Belmont Mansion," is a unique way for you to support one of midtown Nashville's most prestigious historic sites as well as to honor the mistress of the home, Adelicia Acklen, one of 19th century American history's most dynamic, wealthy and influential women.

www.belmont.edu

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Bongo Java
Bosco's
Cabana *
Fido
Pancake Pantry
Sunset Grill *
Taco Mamacita
Village Wines
Zumi Sushi
* open for dinner only

More information can be found at the Belmont Mansion website.

​It's easy for foreign disasters, no matter how massive, to slip out of Americans' daily consciousness. But when it comes to Haiti's terrible earthquake, it's interesting to note that one of Nashville's chefs already has a history of helping out in that country (in his youth he went to Haiti to build a school), and he's now recruited fellow chefs for a big party to raise money for a hospital in the devastated nation.

Chef Andy Hunter of Acorn Restaurant has organized From Nashville With Love, a fun tasting event 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the Nashville Farmers' Market, with food created by Hunter and folks from tayst, F. Scott's Restaurant & Jazz Bar, Fleur de Lis Flavors, Miro District, Park Cafe, Chappy's on Church, Macke's, The Standard, The Yellow Porch, City House, Midtown Cafe, Cabana, Sunset Grill, Rumba, Caffe Nonna, Bravo Gelato, Bongo Java and more.

The family-friendly event, which also includes music and a silent auction, benefits the Visitation Hospital Foundation, a longtime Nashville charity that runs a clinic in Haiti and is working to build a full-scale hospital. Admission is just $15, free for kids under 7 (with a cash bar for the grownups). It's quite a deal to try nibbles from 20 or so of Nashville's best culinarians -- and help needy people, too.

​If you're a fan of Whitney Matheson's popular pop culture cult website "Pop Candy," you should avail yourself of the chance to meet her for conversation and drinks 5:30-8 p.m. Thursday, March 11, at Sambuca in the Gulch. She happens to be in town for a wedding and would love to meet some of her readers or just some new fascinating people to share her wry take on modern culture with.

Sounds like she's talking about you guys, Bitesters. Plus, Sambuca has a great bar even if you can't get a word in edgewise.

No RSVP is required, but Whitney asks that you drop her a note so that she can know who to expect.

www.southernfoodways.com

​If you're not familiar with the Southern Foodways Alliance, well ... you should be. Based in Oxford, Miss., the SFA is an association of more than 800 really cool people who are engaged in the mission to document, protect and celebrate the food heritage of the American South.

Academics, chefs and food aficionados work together to produce films, stage conferences and compile collections of food-based literature. The Atlantic Monthly called the SFA "this country's most intellectually engaged food society."

Lucky for us, the SFA is bringing their road show to Nashville.Their wildly popular Potlikker Film Festival will be showing at Chef Tandy Wilson's City House restaurant on Sunday, April 25, and from their description of the event it looks like a real hoe-down.

Eric England

​This week's dining review features Flatrock Cafe, the Nolensville Road sandwich shop-cum-live music venue on the former site of a car lot.

A labor of love for many neighbors, including owner Ron Haislip, Flatrock has quickly become a gathering spot, attracting Woodbine residents with its long-awaited roster of coffee, WiFi and sandwiches.

Americana artist Irene Kelley is booking a roster of fellow singer-songwriters, who perform original music on Saturday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 for dinner, with a $5 suggested donation to go to the musicians. For booking information, contact Kelley at Irenie777@aol.com.

A list of upcoming performers follows after the jump.

Chef Margot McCormack's delectable East Nashville cafe Marché has unveiled a five-month series of wine dinners, with cuisine paired with wines from Woodland Wine Merchant.

​There are still seats left for tomorrow night's dinner, with the theme of pot au feu, or pot on fire. This is a traditional French dish with meat and vegetables slow-cooked in a pot.

Marché is offering a four-course dinner preceded by an amuse (that's a sort of mini-appetizer designed to get your tastebuds excited). The amuse will be "deconstructed pot au feu," the menu promises. Whatever that may be, I'm sure it's good.

NashvillePost.com, our sister paper, turned 10 years old yesterday. It was a pleasure to celebrate that milestone -- and the relaunch of the Nashville Post print magazine -- at a gathering last night at The Standard.

​As party venues go, it was just right. Easy room-to-room flow, a coat check (!), valet parking, lots of corners for quiet conversation.

Anyway, in Bites' ongoing effort to document the proliferation of shrimp-and-grits offerings in town, another joins the ranks. The Standard's S-and-G, created under the auspices of Executive Chef Art Snyder, were offered in twee serving cups of about three bites, carefully scooped into the cup so every portion had a spicy shrimp or two.

Shrimp-and-grits as party food -- an inspiration for spring/Easter/graduation brunch! Thanks for the idea, Standard guys.

The Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce welcomes wine lovers to its latest Tour of Latin America event. Previous events have spotlighted the coffee and cigars of Latin America.

A vineyard in central Chile

​This installment, the third, ventures into the rich vineyards of Argentina, Chile and Peru. (Our thoughts are with Chileans after the recent devastating earthquake, and we hope that export of the country's wonderful wines can continue.)

The party starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 4, at the Wine Loft wine bar, 503 12th Ave. S. in the Gulch. Its free for THCC members, $20 for non-members.

The organization describes the mission of its Tour of Latin America series as a "continuing effort to provide a cultural education to Nashvillians and a celebration of all things Hispanic."

​In a culture of abundant charitable events, Soup Sunday, coming this weekend, stands out.

As your money-raising party ventures go, this fundraiser for Our Kids has a one-of-a-kind profile and menu

It's on a Sunday, during the day, conveniently scheduled at lunchtime, and is family-friendly. A $40 ticket buys admission for the whole family to eat competitively concocted soups, plus extras and desserts.

The long, long list of 50-plus entrants is a veritable tureen of both established and new eateries, from Loveless to Macke's, from Frothy Monkey to Park Cafe. Several interesting entrants are sprinkled in, too: Art Institute of Tennessee; Bordeaux Long-Term Care facility (you'd be surprised how good the food is at sister institution General Hospital) and Chaffin's Barn, whose chocolate-banana-peanut butter-caramel dessert was among the swooniest desserts at Iron Fork last year
. Sideline festivities like balloon artists, a magician and face-painting are directed at the junior connoissieurs.

The soups are always extraordinary -- I still remember a chicken poblano cream soup that won more than 10 years ago. Last year's top bowls included Monell's Strawberry Cream Soup, Aquarium Restaurant's Loaded Seafood Chowder, and Middle Tennessee Chapter of the American Culinary Federation with "Swamp Hog Mud Bug and Gub Mint Cheese Soup."

Soup Sunday is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, at LP field Club Level West. Tickets available at ourkidscenter.com or 341-4917.

​The Tennessee Organic Growers Association is bringing noted author and farmer Joel Salatin to be their keynote speaker at their sixth annual conference in Franklin. Salatin, who refers to himself as a "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist farmer," is featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and the documentary Food, Inc.

Salatin's holistic approach to farming and animal husbandry has positioned him as a leader in the locavore movement. The rest of the conference looks like it should be quite interesting, so check out the details in their release after the jump:

​One of the favorite high class/low brow things we love to do around our house is to finish the last glass of red wine from dinner with a few dark chocolate M&M's for dessert. Hey, it's cheap and that's two fewer plates to clean up.

It turns out that science is on our side and Pastry Chef Andy Manchester from the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage Hotel has ratcheted up our ritual a few notches. Scientists have proved that chocolate provides the body natural health-promoting substances called flavonoids, which are known to help prevent heart disease and cancer. Red wine contains anti-oxidants, which keep your arteries clear of plaque therefore reducing the risk of heart disease.

Here's a sample menu:

Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser will speak at Belmont University on Monday. The event is at 7 p.m. at Belmont Heights Baptist Church, 2100 Belmont Blvd.

​FFN, published in 2001, has been translated into 20 languages and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. Schlosser served as an executive producer and co-wrote the feature film Fast Food Nation in 2006.

More recently, Schlosser was a co-producer and appeared in the hit documentary Food, Inc. That film has won numerous awards and further energized the debate over practices in the American corporate food industry. It's nominated for best feature documentary at this year's Oscars, which take place March 7.

​Tonight at The End, the Exit/In's slightly grimier little cousin located behind Obie's on Elliston Place, jazz/funk and electropsychbeatrock come together with gourmet food like the chocolate and peanut butter in your Reese's Cup. That's right, Chef Michael Kidd of Wild Iris will be laying out a spread while the Storm Kings and Hyrkamonsta led by Peter Hyrka of the Gypsy Hombres will be laying down the tight beats for an inventive evening of fun, food and music.

I have no idea what the vibe will be, but I can vouch for Chef Kidd and the musicians. And for $5 it guarantees to be a bargain. The downbeat drops at 8 so don't be late. The menu is below:

Put on your eatin' pants and your dancin' shoes and make an evening of it.

If you are culinary professional -- you do something with food, for money -- you could be in the IACP, the international Association of Culinary Professionals. There are lots of food-oriented professional associations, but the IACP is the awesomest one, if only for its incredible annual conference. Just take a look at the program for this year's conference, April 20-24 in Portland, Oregon.

​There's more in just one day of this four-day conference than you can reasonably take in. But you could try for some in-depth programming on artisanal salt, terroir, seafood, oolong tea. A half-dozen writing workshops, digital food photography, urban food and farming, obesity. Panels where experts like Shirley Corriher answer cooking and baking questions. (They answered one of mine in 2008.)

Night tours take in eateries, watering holes and craft breweries. Offsite programs concentrate on professional skills and local businesses. Big names in the food world attend -- this year's marquee names include Madhur Jaffrey, Ruth Reichl, Michael Ruhlman and Ann Willan. The hardest part is deciding what to attend.

And there's the city itself. Portland's culture of street food is on proud display. Conventioneers get a special hour of their own at a street food cart festival going on during the convention. Check the link above, for some of the amazing street food in Portland, from crepes, risotto balls and Czech goulash, to classic grilled cheese, barbecue, Thai and vegetarian.

​Alimentum, everybody's favorite "bookazine" dedicated to the literature of food will be staging a reading tonight (Feb. 4) at Cumberland Gallery in Green Hills at 4107 Hillsboro Circle. As part of the exhibit THE FOOD SHOW: ART FEEDS PEOPLE, a benefit for Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Paulette Licitra, publisher and editor, will read from Alimentum-The Literature of Food along with other writers beginning at about 6:30 pm. Donations of food or money at the door are requested for this event as well.

Fifteen percent of all sales during the show will be donated to Second Harvest, so go check out some art and listen to some great work being read aloud. More info can be found at the gallery website.

As the upcoming Belcourt Wine, Food & Film night demonstrates, all roads lead to Nashville.

Tuesday evening's film offering is Big Night, a terrific 1996 production about a wonderful little 1950s Italian restaurant where the food is prepared with passion. It just needs one special boost that will keep the joint afloat. When an admiring rival says he can get singer Louis Prima to stop by and give the place his celebrity endorsement, the brothers who run it (played by Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub) prepare an extra-special secret recipe of timpano, a many-layered, multi-day production.

Filming Big Night required five timpani. The maker of those was Green Hills resident Diane Bishop, whose modesty has probably prevented her from ever seeing her own IMDB page. She notes that Stanley Tucci's mother's recipe was used, and that a couple of the timpani designated for exterior shots were baked with just pasta inside, while the ones to be cut were baked with all the required layers. She's a phenomenal cook, as you'll see in Big Night's big reveal.

If you feel a tendresse for timpano, here's the recipe according to a cookbook co-authored by Tucci's mom, Joan Tropiano Tucci.

As with the last two Wine Food & Film nights, this one is $25, the food will be provided by Whole Foods, and Hoyt Hill of Village Wines is providing the beverages. The taps open at 5:30 and the film begins at 7. Go to belcourt.org for tickets.

Click image to embiggen

​Nashville chefs Jeremy Barlow and Arnold Myint will be sharing the kitchen at ChaChah on Monday, Feb.1, to benefit Nashville Pride.

The "2 Chefs/2 Visions" event will feature two appetizers, two entrées and two desserts from two of the most creative chefs in town. Your $75 donation to Nashville Pride also gets you two drinks. A wine flight pairing will be available for an additional $25.

Cocktails start at 6:30 p.m. The three-course menu is served at 7:30.

Tickets can be purchased at www.nashvillepride.org. Nashville Pride's mission is to "maintain a sense of community and awareness of, about and for gay lesbian bisexual transgender people and culture throughout Middle Tennessee."

ChaChah
2013 Belmont Blvd.

Though they are pretty good at that, too. ​My favorite coffee shop in town has also been known to gallery some pretty impressive art in the space next door. That space is now leased out, so now Crema is decorating their own walls with colorful paintings and sculpture.

From Jan. 22 until Feb. 27, Crema will be featuring local husband and wife artists Aaron and Michelle Grayum and their parade of clowns, circus tents and whimsical creatures for their Circus of the Umbrella art show. Each piece features the painting talents of Aaron with the sculpting talents of wife Michelle, all on the same canvases. They look like a lot of fun, and a portion of proceeds from the sales will be contributed to the Wonderful Life Foundation as well as to Haitian relief efforts.

You are invited to an artists' reception at Crema at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22. Drop by, enjoy some great coffee, look at some charming artwork and help out a couple of good causes.

Click here for the most detailed directions ever posted on a Nashville restaurant website.

Time to heat up the cast iron skillet and work on your cornbread recipe -- then submit it to the National Cornbread Cook-Off as part of the National Cornbread Festival.
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With Lodge, Brown Stoveworks and Martha White all based in Tennessee, and the event held in South Pittsburg, Tenn., it is truly a locavore event. (Well, actually, Martha White is now owned by those Ohio Yankees at Smuckers but works to keep its local identity by promoting cornbread and the Grand Ole Opry.)

Submit an entree recipe that uses Martha White cornbread mix and is cooked in a piece of Lodge cast iron cookware. Ten finalists will compete on April 24 for a $5,000 first prize and a $3,000 Five Star oven. (A word from our sponsor: Five Star's performance is so impressive that this Tennessee product deserves to be far better known. It's built like a tank, heats like a blast furnace, and the pieces mostly come apart and go into the dishwasher.)

The second of three Wine, Food & Film pre-Oscar events hosted by the Belcourt Theatre will feature wines from Village Wines, food from Whole Foods and a screening of The Red Shoes, a gorgeous, color-drenched classic from 1948 that won two Oscars. (It lost the Best Picture gold to Olivier's Hamlet).

nicked from gaiaonline.com, also at other sites, originally from a poster

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For the Jan. 11 event, Village Wines proprietor Hoyt Hill is assembling a wine tasting, and the Whole Foods team is cooking up nibbles. Festivities start at 5:30 p.m., and at 7, the evening's main attraction appears: a restored, rescued The Red Shoes, digitally revived from old prints. Is it a beautiful essay on ars longa, vita brevis? Is it about the magic of colorful shoes? Or is it about someone who just can't stop dancing?

The price is easy on the post-holiday wallet -- $25 a ticket, $20 for members. Bearing in mind that the November event sold out, visit belcourt.org for information and tickets.

​ If Christmas at Gaylord with Louise Mandrell isn't your cup of nog, or maybe it's a little too pricey at $67 maybe the Loveless Cafe has the solution.

Suzy Bogguss is bringing her White Christmas special to the Loveless Barn for four performances only, at 6 p.m. Dec. 20-23. There are even rumors of a visit by Old St. Nick himself. If you've ever had a chance to experience a performance by Bogguss, then you know what a treat this ought to be. Her warm vocals and gentle swinging orchestrations of traditional holiday classics should be fun for all ages.

Dinner will feature a traditional Loveless buffet meal with all the fixins and guests will enjoy family style seating. The Loveless will donate a portion of the proceeds to two local nonprofit organizations: Second Harvest Food Bank and All About Women.

Tickets are available for $39.50 and childrens tickets are available for $24.50. Call 646-9700, ext. 4 for reservations or visit www.lovelessbarn.com for more information.

Paula Deen loves her some drumsticks

​You know how you never visit the Grand Ole Opry or the Loveless or Pancake Pantry until an out of town guest makes you go? And then after you go, you remind yourself how much fun it was and wonder why you don't do it more often? Well, the holiday season at Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center can be a lot like that. Go ahead and melt that icy, cynical Grinchy shell around your heart and consider taking a trip up Briley this holiday season. You know your relatives want to go, and if nothing else, it will burn up a few hours that they might instead spend asking, "Why don't you get a REAL job, 'Mr. Blogger'? " (Sorry, that might just be me.)

Here's your insider's guide to what's going on culinarily out at the Opryland megaplex during A Country Christmas:

​Don't forget: Today is the much-loved annual Waffle Shop at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, a Nashville holiday tradition since Model T's chugged along downtown streets, dodging mobs of Christmas shoppers on the busy Church Street retail corridor.

Today's event is 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the church, Fifth Avenue North and Church Street. Just $6 buys you hand-pressed waffles, turkey hash and grits. (Proceeds go to the church's building restoration fund and efforts to help the homeless.) If you want to be sure to score some of the goodies, line up early. The waffles are always hugely popular.

While you're there, visit the church's craft and bake sale, or take a tour of the spectacular Egyptian Revival church and its newly renovated 1913 Milnar organ.

​Chefs look many places for inspiration: people they've worked with, places they've visited, cookbooks they admire. But few diners realize that chefs also read authors who write passionately about food, seeking creative insight for the kitchen.

Laura Wilson, ex-executive chef of our bygone favorite Ombi has been helping out as chef de cuisine at Tin Angel for the last few months. If you're like us and miss her deft touch with old world dishes, well, then we should all have eaten out at Ombi a little more often and brought more friends along and maybe it would still be around. But that's beside the point...the good news is that she's back, and her creative juices are flowing again.

Cooperating with Tin Angel owner Rick Bolsom and general manager Brooke Anderson, Wilson and the kitchen staff have created what they hope to be an ongoing series of dinners based on writings by some their favorite food authors. They describe the series this way in their e-newsletter:

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Provence will be sampling holiday breads on Saturday. Drift in for lunch and try chocolate cranberry bread, sweet potato pecan bread and oatmeal apple cider bread, along with pear cranberry tarts and pumpkin tarts. Order your pastries for pickup on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and get a free bag of bread you can use to make an uncommon stuffing (that's dressing to you Nashvillians). Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Provence Breads & Cafe, Hillsboro Village, 21st Avenue South.

​Following in the footsteps of Alton Brown, The Neelys and the Deen Boys, The Queen Deen is on her way to Nashville to help kick off the holidays. That's right, Ms. Paula will be joining Montgomery Gentry, Louise Mandrell, Jeannie and Craig Schulz (wife and son of the late, legendary Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz),The Radio City Rockettes and the TSU Marching Band to flip the switch at the Gaylord Opryland Resort to illuminate their 2 million-plus holiday lights.

Now I know that lineup sounds like it was put together by the same people who developed the Jack in the Box menu, but it's not as incongruous as it first appears. Louise Mandrell will be the host of Gaylord's "Joy to the World" Christmas dinner and show and the Schulzes will be there to kick off the opening of the Peanuts "Ice" exhibit at the resort. TSU's band and The Rockettes are always worth traveling to see, and Montgomery Gentry...well, maybe they're just there to eat whatever Paula cooks.

If you're an avid celebrity-watcher and have properly steeled yourself for the onrushing holidays, point your car in the direction of Gaylord on Thursday, Nov. 19 in time to get there by 5:30. On second thought, maybe you'd better just leave your car in the driveway. That may be as close as you can park.

Past Perfect, the restaurant and saloon at 122 Third Ave. S., is offering a way to enjoy a late afternoon nosh and benefit cancer research. Today from 2 to 4 p.m., 100 percent of the money from food sales will go to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Donations are also welcome.

​After watching Food, Inc. Friday night, my family is still trying to find a locally raised turkey for Thanksgiving. We haven't even started thinking about Christmas yet. But apparently the rest of Nashville is, so here we go.

This weekend is the 49th annual Christmas Village sponsored by the Nashville Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club to benefit several Nashville charities, including the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center. In the history of the event, the Pi Phis have raised more than $6 million for their philanthropic causes. Plus this looks like it may be the last year ever for the event to be staged at the fairgrounds, so you might want to drop on by.

​Slow Food Nashville is hosting dinner tonight at Red Pony Restaurant, the styley place in downtown Franklin.

Appetizers of beef skewers and tostaditas are paired with Yazoo beer. A first course "sampler" of goat cheese and beet salad (attention Carrington!), boudin cake and chicken liver pate is paired with Arrington Vineyards gewurztraminer. A second course of sauteed prawns is paired with a sparkling cocktail of Corsair Gin. The entree is birria, a Mexican stew of goat and vegetables. Dessert is apple tart and a dessert martini.