While in Nashville...
Had two interesting experiences eating out in Nashville this weekend - one in the good way and one in…another way.
Some of you may know that Maneet Chauhan is a chef and a judge on Food Network’s “Chopped”. We visited Chauhan Ale & Masala House in downtown Nashville. I thought I knew my way around fairly well down there, but it seemed awfully hard to get to. Of course, in the morning we figured out that was because the streets were blocked so that they could do this to the building down the street:
Anyway, the food and drinks were outstanding! The concept seems to be “anything goes as long as Indian spices are somehow involved”. My meal consisted of Nashville hot chicken pakoras with ghost pepper sauce followed by kashmiri spiced braised lamb (essentially an Indian version of osso buco) and washed down with a couple of La Fin du Monde golden triple ales. All really really good stuff – I’d definitely recommend a visit if you're in town. Oh, and as a reminder that Nashville really is “Music City”, not “Country Music City”, check out Rudy’s Jazz Room while you’re there as well.
We also went out for lunch – I won’t mention where because that’s not the point. The point is that the next room was full of Santa Clauses. What’s wrong with that, you say? Nothing, except that we had to listen to Santa-in-Charge go on at high volume for most of the meal about the many important details of dealing with active-shooter situations! Not that Santa shouldn’t be well-prepared for the myriad challenges of modern society, but perhaps an open room in a restaurant with families all around wasn’t the best choice of venue for that particular session? Just a thought. Plus half of them were asleep, so I don't really think anybody will be much safer next Christmas anyway.