Editor's note: CL food critic Jon Palmer Claridge is in Nashville doing "research." This is part of an ongoing series sharing his culinary adventures.
Little do I realize when I make a quick trip to Music City to welcome a new baby to the family that I'm about to meet the best shrimp and grits of my life. This trip doesn't have a food focus in my mind, but my host has other ideas. I'm whisked from the airport directly to Urban Grub, a splendid farm-to-table venue with a stunning oyster bar that arrests your eye immediately with an array of fresh mollusks piled high on mounds of crushed ice.
It's then I notice the glass palace out back where a range of amazing house-cured charcuterie is hanging, awaiting my salivating palate. We have a hard time choosing, but finally settle on first-rate sorghum ham, disorienting Kobe beef summer sausage and succulent Tennessee bologna, with some cheese thrown in for good measure. House pickled veggies, mustard, peach preserves and crisp lavash complete the offering. Although we've barely begun, there are goofy smiles all around.
We move on to beautiful, plump, juicy shrimp and house-ground grits laced with tomato, caramelized onions, a touch of chipotle and the most seductive texture and smoky goodness from tasso cream and smoked Gouda. The indescribable creaminess is a joy to savor; it's perfection on a plate.
The double-cut pork chop is, surprisingly, every bit as knee buckling as my BOTB pick from South Tampa's Roux, although it's a different approach with agave, whole-grain mustard and is smothered in fresh smoked peaches. Still, you rarely encounter pork chops this good.
Since Tennessee is land-locked, the restaurant flies in fresh fish daily. Our halibut is sensational with what looks like thin slices of lardo, apricot oil and al dente white beans.
The unmissable dessert is vanilla bean doughnuts that are warm, soft and just make us sigh. They're glistening with granulated sugar and a drizzle of Whisper Creek caramel. As if this isn't enough, there's a delicious scoop of bacon toffee cream cheese ice cream garnished with a crisp slice of smoky bacon streaked with both white and dark chocolate (shades of Ella's Americana Folk Arts Cafe in Seminole Heights). The six small doughnuts are easy to share with the whole table unless you're dining with teenagers or gluttons.
Nashville has won my gastronomic heart, but I'm totally unaware that an even greater, unusual culinary treat awaits for tomorrow's dinner where we step back in time to a 1930s supper club. Stay tuned…
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 1, 2016.