Boswell’s Harley Davidson Grill - 6.27.08

So today we went to Boswell’s Harley Davidson Grill.  Aside from seeing a pretty sweet trike in the parking lot, we only wanted to see if a motorcycle dealership could serve us up a decent lunch.  Here's what we found:

Frank: Liked it. Totally fun atmosphere and our waitress was great – she sorta bullied me into having the catfish and onion rings, which was fine.  (How do you screw-up deep frying anything?)  It was worth the slight wait for a table.  The only drawback I could project on this place is Harley Davidson riders themselves.  You see, I ride a nice old ’73 Honda and those Harley guys won’t ever wave back at me.  They’re too cool to wave.  Which is lame.   

Hank: This place was a random surprise!  It’s a small diner tucked into a Harley Davidson Dealership.  There was a line when we got there...but it didn’t take more than 10 minutes for a table to open up.  The staff was very friendly and on top of things...they didn’t let your drink get half finished before they got you a refill!  I got a burger and fries and really enjoyed the meal.  The burger was a little over done...but the flavor was great.  And with a health score of 94...I will for sure go back!

Eddie: Super friendly and attentive service.  A bit cramped.  The BBQ sandwich was average, but the fresh-cut fries were a nice bonus.  The prices were a little on the steep side, considering the no-frills menu.    

Alley Cat Lounge & Tex Mex Grill - 6/19/08

The letter A stands for...   Alley Cat Lounge & Tex Mex Grill

Here's what we thought:

Frank: So-so for me.  Decent atmosphere but food took forever to come out.  I’ve been trying to eat better so I had a chef salad.  That's lame, right?  Whatever people..  I’m down nearly 20 lbs from Christmas, so bring on the bland salads!

Hank: It could have been cleaner...but it could have been dirtier.  The big turn off for me was that due to the fact that it’s a bar...there was smoking allowed in the restaurant.  The service was good...but with only 4 tables sat during lunchtime...there was no excuse for any less service.  I had a chicken sandwich with fries and I thought it was good.  Nothing to write home about...it’s hard to screw up something like that.  Overall...good bar food...not somewhere I’ll probably frequent.

Eddie:  The menu had some interesting variations on the standards.  Not what you'd expect from a bar located in an alley.  The Tortas, which is essentially a pork BBQ sandwich with a few extras, was fantastic.  The prices definitely fit the fare.

A Quick Recap

So, before we launch into another restaurant round, we've decided to do a succinct recap of our lunchings thus far.  Ladies and gents, we present to you, the best and worst of Nashville Eats Its ABCs...  (with expanded commentary by Hank)

Eddie's Top 3 picks:  

• Uncle Gio's (r.i.p.)
  
• Bro's Cajun Cuisine
  
• Joey's House Of Pizza 

Eddie's Worst: 

• Wendell Smith's 
  
• Muddea's Famous Chicken & Waffles
  
• Twin Kegs 
  

Frank's Best Nashville ABCs discoveries: 

• Honduras Restaurant 
  
• The Factory Grill
  
• Richie’s “Hot & Spicy” Kastle 
  

Frank's Worst Nashville ABCs experiences: 

• Twin Kegs
  
• The Pie Wagon
  
• International Market and Deli 

Hank's Top 3 ABC Nashville restaurants:

• Zackies Original Hot Dog (Germantown) - I can go with or without hotdogs...and usually only have one if I’m at the ballpark.  But Zackies may have changed me!  This place is great!  Very clean...great service...they even remembered our names!  My winning meal was a brat w/ spicy mustard, crinkle cut fries and a Jones Soda Rootbeer.  I’ve been back a number of times since and have not been disappointed!
• Judge Beans – I love baseball and I love bbq...so I was quite excited to get the news that Judge Beans had relocated to Greer Stadium (home of the Nashville Sounds).  It doesn’t get any better than eating brisket at a table overlooking a great ball field!  It’s open every day...but if you go during a game the Judge gives you a free ticket to the game along with your meal!  The downside is that it’s packed on game days and the service suffers...but when you’re watching baseball...what’s the rush?!?
• The Copper Kettle – Where do I start???  When trying to think of a place to eat for lunch...this is always the first thing that comes to mind.  It’s clean...friendly staff...and the food is always good!  I call it a gourmet Meat & 3.  They have a rotating menu of specials and on each day you are bound to find something you’ll like.  I’ve got 2 favorite meals there: 1) Coconut chicken fingers, mashed potatoes & green bean casserole. 2) Grilled Chicken salad with cranberry vinaigrette dressing, spiced pecans and a fried ball of goat cheese.  I would recommend this place to anyone!  If you are breathing...you will like it.

Hank's Worst ABC Nashville experience:

• La Luna Cafe' -NOW CLOSED- We walked in and the first scent to hit my nose was smoke...it was disgusting!  That made me scan quickly for their health score...which was 47!  I looked at Frank and Eddie...gave the signal...and we walked right out!  Not hard to see why it ended up folding!
• Twin Kegs – OK...I know...we were asking for it when we chose this place.  But the sign said that they were world famous...and we had heard they had great burgers...we were dupped!  It was a small, dark and dirty space that reeked of smoke!  Our “server” was quite entertaining and quite possibly drunk.  When asked “Do you have crinkle cut fries?”...his response was...”Huh?!?  Crinkle cut this!”.  Overall...the place was filthy, the food was not good at all, and the “server”, although very entertaining, did not cut it!
• White Trash Café – I would add one word to the name of this restaurant...NASTY!  I appreciate kitsch décor with the best of them...but that wasn’t enough to outweigh the fact that the service was horrible, the food was dreadful and it was DIRTY!  One of the specials that day was a baked chicken dish.  I thought it couldn’t be all that bad until I asked for a description and someone at our table ordered it.  It was essentially frozen fried chicken breast that had been cooked in a pan of gelatinous brown gravy.  The look and smell of it was enough to turn my stomach.  Haven’t been back since...and will not go back again.

And now we return you to our regularly scheduled program...

A-Z part #3, 2007

2/12/07 - Arnold’s Country Kitchen

2/13/07 - Broadway Brewhouse (and Mojo Grill)

2/26/07 - Chile Burrito

3/2/07 - Dan McGuinness’ Irish Pub (a sort of chain)

3/13/07 - Elliston Place Soda Shop

3/22/07 - Fido’s

4/11/07 - Green Hills Cafeteria (in the Retired Teachers Bldg)

5/1/07 - Hot Diggity Dogs

5/7/07 -  The Italian Market (a repeat)

5/21/07 - Joey’s House of Pizza (B’wood)

5/30/07 - Kalamata’s

6/18/07 - LaPaz (chain alert!)

8/27/07 - Muddea’s Famous Chicken & Waffles

8/13/07 - Norman Cousers Country Cooking

9/21/07  - Ombi

9/25/07 - Puffy Muffin

10/8/07 - Rose Pepper Cantina

10/17/07 - Super Pollo

11/8/07 - Tangredi's Italian Kitchen

12/3/07 - US Border Cantina

12/17/07 - Varallos (Too)

1/11/08 - Wendell Smith’s

1/18/08 -  Zackie’s Original Hot Dog

Round #2... 2006.

7/17/06 - Athens Family Restaurant

7/24/06 - Bobby’s Dairy Dip

8/4/06 - Copper Kettle

8/10/06 - DaVinci’s Pizza

8/28/06 - El Mariachi

9/8/06 - The Food Company

9/11/06 - Germantown Cafe

9/25/06 - Hog Heaven

9/26/06  - International Market and Restaurant

10/3/06 - Judge Beans

10/9/06 - The Knife and Fork (“Where The Locals Eat” - is now Sylvan Park)

10/27/06 - Las Chivas  

10/30/06 - Molly P’s (r.i.p.)

11/8/06 - Nick’s Italian Deli

11/14//06 - Oasis Restaurant (Mexican/Caribbean)

11/20/06 - The Pie Wagon

??/??/?? - Rotiers

11/21/06 - Swett’s

11/29/06 - Twin Kegs (Internationally Famous)

12/1/06 - Uncle Gio’s Italian

12/5/06 - Valentino’s (West End)

12/11/06 - Woody’s Steak House

12/15/06 - Yamamoto

12/18/06 - Z’s Deli

Our first round.. 2006

1/2/06 -  Anatolia Turkish Restaurant

1/9/06 - Bros Cajun Cuisine

1/16/06 - Café Coco   

1/23/06 - Dalts Grill

1/30/06 -  Eddie George Grill (r.i.p.) 

2/6/06 - Factory Grill, The (Aladdin plant)

2/13/06 -  Gerst Haus

2/20/06 - Honduras Restaurant (yes, that’s it name)

2/27/06 - The Italian Market

3/7/06 - Kien Giang

3/13/06 - JJ’s Bistro (in the retired teachers home, Metro Center.  r.i.p?)

3/22/06 - Loveless Café

3/27/06 - Mason Jar (Hendersonville, TN)

4/17/06 - Nick’s Famous BBQ

4/23/06 - Otters Chicken Tenders

4/28/06 - Phat Bites

5/8/06 - Qudoba (yeah, yeah - it’s a chain, we know…)

5/12/06 - Richie’s “Hot & Spicy” Kastle

5/19/06 - Silver Sands Soul Food

6/1/06 - Tex’s World Famous BBQ

6/5/06 - Unique Flavors

4/6/06 - Vandyland (r.i.p.)

6/12/06 - White Trash Café

6/30/06  - The Yellow Porch

7/10/06 - Zoes (Brentwood - we didn't know it was a chain!  promise)

What goes on here

Hi everybody and welcome to our blog.  If you are interested in the Nashville lunch food scene, then you may appreciate our massive undertaking here.  If not, go ahead and surf on down the web a bit and you might find something more interesting elsewhere.  

What we do: We’re three guys in a small office who are eating our way through the alphabet of locally owned and operated restaurants.  Why?  We want to explore new places, foods and hopefully uncover some culinary gems that we would have otherwise missed.  Besides, eating at a new restaurant is bragging rights for us.  To give you an idea that we’re committed to this concept, the next three posts will be a recap of where we’ve been over the past few years.  We’ve made it mostly through the alphabet 3 times thus far and are back for round #4.  We won’t post commentary on our past conquests, but we will post our thoughts on all the restaurants moving forward. 

While we’re not necessarily “foodies” and won’t review every detail of our meals like other blogs, we will rate our individual experience at each restaurant.  And maybe we’ll even tell you why we liked or didn’t like it.  If you read our personal profiles, you’ll see that we all have our own distinct lunch expectations. 

We don’t use our real names as we prefer our anonymity, but if any restaurant owner wants to comp us a meal to eat at their place and write about it here, by all means please let us know.  For free food, we might even actually eat out of order.  Also, if anyone has suggestions for us, please post your suggestions - we’ve had a lot of problems finding restaurants that start with the letters Q, X, I and Y.  

Enjoy and cheers!