Date Evening: Park Cafe and Lola | Date Evening

Date Evening is a multipart street map for everybody who desires a pleasant night out, however has no time to plan it. It’s for individuals who need to do extra than simply go to at least one restaurant and name it an evening. It’s for overwhelmed dad and mom who don’t get out typically; for mates who go to the identical three eating places as a result of they’re too afraid to strive someplace new; and for busy of us who maintain forgetting all of the locations they’ve pushed previous, heard about, seen on social and mentioned, “Let’s do not forget that place subsequent time we exit.”

I’m making an attempt to get out of my home and into the world extra typically. Working from house is 99 p.c superior with the 1 p.c draw back that I spend an excessive amount of time in my very own head. So after I  work together with an precise human being whereas strolling the canine or testing on the grocery retailer, I really feel rusty and surprise if what I’m saying makes any sense — or if individuals are simply smiling and nodding till they will politely transfer away from the loopy woman who’s yapping an excessive amount of as a result of she by no means talks to anybody.

It’s with this intention in thoughts that I requested my husband Dom, who wanted to run a couple of errands earlier than our newest Date Evening, to drop me off at our first cease on his manner. I wished to be the nameless lady on the bar for a half-hour simply to see what magic the universe would ship my manner. The universe didn’t disappoint.

Cease 1: Park Cafe

Within the 24 years since Park Cafe opened, it’s been darkish outdoors and packed inside each time I’ve visited. So being there for the glad hour — 4 to six p.m., within the daylight earlier than the dinner rush — made me really feel a bit bare. I took a seat on the bar, set my purse on the spot to my left for Dom and ordered an $8 Sundown Margarita (tequila, triple sec, bitter, lime and pomegranate juice) whereas listening to a dialog the person to my proper and two women had been having about gutter cleansing. I’m a champion eavesdropper; I solely want there have been a strategy to monetize this reward. 

The person was clearly a daily: The bartender referred to as him by title and random passersby stopped to say whats up. After the 2 women paid their tab and left, Mr. Common turned to me and requested how I managed to look tan on the primary sunny, heat day of 2025. I defined that I’d simply taken a protracted stroll in a tank high and that my pores and skin soaks up the solar shortly. Then he requested my all-time favourite query. 

I hope you don’t thoughts me asking, however … are you Jewish?

As a girl of Italian and Center Japanese heritage, I used to get this query on a regular basis when Nashville was much less ethnically numerous. Then individuals stopped asking, seemingly out of worry of being canceled or maybe as a result of they simply by no means appeared up from their telephones. I really like when individuals ask me this, as a result of they’re at all times genuinely curious and it by no means fails to jumpstart an attention-grabbing dialog. On this case, Mr. Common and I began there, then moved on to DNA testing; his canine; a rally he attended on the Capitol (together with his canine); Franklin within the ’70s and ’80s; a guide he learn; the guide I introduced with me to the bar in case I used to be bored; his long-ago divorce; and the way essential it’s to get to the bar at Sperry’s in Belle Meade proper at 4 p.m. in order for you a seat. 

In the midst of our simple back-and-forth, Dom texted that he was making his manner by site visitors, so I ordered him a Cuke Duke (cucumber vodka, spicy bitters, orgeat syrup, soda, lime) and two appetizers to share from the glad hour menu.

Shortly after Dom arrived, Mr. Common bid us goodnight, prompting Dom to ask if he’d been hitting on me. Whereas we drug thick squash and carrot wedges by a pleasant plate of hummus combined with pesto, I defined that it didn’t really feel that manner. I believe we each simply wanted to speak to somebody. Dom, who’s a card-carrying member of the Anti-Mayo Coalition, wouldn’t contact the goat cheese pizza as a result of Dijonnaise was listed as an ingredient. Too dangerous for him — that trace of mustard, combined with the nice and cozy goat cheese, rosemary, caramelized onions and almonds, made it memorable. 

Park, because the locals name it, was a chef-owned restaurant till late 2023, when it was purchased by the hospitality group that additionally bought Germantown Café, however it nonetheless looks like a neighborhood cling and hasn’t been stripped of its soul (or, fortunately, its inexperienced chile mac-and-cheese). 

Cease 2: Lola

Lola is true subsequent door to Park Cafe, however I by no means move up a chance to walk the Murphy Street strip that begins with a coin-operated laundromat and ends with a life-size yellow longhorn bull proper earlier than the roundabout. I really like that a couple of steps separate you from adopting a pet, doing a load of whites and shopping for both a chilly Solar Drop or a $50 pair of earrings. That’s the Nashville I do know and love. 

A part of the Siège Hospitality restaurant group that has Kalamatas and Santo in Inexperienced Hills and Epice in 12South — all of that are Mediterranean — Lola stands out with Spanish tapas. It fills a distinct segment in a walkable space that already presents Italian, Mexican and barbecue. 

The house is hanging: It jogs my memory of Epice in that white partitions and some design particulars let the individuals and meals add the colour, plus the ever-important patio vibe. However Lola is newer and sleeker, with tall ceilings and extra pure gentle. Day or evening, it’s a kind of stunning areas that makes everybody in it stunning by affiliation.

Dom and I toasted not with a drink, however with the Veggie Gilda, two small skewers with an olive, cornichon, pepper and dice of cheese on every — presumably the neatest $4 dish on the town. Then we scooped Tomatoes Tartare, mainly a sexier model of salsa, onto sesame crackers and used our forks when the crackers shortly ran out. 

Due to incredible pacing, crispy artichokes adopted with crispier bits of basil within the backside of the bowl, which I ate with my fingers; then it was native mushrooms in Parmesan cream, cured egg yolk and kimchi broth. Within the glow of string lights, I couldn’t inform the distinction between slices of fish and citrus within the tuna crudo, which made each chunk a enjoyable shock.

From our spot on the patio, which was enclosed and heated (for now), we completed up with a Crèma Catalana, a Spanish model of crème brûlée that expertly pairs the unlikely taste combo of espresso and lemon. Dom wished to crack all of it beforehand, however I most well-liked to crack the citrus-sugar crust with every chunk. One thing about that sound is so satisfying. 

Our two-top was simply beside Lola’s bar. That gave me a stunning view of Maher Fawaz, Siège Hospitality co-owner, who stopped in for a pulse verify, and — in stark distinction — a person on his laptop computer Slack messaging in a single tab and scrolling $2 million properties on one other, sadly stopping anybody from attending to know him or studying something about his ethnic heritage and the cleanliness of his gutters.