Nashville Date Evening: Drinks, Dinner and Dessert in Edgehill | 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 wish to do extra than simply go to 1 restaurant and name it an evening. It’s for overwhelmed dad and mom who don’t get out usually; for pals who go to the identical three eating places as a result of they’re too afraid to strive someplace new; and for busy people who hold forgetting all of the locations they’ve pushed previous, heard about, seen on social and stated, “Let’s do not forget that place subsequent time we exit.”

I had all of the substances for sauce and meatballs, a surplus of mini marshmallows for warm chocolate and a full fridge and pantry. That was the extent of my ice storm prep. The Friday evening earlier than it hit, my husband Dom and I had a let’s-get-out-while-we-can dinner with my father-in-law Lou, who assured us over eggplant stew at Noôsh that he’d be high-quality together with his transportable generator ought to something go sideways. 

By Monday, he was not high-quality. With out energy in an enormous home, he was chilly and prepared to courageous the roads between his home and ours for heat and a meatball or 4. By Wednesday, when his neighbors texted that the facility was again on, he was nowhere close to high-quality: The pipes above his kitchen burst and his ceiling was on the ground in standing water. 

Lou wouldn’t decide to shifting in with Dom and me. He introduced sufficient garments for a pair days and stayed packed, his luggage and briefcase on the foot of the mattress. After a couple of days, he arrange his nutritional vitamins on the desk and put a couple of short-sleeve button-down shirts and American flag ties within the closet. He didn’t wish to take up an excessive amount of house, however he’d let me feed him. So a couple of Friday nights later, when Dom was out of city, Lou referred to as to say he’d be dwelling for dinner. It’d been a tough week of contractor conferences, insurance coverage claims and watching strangers field up his life and put it within the storage. I instructed him that’s high-quality, however we’re going out. 

Cease 1: ZieherSmith

Lou shouldn’t be a person who goes to artwork galleries: He goes to work, the financial institution, Kroger, church, golf programs and the identical restaurant time and again, which drives me nuts. I’ll stroll by means of a gallery on trip, nevertheless it hardly ever happens to me to go to one in my very own city. It’s impostor syndrome: If I can’t afford to drop 1000’s on a portray or sculpture, do I even deserve a peek? 

“Shut up and look,” stated Scott Zieher of ZieherSmith in Edgehill, including that walk-ins who buy are uncommon and nearly all of gross sales are made by appointment. “Greatest free leisure on the earth.” Scott and Andrea Zieher (previously Smith) opened ZieherSmith in New York’s Chelsea artwork district in 2003 and relocated to Nashville in 2019. I met them in 2021 — not as gallerists, however as fellow baseball dad and mom sharing bleachers and concession-stand sweet throughout city. When they opened ZieherSmith final yr, I ended by on my solution to a doubleheader in Nolensville. There have been children making bead crafts by the entrance door whereas individuals chatted in small teams. There was no strain to purchase. No snooty snobbery. Simply good artwork and good individuals. 

Lou and I attended the opening of Yanira Vissepo: On the Mountainside by the River. We marveled on the intricate layers of black linen cutouts atop canvases that, Andrea defined, Vissepo stained herself. We made two journeys round the principle room, taking all of it in, then perused the T-shirts, books, tinned fish and tiny strawberry magnets in This Nationwide Life, the makers’ gallery/reward store on shelving that’s a murals itself. In lower than quarter-hour we had been out and in, excessive on the creativity of others.

Cease 2: Sadie’s 

In nicer climate, I’d make the 12-minute stroll from ZieherSmith to Sadie’s, nevertheless it was drizzly and chilly, and my boots weren’t made for strolling. As a substitute I drove three minutes, scored a spot alongside Villa Place and parallel parked so easily not even Lou may consider a approach to enhance upon it. 

Sadie’s is all heat grays, whites and beiges, lamps, vegetation and massive banquettes that run the size of the restaurant, plus a patio that hugs the nook of Villa and Edgehill. It’s a peaceful, subtly stunning house that doesn’t strike me as overly female, however on a number of visits I’ve seen males are within the minority whereas ladies of all ages sip espresso martinis collectively. In the meantime, a gentle stream of men file into Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint throughout the road.

Lou, the one particular person (and definitely the one Italian) I’ve ever identified who eats for gas and never for pleasure or consolation, stated “This pita is so good” 3 times as he ran torn-off items by means of the candy and savory whipped feta strewn with honeycomb, edible flowers and pomegranate seeds. Can I describe these full discs with out utilizing the phrase “pillowy”? Sure. They had been spongy and substantial and have ruined floury, flat store-bought pita for me perpetually. We obtained two with the whipped feta and two extra with the hummus and roasted mushrooms that impressed me to perform a little seat dance after my first chunk. It may’ve been a hearty vegetarian meal by itself.

I met Lou for the primary time over dinner on the Cool Springs Buca di Beppo in 2003. Dom, then my co-worker, flirted his approach right into a restaurant assessment, so I instructed him to satisfy me with an enormous group so we may eat the home down family-style. He introduced his dad and mom Lou and Lucy, his sister Laura (who was pregnant with twins) and his roommate Chris. I’ve eaten one million meals everywhere in the nation with Lou since, however by no means simply the 2 of us. 

So I solely came upon over matching Yasmin cocktails of rum, plum, fig and cardamom that he shucked oysters at a Florida restaurant throughout highschool to pay for the 1966 Chevy Nova he purchased at 16. I discovered between bites of pomegranate salmon kebabs — which I assumed may be too candy, however completely weren’t — that he made $1.25 an hour on the A&P, however they’d solely give him part-time hours. So Lou went to the Oyster Home, the place he made 25 cents much less however may work 70 hours. We talked in regards to the couple of dates he’s gone on since Lucy died in 2021, and the way the ladies his age appear “so previous.” He requested me good questions in return, like the place I labored in faculty (Worldwide Deli, Tuscaloosa, Ala.), why a lady from small-town Franklin would select an enormous SEC faculty the place she didn’t know anybody (lengthy story), and would I like a few of his rooster souvlaki (sure please).

Cease 3: Van Leeuwen 

If the women are at Sadie’s and the gents are at Jack Brown’s, everybody comes collectively at Van Leeuwen (van-lou-inn), subsequent door to Sadie’s in what was as soon as NoBaked Cookie Dough. Now a series with areas in lots of states throughout the nation — and three right here in Nashville to this point — Van Leeuwen began as an NYC meals truck in 2008. By the news and pint, they promote French ice cream (made with eggs) and vegan ice cream (oats, cashews) in taste combos like Strawberry Matcha Latte, Black Cherry Chip, Earl Gray Tea and Honeycomb. I used to be pleasantly stunned by the brownie within the Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb — it was dense and cakey, not only a brown blob of imprecise brownie-ness. Lou, who’s normally a peanut butter man, had the Mint Chip, which was initially white with brown specks till Van Leeuwen lately added a inexperienced hue. 

After catching up with Dom on the cellphone after we returned dwelling, I fell asleep with out saying goodnight to Lou. Once I awakened the subsequent morning, there was a notebook-paper observe below my door in his all-caps combo of cursive and block print: Thanks for an gratifying evening out. Meals and firm was excellent. —Lou.