When Anas Saba began taking his pals to totally different eating places in South Nashville, he wasn’t planning to make a full-time job of it. He simply needed to share his hometown’s many scrumptious, multicultural eating places.
Now, years later, his suggestions attain hundreds of individuals via his @nashvillehiddengems Instagram account, the place he posts about the whole lot from small, immigrant-owned eating places to well-known native staples. A self-described “celebrator” of meals versus a critic, Saba has been broadening individuals’s palates via posts, meals excursions, chef-led academic periods and extra. The Scene lately caught up with Saba to debate his perspective on Nashville’s ever-changing meals panorama.
How do you distinguish a “hidden gem” from different eating places?
That username has been a blessing and a curse. … Being on my web page doesn’t imply that I’m contemplating this place a Nashville hidden gem — it simply may be an incredible place. … To me, a hidden gem is a spot that’s simply not within the common media rotation. … Possibly they don’t have the savvy or the funds or they’re not essentially occupied with advertising so much, however they’re doing one thing actually good, and one thing that I feel is value experiencing and price sharing. So the locations that I contemplate the licensed hidden gems, they’re not tremendous energetic on social media, they usually sort of have that mom-and-pop, homey vibe.
Is it even honest to ask when you have a favourite restaurant on the town?
My primary rec when individuals do ask me for a sitdown dinner — I do ship individuals to Noko so much. What I like about Noko is the service is at all times actually nice there. And I feel, to me, that’s really a very powerful factor when you’re paying a better value otherwise you’re going to a higher-end restaurant. … After which there’s simply too many to depend in the case of lunch.
Have you ever discovered any new hidden gems that you simply’re enthusiastic about?
TashTea [Cafe] in Antioch — actually cool Turkish/Kurdish breakfast place. Beautiful workers there. The meals is superb. We simply don’t actually have something like that in Nashville proper now, so I used to be actually glad to see that they have been doing that.
Is there a meals tradition that you simply’d prefer to see extra broadly represented in Nashville?
Chinese language and West African.
Any scorching takes concerning the native meals scene?
I gotta watch out right here. I feel meals in Nashville is somewhat bit costly in comparison with cities which have a a lot greater price of dwelling than Nashville — however meals costs are primarily the identical. … I completely perceive pricing. I’ve no downside paying so much for good meals, and I perceive the best way the margins work, and I perceive that more often than not the costs aren’t inflated — it’s simply the price of issues is so excessive. I feel I’d similar to to see a number of [or] some extra cheap choices on each menu. …
I do want we had extra late-night choices. … I really feel like, generally, the standard of service is so down — particularly at a higher-end restaurant. I imply, it’s actually laborious to discover a place that may ship a constantly good expertise from the meals and repair perspective. I feel there’s just a bit, generally, an excessive amount of give attention to ambiance and vibe, after which the service will get uncared for and stuff. I really feel like I see some locations that may put a lot into bringing new individuals in. It’s like, OK — getting individuals within the door is one factor. As soon as they’re in there, how are you coaching your workers, what sort of practices are you doing to guarantee that individuals really feel like they’re taken care of? On the finish of the day, that is the hospitality trade, and persons are going out to really feel taken care of. And I’m simply noticing it’s turning into more durable and more durable to search out locations that do ship that degree of service.
Anas Saba at Edessa
Is there an area market that you simply actually like?
Newroz [Market], Okay&S [World Market] and Richland [Park] Farmers Market.
What recommendation would you give to individuals wanting to find new eating places and new sorts of meals?
For me, it was laborious for some time to go and take a look at new spots. I imply, beginning this web page actually inspired me to. … However I’d say for most individuals — I used to listen to this on a regular basis — individuals can be afraid of going to a global restaurant as a result of they may be fearful about language boundaries, or they won’t know what to order on the menu. I feel that’s a very attention-grabbing expertise, as a result of that’s how most immigrants really feel 99 p.c of the time after they’re in America. It’s like, they might not have a excessive degree of English, they might not have the ability to talk, however they exit they usually do what they gotta do anyway. And so I’d say do some little bit of analysis earlier than you go, see if you’ll find the menu, and simply be open to making an attempt new issues and understanding that … a lot might be communicated simply via physique language and expressions. And don’t let your concern or your nervousness about making an attempt a spot for a primary time preserve you from discovering your new favourite place.
A variety of these locations, I imply, they depend on somebody simply taking that likelihood and making an attempt them for the primary time. They’re not investing so much in advertising, they might not have an enormous net presence, so that they depend on their neighbors simply saying, ‘Hey, I’ve seen this Uzbek restaurant — I go by it 100 instances,” “I see this taco truck on a regular basis, let me simply go give it a shot,” proper? The attractive factor about plenty of these mom-and-pop eating places is you may give it a shot, and when you don’t prefer it, I imply, normally you’re not going to be breaking the financial institution completely to attempt them for the primary time.”
