East Tennessee Eats
I spent all last week back in “ My Tennessee Mountain Home, ” where I ate like a Tennessee queen. I thought it might be nice to share a few of my favorite spots for eats and drinks around Bristol, as well as one special trip across state lines to Heaven on Earth, aka, Abingdon, VA.
My first culinary pit stop on any visit home is almost always going to be the Mad Greek on Volunteer Parkway (my God, we do lean in to being Tennesseans awful hard, don’t we?). Our Mad Greek is one of those places that can do some really cool Greek food, but also caters to those with a more American palate by offering some hybrid options, as well as straight up serving Italian-American classics, and I DON’T HATE IT. In fact, I almost always order the Hawaiian Pizza, because obviously I’m one of those people, and I think theirs is actually really special, as they finish the pizza off with flakes of shredded coconut that give the most beautiful toastiness and tropical scent to your slice. Genius. But this time I felt more Greek-y, so I got the spanikopita platter and it was absolutely beautiful and delicious. I can’t recommend it highly enough, and it was an enormous portion, so the bang for your buck is also pretty incredible. The platter came with plenty of Greek salad, a big portion of “Greek” green beans cooked in tomatoes and garlic, really fragrantly spiced rice, and a big ole hunk of spanikopita, which was flaky, cheesey, everything. Plus the natural light in that place is an Instagram dream.
While in Bristol I also had to make a visit to Aubrey’s, where I was excited to see the bright yellow umbrellas were up and the patio was open for business. They’ve got a very decent wine list, so we got to start our party off right with a lovely, shockingly inexpensive Prosecco, then moved on to a Sauvignon Blanc that paired really nicely with the seafood throw down that went down. I could not resist the delicious and completely unique grilled salmon tacos, and a side of their magical, mystical squash, for which I would gladly live and die and commit certain crimes. I do not know what they do to that squash, but I suspect that it’s roasted, sliced, and smashed (almost whipped?) with honey butter. Whatever it is they do, I hope they never stop! We also had orders of the seafood pasta, chock full of shrimp, hunks of lobster, and spring veggies, and flaky, golden crab cakes. Beautiful meal, beautiful spot.
The last Bristol eatery I hit up last week was a family favorite of ours, Cootie Brown’s. I love having their new(ish) location in Bristol, love their food, love their oddly Carribean/Central American vibe when the weather heats up and their garage door-style windows go up and the misters come on. Although everyone with me went for salads, and their salad list is HUGE, with tons of interesting offerings, I had to go for the Beale St. Pizza, slathered in BBQ sauce and BBQ chicken, with roasted red peppers, red onion, smoked mozzarella, bacon, and topped with cilantro. Oh. My. Lord. I dunked it in their house-made ranch dressing and was in redneck heaven.
I also briefly slipped across state lines to visit one of the sweetest corners on the planet, Abingdon, VA, and try out a new restaurant on Main St. right across from the courthouse, called Morgan’s. The atmosphere was very calm, cool, dignified, befitting of our little historic town. I had heard tell that the mussels were the thing to get, so we ordered them two ways, one batch in lemon butter sauce, the other in a smoky, roasted tomato sauce (which was the hands-down winner of our mussel-off). Portions were presented in a gorgeous trough of a thing, with grilled bread on the side for sopping up sauce. I heard the wood-fired pizzas there are great too, and that same pizza oven is where those delicious, smoky tomatoes came from that went into the other mussel dish. It was a wonderful meal and a good alternative for times when my usual Abingdon favorite, 128 Pecan, is a bit over-crowded.
I want to end with a quick shout out to Bristol Station, where I did not eat, but I did partake in much of their Strawberry Pale Ale and their perfectly low-key beergarten vibes. Their Monday night open mic was a blast, with a caliber of musicianship so casual and nonchalant that it makes me roll my eyes at what passes as music here in Nashville these days. I can’t wait to come and drink and sing with y’all again.
And with that I'll conclude this little anthropological study of what the Appalachians eat, but I look forward to further study upon my return...