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Restaurant recommendations are all well and good (we gave you the city's 50 best restaurants last yearthose recommendations still stand). This year, we're taking you straight to the heart of the matter: what to order right now. Our panel of food experts met at The 404 Kitchen on a sunny February morning to hash out which dishes would make this year's list.
We all announced our recent dining highlights, which instigated a few side discussions about things like chef consistency, great burgers, and what's coming down the pipeline, but then we moved on to hash out the classics: Who's been doing it well since the beginning. Who knocks it out of the park every time. And which restaurants need to step back and try again (we won't name names).
Thankfully, chef Matt Bolus was on hand to help fuel the creative fire with a few of his own stellar creations, like country ham and biscuits with red-eye gravy (we were unanimous in our agreement about his nightly sheepshead dish, which made this year's list). Creating a list like this is no easy feat (delicious, yes, but never easy) and our pros had a hard time limiting the list to 25. But as always, it created a happy excuse to get together over the table, swap stories and dining experiences, and share some incredible food. All we ask in return is that you pick up this month's issue and set out to do the same.
Meet the folks behind the list from left to right.
Chris Chamberlain is a food and drink writer who has lived and eaten in Nashville for his entire life (except for four years at Stanford University where he learned to manipulate chopsticks). His favorite thing to do is to watch football on TV while waiting for a pork shoulder to come up to temp as slowly as possible.
Kay West has been dining professionally for more than two decades, writing about food and restaurants for the Nashville Scene, Nashville Lifestyles, and Style Blueprint. She also covers Middle Tennessee's celebrity residents as the Nashville correspondent for People magazine.
Jennifer Justus is a food culture writer and author of Food Lovers' Guide to Nashville. Before journalism, she worked in food research studying the emotional connections we make over dishes from chili to pepperoni pie.
Beth Sachan is the director of marketing for Nashville's own Goo Goo Cluster. In her spare time, she cooks, eats, travels and writes about all of her food and drink adventures along the way on her blog, eat-drink-smile.com.
Vivek Surti eats and drinks his way throughout Nashville and beyond. When he's not cooking as the chef and founder of VEA Supper Club, he handles marketing for the Nashville Wine Auction.
Erin Byers Murray has been eating (and writing about it) professionally for more than a decade. As the managing editor of Nashville Lifestyles, she regularly covers this city's restaurant and food scene.
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