Germantown Cafe

Germantown Cafe
1200 Fifth Avenue
Nashville, Tennessee
615.242.3226

So, as I write things in this blog, I always want to come up with a witty title, or a dry-humor title that only a grandfather would kindly chuckle at. For some reason, I just could not think of a funny or dry humor title for Germantown. Is it that I think Germans are serious people, like Albert Einstein? Well, actually I heard on Science Friday that Albert Einstein actually was a humorous and a likable guy. Is it that I think Germantown is serious? Well, not totally serious because it has a rather fun October Festival with lots o' beer, polka bands, and brauts and kraut. At anyrate, my title is straight up Germantown Cafe.

my strudel

Germantown Cafe is in a part of town called Germantown. Germantown Cafe doesn't sell anything that is German per se, rather it is a new American restaurant. There is a smart wine list that pairs with the entrees, and the waitstaff seems to know the recommended pairings. We go there every so often, and they serve a salad with every entree. The salads are great because they are lightly tossed with dressing, so it is like a refreshing salad, not a salad drowning in dressing. Ok, so one of my pet peeves is a salad with a big glob of dressing on it, and not tossed. For most restaurants, I ask for dressing on the side, so I don't get the big glob. Germantown is one of the few restaurants that I will allow the kitchen to dress my salad for me because they do it right.

On this trip, I decided to start my dinner with the cheese strudel. It appears that the strudel of the day is whatever the chef feels like making that day. It seems like the construction was cheese rolled in phyllo dough and rolled over like a burrito, then baked in the oven. These were simple, straight forward and tasty.

beef with mash potatoes and really tiny green beans
the green beans may appear larger than they really are

For the entrees, we opted for beef charred Pittsburgh style on top of mashed potatoes and tiny green beans, and the special rack of lamb with asparagus and sweet potato casserole. Germantown seems to have "one of each" menu, that is one of each, chicken, fish, pasta, veggie, beef, pork and lamb. Apparently I am in a rut, and I always get the lamb. I got the special pasta dish once, made with pistachios and olive oil, but then I got jealous when I watched the lamb dish get placed on another diner's table. I wish I could tell you about the beef dish, but it was eaten all up by my dinner mate. The one thing I do know about the tiny green beans is that Germantown Cafe often serves tiny green beans, and that makes me laugh because they are so tiny cute.

my lamb

My lamb dish was the whole rack of lamb, 8 ribs that were cut into 4 double lamb ribs. Germantown frenched my lamb (No, don't think lovers lane "frenched". I can't believe you thought of that and not the culinary term to scrap, clean and trim the rack of lamb bones), so I could have cut the individual ribs and eaten them like lollipops. I ended up eating only 1/2 of my meal because it was so rich and filling. I took the rest home.

We opted to bring our own wine for a corkage fee, and we brought a 2002 Matanzas Creek Cab. 2007 is the perfect year for the Matanzas Creek cab, and I think it went really well with both of our meals. But then again, what do I know about wine? Not much, but I do know that this one stood up to a lamb meal. We only have one more bottle of the 2002, and we need to drink it soon, it is so good! Anyway, back to the food. The next day, I re-heated the 2nd 1/2 of my meal in the oven because oven heat is just tastier than microwave heating. It was one of the most luxurious leftovers lunch I have ever had.

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Germantown Cafe