Best Thing We Ate on Vacation: Southern-Inspired Fare at City House

By James Mulcahy

Don't know about you, but we're still recovering from our Fourth of July vacation, which we're reminded of every time our shirt seems a little tighter than usual. Yesterday, we looked at our time in Hawaii and today it's Nashville's turn. We spent some time in Music City over the break and ate at many of the city's fine restaurants, our favorite of which was easily the Germantown area's City House.

The eatery, which is located in an industrial space that used to house a sculpture studio, turns out a menu of simple, rustic fare that is rife with local ingredients and subtle, Southern-inspired touches. We liked the bread gnocchi with local peas, pecornio and ricotta but we loved the restaurant's house-made sausages and charcuterie, including the Calabrian sausage, which was as juicy and delicious as anything we tried on our journey South. Made with Tennessee-bred pigs and topped off with a small portion of pickled chilies and onions, the plate contained a nice touch: some small cubes of Georgia peaches. This surprising sweet and savory mix made us utter a phrase we encountered more at the town's honkey tonks than at the restaurants - yee-haw.