Old and New Nashville collide at 21st Avenue South eateries
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The cavalcade of long-running lunch spots closing in recent years has led to beautifully written culinary obituaries.
- You know the list: Rotier's, Hermitage Cafe, Arnold's. We've even written some of those obituaries in our newsletter.
Reality check: Instead of merely being reactive and writing yet another soul-searching story when the next Nashville institution closes, we wanted to make a point of visiting one of our still-standing favorites.
- With that in mind, we headed down 21st Avenue to that block where Midtown meets the Vanderbilt neighborhood, for a much-needed return trip to San Antonio Taco Company.
Flashback: SATCO was started 39 years ago by two Vanderbilt students, and the formula has pretty much been left alone.
- You walk across the enormous front patio, hoping it's not so crowded you can't find a table. You fill out your order on the old-school pieces of paper while you wait in line. You catch some snark from the cashier for not stepping up fast enough, and then your tacos and guac are miraculously ready about two minutes later.
- That ritual is part of what makes SATCO so great. The food is great, too.
Zoom out: While preserving the pillars of old Nashville is perhaps more important than ever, the bold new contributors to our food scene are pretty delicious as well.
- We completed our health food power lunch by taking a short walk to Sarabhas Creamery, which specializes in Indian-style ice cream. Sarabhas is upstairs in the building old-timers will remember as home to CD Warehouse and Cheeseburger Charlies.
- The cashier explained the Indian-style ice cream is whipped very slowly, giving little time for air to enter. The result is a denser ice cream. We ordered combinations of mango, coconut, Indian coffee and chai.
- Sarabhas is spacious with comfortable seating that puts most hipster coffee shops to shame.
The bottom line: Our old-meets-new power lunch got an A+ for satisfaction and a D- for healthiness.