Off the Grill II, a Revisit

Last year we tried a new restaurant on Signal Mountain called Off the Grill II. We had heard good things about it, but we had a disappointing experience and had not returned.

Recently some friends told us they had tried the BBQ and it was pretty good. So last Friday, when our local standby was packed, we decided to give it another chance.

I was a little concerned when we first walked in the door. The location is a really old house and it has a distinct old house smell to it. Jack (age 3) immediately plugged his nose and kept asking, "What is that smell?" I shushed him and let him pick our table. There are four rooms with seating to choose from. Incidentally he picked the same table we sat at before.

We quickly picked our entrees as our noses adjusted to the smell. I picked the Ribs and Daniel chose the Salmon. The plates were big enough that Jack just shared with us. The food was really delicious. My fried okra and baked beans had a smoky taste to them that paired nicely with the fall-off-the-bone ribs. The ribs were definitely some of the best I have tried and Daniel's salmon had good flavor as well.

Besides the smell of the restaurant, my only complaint is that they serve the food on plastic disposable plates and utensils. At $10-$15 per entree, it feels odd to eat on plastic.

The owner came by our table while we were eating. He was very friendly, making jokes with our two little ones. The restaurant has live music on Saturday nights and tables on the front porch. You can also get take out.

Overall, we felt like the food was good and we had a much better experience than our first visit.

Local Food

The city of Chattanooga, and the people who live here, really emphasize the importance of eating locally. This means that most of the money you spend stays in the community. Also, many of the local restaurants use local food sources, so your money is going even further than just the restaurant. Here are my thoughts on some of the local places we have tried recently...

The Big Table, base of Signal Mountain
Daniel heard about this little cafe at the base of Signal Mountain and suggested we try it out one night. It is a little dainty restaurant that serves fresh southern food. We ate on the front porch so that Jack wouldn't bother those sitting inside. 

The portions were big enough that we were able to order two adult portions and share with Jack. Daniel tried the trout with a side salad while I had the casserole of the day – Poppyseed Chicken. Both were good.



Olive Bean, Signal Mountain
Olive Bean is a restaurant that recently opened on Signal Mountain. They serve a limited, but excellent selection of gourmet coffee. I am so thrilled to be able to go out for coffee (close to my house) and I also like that they have outdoor seating.

I have heard that their brunch and sandwiches options are excellent – I look forward to trying brunch soon. The Olive Bean is also a local grocery store that sells organic and local foods. It is expensive, but not astronomical by any means. I hope they stay open for a long time!


Off the Grill II, Signal Mountain
This is also a new restaurant on the mountain. According to the local weekly paper, it promised to be a great place for BBQ. Unfortunately it did not live up to expectations. The night we went, the water was turned off. We should have just left, it kind of weirded us out that they were running a kitchen with no water. Also, it just felt overpriced and the food wasn't that great. I don't think we will go back.


Hummingbird Pastaria, Signal Mountain
A couple of weeks ago, we took advantage of family visiting and let them babysit Jack while we ran out for a late cup of coffee and dessert. At first we weren't sure where to go since a lot of places on the mountain close early and we only wanted dessert (we even considered walking to the local gas station for coffee!), but then I remembered that the Hummingbird Pastaria (previously Ninos) served dessert. 

This was our first visit since it changed owners. We only had dessert but it was delicious. I had the Tiramasou and Daniel had the Chocolate Mousse. I also ordered their French Press Coffee. Unfortunately the coffee didn't taste that great – probably because I ordered decaf instead of regular. The desserts were a win and we will be going back to try their meal time offerings.

Clumpies, NorthShore (Chattanooga)
Last week we went to Clumpies for ice cream before attending Movies in the Park. 

They make their waffle cones and ice cream from scratch and it was all amazing! Daniel chose peanut butter ice cream, Jack picked strawberry with sprinkles and I had a waffle cone with espresso chocolate chunk. I can't wait to go back!

BrewHaus, NorthShore (Chattanooga)
Last week we attempted to go to the Flying Squirrel in an effort to support the LiveStrong program at our local YMCA. Unfortunately when we arrived, they told us that you had to be 21 to enter. Since we had Jack with us we had to find another place to go, so we settled on the Brewhaus in Northshore. 

The Brewhaus (which is also a bar) had no problems with kids eating at their establishment. It was a Tuesday so we thought we would get right in, however it was Trivia Night so the place was packed. After about a 10-minute wait, we lucked up with seats on the back porch with a great view of Lookout Mountain and the Walnut Street Bridge. It was great to watch people while we waited. And wait we did. I don't know if they are normally this slow or if Trivia Night had them going slower, but it was SLOW. 

Thankfully the food made up for the slow service. Daniel had a burger with bleu cheese and I tried the Rooster Schnitzel Weiner Art with a side of veggies and potato cakes. It was all amazing. Jack gobbled up the potato cakes. I hope we go back and try some of the rest of their menu (maybe when it isn't so busy). Jack was a trooper considering we were out until 9pm!

Provino's Italian Restaurant

On a recommendation we checked out Provino's Italian Restaurant in Chattanooga. Reviews on Urbanspoon were a mixed bag, with a 77% rating.

First off, the restaurant is in a strip mall off of East Brainerd. The outside was nothing special, but we forged on. The inside was quaint, in a cozy bistro kind of way. We were early on a Friday evening and got right in. The place was really hopping by the time we left.

They sat us in a back section close to other families. This was actually nice since we didn't feel like Jack would interrupt anyone's meal {which he rarely does} and Jack and the toddler at the next table spent some time "talking" to each other. Our waiter was friendly and did a good job of taking care of us.

We decided to stay simple and try the Lasagna and Chicken Parmesan. Meals are served with a family-style Italian salad and garlic rolls – very à la Olive Garden. The salad was good, but included chick peas and beats... which was a bit different. The rolls were great. Jack ate bits and pieces of salad, rolls and some of my spaghetti.

Finally our main courses showed up. Here is where things went a bit south. I don't know why this happens but it seems as though some restaurants that use ground beef end up with dishes that taste like they are straight from a school cafeteria. Italian and Tex Mex being the worst offenders. Does anyone else run into this problem?

In the future if we are in the mood for Italian I think we will stick with Tony's Pasta Shop & Trattoria.

The House Hunting Continues...

Last night, Daniel made my day. He called me on the way home from work and asked if I would be opposed to eating out. Are you kidding me??? After being cooped up all day, I am always ready to go out.

We decided to go try Mr. T's Pizza and Ice Cream in St. Elmo. It had good online reviews and it did not disappoint. The only negative was that it didn't offer outdoor seating, but we sat by the window and watched the coming and goings of everyone on the street.

Food was good. Price was cheap. We give it a thumbs up.

Mr. T's Pizza and Ice Cream. A medium pizza and drinks was less than $10.
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Before we left our camper, we wrote down addresses to 9 houses so that we could do a drive by to see if we liked their locations. One was in NorthShore – this is a transitional area that looks to be a fave with the hipster crowd. Like all transitional areas, you can be one street off the main area and feel like you are in the ghetto. The house we looked at felt like it was in the ghetto.

The only redeeming thing about this house was a huge detached garage in the back. 

Unfortunately for Daniel, I don't think I would be comfortable living at this location.

Even on a short term basis.

The next five houses were all pretty close together in the Orchard Knob area {close to the university}. These were bigger houses and 4 of the 5 felt like we could live in them. Negatives were lack of yards {in most} and no garage. Being so close to UTC, it would probably be easy to rent out one of these houses to students later on, but the houses also cost a bit more...

 

This house was super cute and had a fenced back yard. But no garage.

Finally we went to Missionary Ridge where we checked out three houses {and saw two others while driving around}. One of the houses we liked a lot and we plan to go look at the inside soon. It is priced well and probably needs some updating {which we can do}. And it has a decent yard and a two-car garage.

 

Great location with a decent yard and a detached two-car garage. 

It probably needs some updating, but we can see ourselves living here. 

This one made it to our must-see list.

In addition to all of this, Daniel found a posting on Craigslist for a house in St. Elmo for dirt cheap. It has views of Lookout Mountain. If we bought a house like this, it would be to completely gut the insides and build a basically new house. It is so cheap that we could probably cash flow the entire project and make some money down the road. The negative is that it would be a very big commitment. But at least we have acquired the necessary skills from our last home remodel.

This house would be a complete overhaul - down to the studs. 

Not sure if we are up for it, but could probably make some money 
if we want to devote more of our lives to renovation...

We have a lot to think about.

We have lists of houses to drive by in several other areas of town including Signal Mountain, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Valley and a few in Alabama.

The Terminal

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Since Daniel typically works a four-day work week, Thursdays are Daniel's Friday. Over the last couple of weeks he has been working overtime, so this is the first three-day weekend we have been able to share together.

To kick it off, we made a last-minute decision to go out for dinner. Thanks to Google, I was able to find reviews on local restaurants and we made our way to The Terminal Brewhouse, located in downtown Chattanooga right next to the Chattanooga Choo Choo, about an 8-minute drive from our camper.

This restaurant is worth a visit just to experience the architecture of the building. It is a multi-story structure with seating around the perimeter of each level and an open atrium in the center that is the full height of the building. It is a pub, so the interior was loud and boisterous, even at 8PM on a Thursday.

We opted to sit outside in the beer garden – located over the kitchen on a grass covered, sustainable rooftop. The biggest complaint we read in reviews is that your food might arrive warm instead of hot {this is probably due to the fact that the kitchen is on the first floor and servers are running the food up and down the stairs}. Our dishes arrived hot, but the fries were on the warmish side.

Since we are not fans of beer, I cannot comment on the beer, but they do offer a wide variety of brews. And the names of the dishes are ingenious – like the Look What You Did You Little Jerk! Sandwich. We give this pub a thumbs up and will definitely be back.

Project 52 Date Nights: Discovery

One of the best things about living in a new city is that there is so much to discover. We get to search for our new favorite Mexican restaurant and decide who serves the best barbecue or desserts and where the best coffee house is. We get to explore and try out new eateries and find new haunts. 

Monday night I had a headache and did not feel up to the task of cooking in our itty bitty kitchen, so we opted to go out for dinner. Since we live at the Lookout Mountain exit, we chose to look for a restaurant on the mountain {with the back up plan to go down to St. Elmo's}. 

I googled "best places to eat on Lookout Mountain" and Cafe on the Corner and Guthries Chicken popped up. Guthries looked like a local version of Zaxby's so we decided to go with Cafe on the Corner. This was a good decision since Guthries closed at 8PM.

Cafe on the Corner was quaint. We wanted to sit outside and the early evening temps were conducive to that. We decided to get the Grouper sandwich with homemade chips and a Black-and-Bleu Burger with fries {we like to share so that we can try new things}. The food was delicious. 

I can't tell you how nice it is to go out on a week night together. Five months of separation during the week really robbed us of simple pleasures like getting to eat meals together and sharing how our days went.