Guys’ night out
A Taste of Nashville brings the best restaurants together for Boys and Girls Club
Published On: April 13, 2009
The Belle Meade Plantation Carriage House, the usual setting for A Taste of Nashville, the Phoenix Club’s fall fundraiser, was decorated in tulle and little white lights, most unusual for the guys who have donated more than $260,000 to the Boys and Girls Club from Taste proceeds. But it was really lovely—a casual, festive night for the guys and about 600 friends.
The Phoenix Club is for men aged 26-35 and is populated with young professional types—ambitious and all about the bottom line. Every restaurant in town—and at least one that is not quite here yet—brought the kind of goodies that made them famous: Bobby Allen was slicing tenderloin from Ruth’s Chris; Zola dipped up poblano mushroom bisque; Morton’s brought steak sandwiches; the Trace served spiced shrimp with truffle oil mashed potatoes; Nick of Thyme brought French crèpes with fruit and chantilly crème; Layl’A Rul served New York strip steak with lentil purée. And in a tour de force, the Gulch’s not-yet-opened Radius 10 previewed their fare, borrowing a kitchen to prepare spiced pork tenderloin with truffles, butternut squash, gnocci and chanterelle mushrooms. You practically had to speak French to get around all the booths. The great thing was the bigwigs at each spot were there to oversee the fun—owners, managers and executive chefs who could translate for the hungry, if necessary.
Other popular spots included a sumptuous cheese bar running down one side of the barn from Mafiaoza’s and Corrieri’s Formaggeria. On the other side was a liquid chocolate fountain for dipping fruit, cake and marshmallows from A Catered Affair. The crew at McDougal’s Village Coop Chicken decorated with abandon and served some great white chicken chili.
In nuptial news, Dave Young proposed to Jennifer Mayo that night, and newlyweds Val and Ben Fulwider were there with her parents Marianne and Andrew Byrd. With all the French food and molten chocolate, who knows what other love matches may have been made that night? Groove Addiction played throughout the evening, and anybody having a love affair with food was already there. GH/BCA
—photographs by brooke rainey
See all the photos from A Taste of Nashville in the January print issue
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