September's Downtown Dinner Date

Well we sure picked a humdinger of a night to have a date night in Nashville. I stayed a little bit late at work, traffic was horrible on the way home, and it was pouring rain. I was trying to hurry so we could get to Nashville at a decent time.

But then I heard on the radio that Taylor Swift was having day 1 of her concert in Nashville. That pretty much convinced me that we SHOULD NOT venture downtown tonite. 

Too wet, too late, and too busy. 

So once again, our date night stayed in Clarksville. 

Chris had done some research by the time I got home and picked out a restaurant: The Cumberland Grille. 

Sounds fancy! I imagined a sophisticated, dimly lit bar and grille with prices on the menu listed as "14" instead of "14.00". 

Here is a photo of the restaurant I pulled from Google Earth:

Hmm, not quite what I was expecting.

Next door is a flower nursery. It literally looks like two buildings (and their parking lots) were glued together.

The parking lot was the size of a large driveway. There was a bit more parking in the back.

An interesting first impression, for sure.

We parked in the back; the front and side parking was full. That made me feel a bit better that they appeared to be busy on a Friday night.

We walked around to the front in the drizzling rain, and were greeted by a old-house smell upon entering. And not like an "ooo, grandma's cooking" smell, just old house smell. 

The tables, chairs, and decor were very basic, the carpet looked dingy, and it definitely had that "ma and pop" restaurant feel to it.

The hostess was friendly and quickly seated us in a booth in the back of the restaurant. There was a small bar and one tv with a football game on. We checked out the menu and quickly spotted our favorite appetizer - fried pickles! Of course we ordered them.

They were hot, crispy, and pretty good. A tad salty for my preferences, but overall we liked them. Chris ordered the Surf and Turf, which came with a side salad and a side for $17. I got the Catfish Dinner (insert Luke Bryan song here) and mine also came with a side salad and a side, in addition to my hushpuppies and white beans. I think mine was $11. Pretty good values!

The food was decent, not great. My catfish was my favorite part. The fish was piping hot, crispy, and flaky. Chris's steak looked good, but he said it really lacked any flavor. Our waitress was very friendly and attentive to our needs. Perfect service. She did a nice job handling the large party seated near us with a SCREAMING child and some very bizarre ordering preferences (who asks for a Caesar salad with salmon and then later asks for RANCH as the dressing AFTER the order has already been put in?!)

On the way home, we were deciding what to do for the rest of the night, a wave of nausea hit me. My stomach was NOT happy. I realized that everything I ordered was fried. Not a smart choice. We don't eat fried food very often. I don't know why I wasn't paying more attention to what I ordered. Some Sprite calmed my belly down, and we ended the night with a movie at home.

And then I showed Chris a new iOS 7 phone feature for the camera - hold the "take a photo" button, and it takes photos like crazy! Like 3 per second!

Ok, that's not exact, but it takes them crazy fast!

I used to hold that down and let go of it when Duke was holding still to get the best shot; I guess I can't do that anymore! But we had some fun with it:

That's it! The night probably could have gone a lot better. Chris and I both agreed we would not be returning to that restaurant. The service was the only good thing about that visit. I am hoping next month we can finally make it to Nashville for our Downtown Dinner Date. Third time's a charm, right?