Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Traveling Tuesday: The Bloomy Rind and Porter Road Butcher in Nashville



I've been on the road most weekends since Labor Day, and things aren't letting up during October. Lots more to come, but here's one of my favorite finds from last weekend's jaunt to Nashville for the Southern Artisan Cheese Festival and dinner at The Catbird Seat.


The Southern Artisan Cheese Festival was launched last year by the proprietor of a Nashville artisan cheese shop called The Bloomy Rind, which I decided to check out Saturday afternoon before Cheese Fest opened at 3:30. Come to find out, Bloomy Rind isn't much bigger than this cheese case tucked inside a great little butcher shop, Porter Road Butcher (PRB, not PBR).


People are always happy to wait for their order when it's good stuff. And this is clearly good stuff. Even the fellow coming in for his weekly order of house-ground dog food wasn't deterred when there wasn't any available. He just proceeded to order a bunch of people food.


I salivated over the offerings in the butcher case, knowing I'd have to keep them chilled in one of the coolers I'd brought with me and resisting the urge to buy too much since I'd soon be away from home again.


I settled on some jowl bacon, lardo (!), and a single sausage made in the style of that signature Nashville dish, Hot Chicken.

I'll be back to share photos of Cheese Fest, which drew cheese artisans from all over the South and hundreds of attendees – pretty remarkable when you look at that little cheese case inside PRB. But this weekend I'm off to Columbus, OH, for the book launch party of my most recent editing project, Hot Dogs, A Little Marketing, and A Lot of Fun.

1 comment:

Buzz Kill said...

"...Porter Road Butcher (PRB, not PBR)" Bwahahaha, I love PBR.

Jowl, hot chicken sausage and lardo - the trifecta of artery blocking goodness. I swear, you go to some of the coolest places.

And was that beef bacon in the case? What?