RESTAURANT SPECIAL FEATURE - SAVOR THE MOMENT

By Kathy Fox

With Williamson County thriving, it is very fitting to see many new culinary delights opening. Even during the past few years, new restaurants were popping up amid the pandemic. As we explore some of the new restaurants, remember there are plenty of beloved favorites that have stood the test of time. Enjoy the flavor explosion that is right in your backyard and show your support to all the local restaurants. They depend on you now more than ever. Bon appétit!

Rad Cobb with steakChicken MamacitaWest Coast Radish with salmon

RADISH

4101 ASPEN GROVE DRIVE #106 • FRANKLIN

(615) 614-3158 | radishkitchen.com

Nothing brings people together like good food and the mission at Radish is to make fresh, healthy, and delicious food. Radish owner, Amanda Frederickson, started that quest in 2013 when she quit her corporate job to pursue her true calling of creating delicious recipes for the home cook. She attended San Francisco Cooking School and ultimately landed in the Williams-Sonoma Test Kitchen. Since then, her work has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Goop, Food & Wine, Food52, Sunset, and on Cherry Bombe Radio, as well as the Williams-Sonoma YouTube channel.

Fast forward to April 2020, when Frederickson published her first solo cookbook, Simple, Beautiful Food, where she compiled some of her favorite recipes from over the years. Later that year in August she opened the doors to her first Radish restaurant located in West Nashville, and in May 2022 opened her second location in Franklin.

Radish treats guests to healthy, colorful, and tasty food. The fastcasual concept offers guests their Signature dishes such as the West Coast Radish, which is tamari soy glazed salmon, avocado, tomatoes, edamame, cucumber, carrots, radish, pickled red onion, and carrot ginger miso dressing — a colorful flavor explosion! Plus it is also gluten and dairy free. If you prefer meat as the protein try the Rad Cobb featuring grilled steak, bacon, hard-boiled egg, crispy onion, avocado, and tomatoes with house vinaigrette dressing. You won’t be disappointed.

The combination of flavors Frederickson has come up with is truly a beautiful palette to eat and offers the benefits of healthy fresh eating. For those who prefer to Build Your Own, you can select bases from salad, a grain bowl, or a wrap with proteins, four toppings, and a dressing to top it off. The options are limitless, and the flavors are remarkable.

Check out the menu at radishkitchen.com and stop by one of their locations or place your order online. Follow them on social media @radisheats for daily updates or for more inspiration, tune into Frederickson’s weekly Instagram Fridge Foraging, where she helps home cooks make the most out of their own kitchens.

GOLDEN CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH TOASTED PINE NUTS — EARTHY, SWEET, SOOTHING | SERVES 4

SHOPPING LIST

Pine nuts

Curry powder

Olive oil

Vegetable stock

Onion

Cauliflower

Apples

Micro Greens

In a large Dutch oven, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add 1 thinly sliced onion, 1 whole cauliflower cut into florets; 2 peeled, cored, and diced apples; a pinch of salt; and a pinch of black pepper. Stir well, cover, and cook over low heat for 35 to 45 minutes, until the vegetables are falling apart. Stir in 1 teaspoon of curry powder and cook for another 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of vegetable stock and continue cooking uncovered for another 10 minutes.

Combine the cauliflower mixture and 1 ½ cups of vegetable stock in a blender and blend on high until smooth, adding more vegetable stock if needed to thin out the soup to desired consistency. Return the soup to a clean Dutch oven and keep it warm.

In a small skillet toast ¼ cup of pine nuts over low heat until golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes.

Ladle the soup into four bowls. Top each with pine nuts and a handful of microgreens. Serve warm.

TIP: The key is to cook down the vegetables until they are almost falling apart. This will make the soup super creamy and smooth when blended.

Hand Cut Filet Mignon and Maine Lobster, Truffled Mac & Cheese, House Salad with house-roasted jalapeno honey vinaigrette, and Italian Lemon Cream Cake

SERRATO'S STEAKHOUSE

3046 COLUMBIA AVE • SUITE 102 • FRANKLIN

(615) 472-8222 | serratossteakhouse.com

Award-winning Chef Jose Serrato, with more than 20 years of culinary experience, decided to pursue the dream of opening his own steakhouse when he moved to Franklin in 2020. Serrato’s Steakhouse, owned by Jose and his wife, Elizabeth, opened in the fall of 2021 in the Parkway Commons Shopping Center, filling a need for an upscale dining restaurant in south Franklin.

Serrato grew up in rural Mexico where his mother would make him everyday meals from scrambled eggs, tomato sauce, and fried tortillas. When he was 16 years old, Serrato relocated to California from Mexico and found a job as a dishwasher when he was 17. Over the years he developed a passion for cooking as he worked his way up through the ranks as a chef, executive chef, and assistant general manager. It was from those humble beginnings he is motivated today as a chef to transform ordinary and simple ingredients into delectable cuisines.

Serrato’s Steakhouse is a full-service restaurant and bar set in a formal yet comfortable setting. The full-service bar offers specialty cocktails, a superb wine list, and assorted beers — many of which are sourced locally. Guests at Serrato’s will receive a top-notch dining experience featuring a variety of fantastic chef-inspired dishes to savor. Their hand-cut, prime steaks are cooked to perfection to achieve optimal flavor and when paired with a succulent mildly sweet Maine lobster, the Surf & Turf is a clear winner. Of course, add a side of the Truffled Mac & Cheese with dinner and take it up another notch. Wow!

The seafood dishes are fresh including wild-caught options and seasonally rotated fish to deliver the season’s best offerings. The Shrimp and Scallop Platter served over turmeric pearled couscous is marvelous, and the Seared Salmon entrée melts in your mouth! The gourmet salads are full of vibrant colors, loaded with flavor and have optional toppings such as steak, fish, shrimp, scallops, and chicken. If there is any room leftover, the house-made desserts are the perfect ending. The Italian Lemon Cream Cake will certainly win your heart, but you might also want to consider the Flourless Chocolate Torte!

Reservations can be made on OpenTable for lunch and dinner. Visit serratossteakhouse.com to view the menu, and follow them on Instagram at @serratossteakhouse. There’s a table for you at Serrato’s!

Summer Rolls with Shrimp, Beef Pho Noodle Bowl with Pork Belly, handmade Edamame Dumplings, and Coconut Pudding

VUI'S KITCHEN

1201 LIBERTY PIKE • FRANKLIN

(615) 567-5962 | vuiskitchen.com

Vietnamese cuisine, as with many other Asian foods, likes to contrast hot and cold, sweet and salty, and soft and crunchy. There are a lot of vegetables, brilliant colors, and herbs making it always loaded with a ton of flavor. Vui’s Kitchen exemplifies the splendid flavors of Vietnamese fare in so many ways.

To understand the flavors of Vietnamese foods one needs to understand that Vietnam is a small country, about the size of Italy, and its food was heavily influenced by China in the north with the stir-fries and noodle soups, and in the south influenced by neighboring Thailand and Cambodia. Since the weather in the south is more suitable for growing coconut, jackfruit, rice, and herbs, the food in southern Vietnam tends to be on the sweeter side.

There is also a French influence on Vietnamese food due to the settlement of missionaries in the 18th century. The banh mi, the most obvious influence from the French, is a sandwich made using a French baguette filled with savory ingredients. Additionally, pho (pronounced fuh) is another example of the French influence with the blend of Vietnamese rice noodles and French-inspired meat broths. One theory is after the French colonist would butcher cattle in Vietnam, the Vietnamese cooks would use the scraps and bones to create pho.

Vui’s Kitchen offers an incredibly healthy and dietary-friendlyVietnamese menu loaded with flavor. Vui Hunt, a co-founderof Vui’s Kitchen along with her husband, created many of therecipes as her interpretation of food from her childhood, butalso made the menu approachable and not intimidating forguests. Fresh and tasty Vietnamese favorites from pho noodlesoup, a twelve-hour combination bone broth with beef orchicken and rice noodles, to their signature banh mi sandwichwill delight any foodie. Whether you are vegan, gluten-free,dairy-free, or soy-free the menu can accommodate your wish.Vui’s only uses whole food ingredients full of fresh herbs,where nothing is fried and there is no MSG.

Vui’s Kitchen is literally a happy place, as “vui” means happyin Vietnamese. Stop by Vui’s Kitchen in Franklin, or either oftheir two Nashville locations, to experience fresh house-madeflavorful Vietnamese favorites. A new world of flavors awaits inpho noodle soup, bahn mi, bowls, salads, and so much more plus we know you will leave happy! Visit vuiskitchen.com tosee the menu or order online and follow them on social mediaat @vuiskitchen.

Vegetarian Bahn Mi Sandwich

Nashville Hot Chicken, Southern Caramel Cake, and The Memphis

MAMA D'S MAC N' CHEESE

5075 MAIN STREET • SPRING HILL

(615) 302-8033 | mamadsbakedmacncheese.com

If you love cheesy mac and cheese, then look no further as Mama D’s Baked Mac N’ Cheese uses eight different kinds of cheese to make their homemade gourmet baked mac n’ cheese. The delicious cheesy mix is the perfect comfort food and is something everyone in the family will enjoy.

Dana Cohen, aka Mama D, founder of Mama D’s Baked Mac N’ Cheese started baking mac and cheese for her family and friends more than two decades ago. She enjoyed bringing her mac and cheese to family gatherings and holiday celebrations because it put a smile on everyone’s face. However, as time went on people started asking her to bring it to gatherings and soon she had to start bringing more than one dish because it was devoured so quickly.

For years, her friends would ask her to sell it to them but instead, she would give it to them. Finally, her husband Terrell suggested it was time to begin selling it since there were so many people wanting to purchase it. At first, Cohen thought about starting with a food truck, but shortly thereafter a space in Spring Hill opened up where Delta Bound used to be. That was an opportunity she had to jump on and Mama D’s quickly came to fruition.

Mama D’s is a family-owned and operated restaurant. In fact, all of Cohen’s immediate family members are listed on the LLC paperwork to prove it. The recipes are all hers, but it is a family endeavor as they work together daily with her. Each gourmet dish of mac and cheese begins with her signature eight cheese sauce and then is baked with different toppings.

Cohen’s favorite is the Nashville Hot Chicken. This mac and cheese dish is topped with chicken and Mama D’s homemade Nashville Hot Chicken recipe garnished with pickles — five stars, for sure! Terrell’s favorite dish is Little Italy because it reminds him of the first time Dana ever cooked for him. He was only 19 years old at the time, but he knew she was special!

When you visit Mama D’s make sure to save room for some of her delicious desserts too. At Mama D’s, each dessert is homemade and a true labor of love from the cakes to the cookies and brownies. Whether you have a sweet tooth or not, you must try either the carrot cake, Southern caramel cake, or the insanely delicious chocolate cake. Your taste buds won’t be disappointed!

Visit mamadsbakedmacncheese.com to view the menu,and follow them on social media for daily updates at@mamadsbakedmacncheese.

Turkey BaguetteTomato Basil SoupKey Lime Pie

FRANKLIN BAKEHOUSE

100 EAST MAIN STREET • FRANKLIN

(615) 628-8493 | franklinbakehouse.com

For those who like to experience the indulgences of food during travel and the little European cafés, then the Franklin Bakehouse is your spot. After a decade-long desire and a remarkable trip to Italy, the dream to open the Bakehouse was born into reality in early 2019. Angie Muir, a US Navy veteran, and her husband Bill founded the Franklin Bakehouse to not only satisfy their entrepreneurial spirit but to provide a long-needed community market for downtown Franklin residents and visitors.

The mission at the Franklin Bakehouse is to nourish and connect people on a more meaningful level, aim to source the best ingredients for their prepared foods, and carefully hand-select items for the marketplace’s retail shelves. They believe food naturally brings people together and creating a gathering place that allows their guests to purchase freshly baked bread or a deliciously prepared dinner to take home should be an uplifting experience.

Their talented team is up early serving baked fresh items for breakfast, served Monday through Saturday until 11 am. Assorted pastries, cinnamon buns, egg sandwiches, bagels and cream cheese, and smoked salmon are some of the options available. As they say, “Baked fresh and served until out!” Include an espresso and you are set to start the day.

For lunch, choices include a variety of sandwiches, soups, and saladswith an assortment of ready-made salads with house-made dressingsfor those on the go. The Parisian Baguette filled with ham andherb butter or the Italian Focaccia with Genoa salami, mortadella,soppressata, basil aioli, provolone, red onion, and arugula willtransport you back to your favorite European café experience.

The recently added Marketplace, at the back of the Bakehouse, offerslocally sourced items as well as a large assortment of wine and spiritscrafted in Tennessee. Shoppers can stop by and grab everythingfrom milk to cheese, selected local fruits and vegetables, specialtygourmet items, and a whole lot more of deliciousness.

BAKED FRESH AND SERVED UNTIL OUT!

The Franklin Bakehouseis conveniently located indowntown Franklin and isa must-stop for deliciousbaked goodies, food items,and now wine and spirits. Ifyou require catering, theycan help with that too. Visitfranklinbakehouse.com foradditional information andfollow them on Instagram at @franklinbakehouse.