sludick

We're going up to Clarksville, TN, for Thanksgiving to visit new grandbaby. Leaving very early Saturday morning so don't really have any time to spend other than family time. However, we're staying at the airport on Friday night (5am flight) and thought we'd like to find a restaurant to enjoy for dinner that's reasonably close. We'll have a car. Something not terribly formal but also not sports pub type. There is a dearth of decent restaurants near our place other than the fast food or chain sort, so hoping for something different.

Any recommendations?

tomfuller

My research shows that Darfons on Elm Hill may be your best option.

sludick

Thanks, tomfuller. I've looked at their menu, too. It is pretty close to the airport, which is good.

starrs

If you don't mind driving a little bit out of your way, I'd eat in Brentwood -
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura...Tennessee.html

starrs

If you don't mind driving a little out of your way, look at Brentwood restaurants.

Personally, I'd drive about 20 minutes out of the way to go to Tupelo Honey in Franklin (original is in Asheville).

Franklin is a neat little town to wander and shop if you get there earlier. I'd probably make a reservation on OpenTable to be sure.

OR if you haven't been to the Gaylord Opryland decorated for Christmas, that's a sight to see.

sludick

Thanks, starrs - do you have any particular restaurant recommendations in Brentwood? Mere Bulles looks interesting, but it is not open on that Friday.

starrs

I would go to OpenTable and see what is available for the time you want and then compare it to OT reviews and maybe TripAdvisor's. If you were pushed and had to eat near the airport, then that would be one thing. But if you have a couple of hours to play with, I'd eat in a much nicer area = Brentwood.

I'll check OT after a phone call and see which I'd pick.

sludick

Oops, sorry, missed your last post.

Yes, we are planning on heading over to Gaylord Opryland to see the lights. Not sure about eating there, though.

We'll be driving from son's place in Clarksville (NW of Nashville late afternoon/early evening, just at Kentucky state line) and probably won't have much time to ourselves.

starrs

I agree about not eating at Opryland.
Changing directions - Germantown
Checkout Silo, Geist or Saint Stephen.
Those look good and on your way down from Clarkesville.
I've not eaten at any of them, but may next month. They look really good!
(I'm staying at near the airport and going to an event downtown)

starrs

The 3rd Hour of Today was in Germantown today. Not sure if you are able to watch the video or recap but it was a good segment - including tubing at GLOW -
https://glowholiday.com/?gclid=Cj0KC...4aAhEsEALw_wcB

sludick

I wanted to circle back here to thank everybody once again and let you know how things ended up.

First - we didn't get to go see any Christmas decorations at all. We did try to go to Gaylord Palms, but the exit ramps were completely jammed up and backed up forever. We finally opted to pull out of line and just continue on to our hotel. As we passed, we could see the parking lots both at Gaylord Palms and Opry Mills (shopping) were unbelievably packed. It was Black Friday, after all...

On Thanksgiving, DH must've ran afoul of a spider, looking at the bite mark on his arm. During the day, before dinner, he suddenly developed a blister-like sore on the roof of his mouth that caused him quite a bit of discomfort and was frankly concerning. We ended up leaving son's house later that afternoon, as he wasn't feeling well. By the next day it was worse. So, we ended up at an urgent care center in Clarksville, where after some hours they injected him with an antibiotic and loaded him down with prescriptions and instructions to gargle with peroxide. It's getting much better, but wow.

Tomfuller - thank you, we did eat at Darfons. It was wonderful. We ate early, as we needed to be at the airport very early (got there by 3:15am and that was none too early). Good plan, the place gets BUSY. DH had almond crusted trout on fried chili-garlic grits - looked like polenta to me - with some type of red pepper-madeira sauce, and a house salad. I had the scallops on a potato-manchego croquette with fried leeks and a tomato-sweet vermouth sauce, plus a baby kale salad. One of the best meal memories of recent years, actually. We also made room for amazing butterscotch bread pudding with a white chocolate sauce. We didn't share. https://www.darfonsrestaurant.com/menus-1

Our hotel on Friday night was the Radisson Nashville Airport, just next to the airport and only a few blocks from Darfons. We will add that to our list of preferred hotels, as it was situated so well and the staff was exemplary. We traveled early Wednesday morning and very early Saturday morning, and lucked out with no travel delays or other mishaps. And the grandson is doing well, a thriving and easy baby. Overall a great trip.

ethrush

There are restaurants in the Opryland Hotel, which is near the airport. The Hotel itself is worth a visit- it's fun to wander around the arboretum, especially if you've got kids with you.

sludick

ethrush - we would have liked to visit Opryland Hotel, but there was absolutely no way to get close to it -- absolute crush of cars just waiting to get off the freeway to get to the parking lot.

But, I did stay there for almost a week once, and have eaten at their restaurants, visited music venues at night, etc. It's a world in itself.