Restaurant Scene: Signal Mountain’s Civil Provisions gets new chef and revamped menu

When restaurants go “Mediterranean,” they seem to skip right over France — the country that gave us mayonnaise, champagne, crêpes suzette, Roquefort cheese, the dazzling cooking technique of flambéing and non food-related: the modern bikini.

Technically (and geographically), there are 22 nations that make up that region, including Lebanon, Algeria, Bosnia and even the tiny island-republic of Malta. Somehow, by some unfortunate way, most restaurants gravitate toward two countries: Italy and Greece. So, of course, with that comes plenty of mortadella, sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, variations of pesto, lamb in the form of a burger, pistachio, feta cheese (either whipped, crumbled or baked) and last, but certainly not least, tzatziki, lots and lots of tzatziki. Though to be fair, there’s no such thing as too much tzatziki.

Sometimes, a restaurant might get ambitious when it goes “Mediterranean” and throw in some hummus speckled with toasted pine nuts, a gazpacho, the hearts of Jerusalem artichokes and something you can dip into a puddle of tahini. This is precisely why when I heard restaurateur Jason Bowers was opening Civil Provisions and Bar on Signal Mountain and that it was being described as “elevated Mediterranean” and “Mediterranean inspired,” skepticism turned into procrastination (to no fault of Civil).