Memorial Day weekend ushers in longer, warmer days.
I like to imagine that from this point in the calendar until Labor Day, hours should be spent exclusively poolside and in the sunshine, all days ending in languid cocktail hours, surrounded by only your best friends, laughing while condensation drips down the stems of white wine glasses.
In reality, schools close and parents make frantic summer plans to whisk their families away for vacation, or better yet, a “staycation,” which is a fancy way of saying, “We’ll be staying here all summer, except now it will be 50 degrees hotter while you run your same mundane errands.”
The only vacation I take every summer is a vacation from using my oven. I cannot for all that is good and holy preheat my oven to cook anything when the heat outside can actively bake a potato.
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And so I turn to the dish that is frankly overlooked and has a bad rap as being “boring” — the lowly salad. But hear me out, not just any salad, it’s the summer salad. A dish made more exciting by the fresh and zesty ingredients that can be employed to zhuzh it up. A summer salad is a small way of staking a claim to making something mundane exciting. So whether you find yourself in Capri or at Coolidge Park this summer, here are some places to get a fancy summer salad.
Honey Seed
— 1705 Market St., Suite 105
— Taco salad: $11.95
Grab a table on the patio and order Honey Seed’s taco salad. I know it is a restaurant specializing in hand-rolled bagels and wood-fired pizza, but they have hearty salads full of protein that are equally delicious. The taco salad is full of chickpeas, black beans, avocado and crunchy pepitas (toasted pumpkin seeds). You can crush fresh blue corn chips and scatter them over your salad with creamy cilantro ranch dressing. And if you’re still jonesing for a little carbohydrate, order the tater tots, which are a felicitous marriage of potato spud and hash brown. Pair with an iced coffee, and I think you’ve got your summer order on lock.
Niedlov’s
— 215 E. Main St.
— Spring salad: $10.50
I love a blanched vegetable. This is the process of partially cooking a veggie in boiling hot water and then immediately submerging it in ice water. (So basically what happens to your skin every time you step out of the scalding heat and into an air-conditioned building.) Niedlov’s has a spring salad with blanched asparagus that has the most delightful crunch paired with snap peas and toasted pine nuts. Shaved parmesan cheese adorns the Bibb lettuce like ribbons with flaky salt and tangy balsamic. What’s not to love?
Easy Bistro
— 801 Chestnut St.
— Tennessee strawberry gazpacho: $15
If a salad is a dish of small, bite-sized vegetables, then might I interest you in another dish of small bite-sized vegetables? Enter gazpacho. This cold soup hails from the Iberian peninsula and usually consists of cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. If you’ve ever said, “I could eat this salsa with a spoon,” then this is the dish for you. Leave it to Easy Bistro to take something like gazpacho and elevate it to new heights. I tried their Tennessee strawberry gazpacho and was shook. I had never tasted anything like it. Sweet strawberries paired with Capriole goat cheese and the crunch of Alabama pecans. English peas and shoots swam in the glinting gold of extra virgin olive oil. I think this makes the salad list because how is a cool and refreshing way to eat vegetables, not a salad? Existential inquiries only.
Sidetrack
— 3514 Hixson Pike
— Caesar salad: $12
Caesar Cardini immigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century and then eventually moved to Mexico, where he is credited with creating the Caesar salad at his restaurant in Tijuana. That was in 1924. I love that running short on ingredients one night in a restaurant over 100 years ago led to an iconic dish that people still can’t get enough of. Sidetrack gets this one right every time. Their version has all the salty, lemony tang with sharp parmesan and cracked black pepper.
(READ MORE: Restaurant Scene: Unexpected places to find a good sandwich in Chattanooga)
Bleu Fox Cheese Shop
— 324 E Main St.
— Burrata salad: $9
I love burrata, you love burrata, we all love burrata. But please for the love of pete, if you are going to consume straight burrata, in all its creamy, cheesy goodness, have the decency to do so on a bed of lettuce and at least call it a salad. I once saw someone eat burrata straight out of a plastic container, swimming in its own brine, and I lost a little bit of faith in humanity that day. Bleu Fox Cheese Shop has a fantastic burrata salad that is a generous portion of cheese over greens with cherry tomatoes and a balsamic glaze, salted and peppered to perfection.
Contact Lyric Lewin at llewin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6215.