Dinner c/o Dave's Modern Tavern & Stormy Weather

On the day after the fourth Dad took me and J. to a relatively new restaurant in the greater Sewanee area: Dave's Modern Tavern. The choice to include 'modern' in the restaurant title is certainly and interesting choice, but I can't say there was anything particularly 'au courant' going on in the restaurant's decor or menu. That said, the menu did offer a few things that you'd be hard pressed to find in the other country establishments in a 20 mile radius of Sewanee. For example, the fried artichoke hearts with a spicy aioli dipping sauce. Now this wouldn't be revolutionary really, but the fry job had a light touch and a more interesting seasoned batter than many.

We also tried their fried green tomatoes, which weren't quite as special in my book. The breading was a little too thick and masked the tangy taste of the tomatoes themselves, but the goat cheese was a nice little touch.

I believe this is J.'s plate. She chose to go the route of pulled brisket.

Dad chose one of the fish dishes, though I can't quite recall which.

I tried the barbeque sampler of ribs, pulled pork and New Orleans sausage. Ribs were pretty tender, pulled pork wasn't bad. I was overly more satisfied with my recent Khyber Pass bbq.I should note that they have a pretty decent selection of bottled beers. I again enjoyed a Sweetwater 420. My overall thoughts on the place are generally positive. They're not trying to be too terribly different, but that's a wise choice in this area...if you're too weird or wacky all you're guaranteed is a very short-run as a restauranteur. But they did seem to be trying to inject a little creativity into a lot of the standard fare they were serving up. Service itself was ok. At first it was better, but as the place filled up our waitress became less and less attentive. The impending storm I discuss below certainly also played a role...but when you wait a good 10 minutes for a slice of pre-made cheesecake, well, that makes me itch with frustration.

While we were enjoying our meal, the skies started turning all sorts of grey and almost green. I went outside to take a few photos it was so ominous. Clearly a storm was coming at us, but it was taking its time. First darkening the skies, then pushing a strong wind all about, which toppled the restaurant's outdoor furniture and played with shutting off power altogether (lights flickered a number of times). Then a bit of spittle rain fell upon us before the final beginning of deluges finally were unleashed. Of course our meal was completed just as the rain really started, but we made our way out nonetheless.

I was convinced this wasn't a cloud, but a huge plume of smoke or beginning of a tornado. J. was not quite as impressed.

Once back in Sewanee we took a quick drive to Green's View.

We then tried to do a loop around Morgan's Steep, but a big tree had fallen in the road and there was no loop to be had. A bit later I drove J. back down the mountain into the valley, it was not the most lackadaisical of drives. I was on high alert for falling branches. The entire road was covered in fallen leaves and weaker pieces of branches, but the whole road was actually open for business.