If you’re headed to Nashville, Tennessee, put Tin Angel on your 
places-to-eat list. Heck, it’s worth making a trip there on its own. From the tin ceiling and weathered brick walls to the menu featuring fresh and innovative dishes to the feeling of neighborhood and convivial warmth (important on freezing winter nights when it’s literally, you know, freezing), Tin Angel is one of my new favorite places. We visited the West End restaurant on the strength of a review my husband had read in the Nashville Scene (http://www.tinangel.net/images_miscellany/scenereview.pdf) and ordered according to the reviewer’s recommendations. All I can say is, “Yes, please.” I had the spinach salad with poached egg, and it was the best spinach salad I’ve ever had — not your usual bacon-sugar-vinegar combination but instead some sort of savory yummy deliciousness topped with a velvety poached egg. Only my mother’s warning voice in my head kept me from licking the plate. My husband had the Catfish Pomme de Terre with a horseradish crust and mustard sauce on braised shredded cabbage and I had grilled scallops, one of the evening’s specials, both accompanied by our go-to restaurant seafood wine — a bottle of Conundrum. Our dishes were full of balanced and layered satisfying flavors and the portions were perfect. A wonderful evening and a memorable meal! We ate late enough — in fact we closed the place down — that we had no lines or parking glitches, but Tin Angel is so popular that at peak times you probably will. Worth it, though. Here’s the Web site: http://www.tinangel.net
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My wonderful yet workaholic husband actually took a few days off recently and we headed to Nashville, Tennessee, for time with family, friends and a peacefully quiet hotel room. We like Embassy Suites — the two rooms to spread out in, the consistent quality of service and 
cleanliness and of course the free drinks and snacks in the afternoon. (What? 
We’re easily impressed!) We loved this bar-food gizmo set up in the lobby for the daily happy hour. It had all sorts of crackers, pretzels, nuts, candy and mixes for do-it-yourself creating — the perfect accompaniment for beer and lazy discussions about where to go and who to see and what to eat later that night. Good times! It doesn’t take much to amuse us when it’s just the two of us on vacation. If we have access to real coffee (me), Diet Dr Pepper (him), reliable Internet and plenty of newspapers, we’re content. Throw in good restaurants and time to do whatever we want whenever we want to and we’ve gone beyond content and straight into happpy. And by the way, one thing we did while on vacation was catch “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” If you haven’t seen it yet, go immediately. It’s a moving and powerful story you’ll think about long after you leave the theater. I was disappointed it didn’t garner more awards at the Golden Globes, but I’m hopeful it will clean up at the Oscars — it’s that good.
Demos’ Restaurant opens in Florence, Alabama, at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 28. If you want downhome comfort food at a great price served with a smile, this is the place to be. The family-owned and -operated business started in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and has three other locations around the Nashville area. When my mother-in-law still was able to get out and about, Demos’ in Murfreesboro was her favorite place to eat. In fact, even though she hasn’t been there for several years, the Demos’ folks still remember her and ask about her — that’s the sort of people they are and that’s the sort of attitude they’ve brought to Alabama. Go see for yourself, order a seafood-stuffed baked potato and tell ’em Tennessee Pitts sent you. The Florence restaurant is behind Books-a-Million at 339 Seville Street (the street off Cox Creek Parkway that goes between the entrances to Kohl’s and Wal-mart). If you miss it Sunday, be there at 11 a.m. on Monday when it opens for lunch. And visit 
Demos’ alert! The Florence, Alabama, location will open at 11 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 29. This middle Tennessee family-owned and -operated restaurant is a favorite of almost everybody who eats there — the other four Demos’ are in Mufreesboro, Nashville, Hendersonville and Lebanon. The Florence one is behind Books-a-Million, and I ducked in there the other day to check it out. It was bustling, with training going on in the kitchen and folks busy in the front putting away napkins, organizing menus and generally getting ready. If what I saw and heard is any indication — an attentive bunch in the kitchen listened gravely as they were instructed to “Hold the plates this way. Not this way. Not this way. But this way” and a sign above the pass-through read “There is only one boss here: The customer.” — the legendary Demos’ commitment to service and value is alive and well.
Training began this week at the newly finished Demos’ restaurant in Florence, 
Alabama. “Today (Monday) is our official first day of training. We won’t open until the end of the month,” said Felicia Demos, chief financial officer for the family business, in an e-mail. Demos’ is a middle Tennessee icon, with restaurants in Murfreesboro, Nashville, Lebanon and Hendersonville famous for offering delicious homestyle food at great value and with excellent service. My husband and I are both from middle Tennessee and we eat at Demos’ whenever we’re nearby. I cannot believe our luck in getting one practically in our own backyard. We must have been living right. Who knew? Visit 
Coffee with Cathy 