While I lived in Tennessee for almost two years of my life, it’s been quite a long time since Offbeat Eats has done a review in Tennessee, primarily since I myself haven’t done more than pass through the Nashville Airport in years. However, a recent work trip had me spending most of a week in Lewisburg, TN. Lewisburg is well off of most folk’s culinary radar, and rather lacking in hotels, so we stayed in the substantially more developed town of Franklin, TN, halfway between Lewisburg and Nashville, which had a good variety of dining establishments. Indeed, with a late night arrival, our first dinner was spent at a local location of Culinary Dropout (see my review of the Scottsdale location here), which was a near-perfect culinary copy of the Scottsdale location, and enjoyable. On our second night, we decided to do Italian, dining at Chrysalis Modern Italian, in a small shopping center a few blocks from our hotel.
It seems that most every fine dining restaurant these days has a cocktail program going on, and Chrysalis definitely is getting on board with this trend. Interestingly, while they have a few Amaro-based cocktails (expected for an Italian restaurant), a good fraction of the cocktails are gin- or tequlia-based. I ended up deciding the try the “Chida Chida Bang Bang”, with Chica Chida, Southbound Reposado, Scarpetta Barbera, Black Walnut and Angostura Bitters. For those not used to Chica Chida, it’s a tequila-adjacent (“Agave spirit”) that’s peanut-flavored. I was a bit skeptical due to my generally poor experience with “peanut” liquors (giving you the side-eye, Skrewball), but this was actually a nicely-rounded cocktail. The nuttiness and agave were a bit subtle, so this tasted more like a nuttier Black Negroni than anything else, and was pleasant. I’d like to come back at some point and try some of the more interesting gin cocktails as well.
Mene-wise, Chrysalis lives up to its modern Italian name with a good cross section of classic Italian dishes done with moderned ingredients, fancy cooking techniques, and local ingredients It’s a good selection, from appetizers like Wagyu polpettine and apple pecan panzanella, to entrées such as Duroc pork tenderloin or espresso-rubbed elk rack, and I counted five different dishes using nduja (which, if you aren’t familiar with it, is basically halfway between a dry pepperoni and a soft French rillettes in texture). They did make a style choice that always baffles me a bit, and they’ve got two pizzas on the menu, but they label them as flatbreads. That’s usually a recipe for disappointment in my experience; the places that call it flatbread often don’t really understand the role of a good char on a pizza crust (it’s not always a tell, one of my favorite pizza places in Vermont uses “flatbread” instead of pizza as well). But our table ordered the Fig and Pig, a flatbread with fig jam, pancetta, pickled red onion, and a five cheese blend, and I actually was pleased with this. The flavor combination was good, the crust decent, and the char on the crust reasonably good. I’d probably actually try a “pizza” if they offered up one with fairly standard ingredients.
For the main course, I ended up going with the braised short rib. The combination of the richer flavor of a good short rib and it getting nicely tenderized from braising is always a good combination, and here they braised it in a combination of bone broth and Chianti, serving it with green beans, sweet potato mash, and balsamic caramelized onion. This was a very tasty combination, although I usually like a braise to be a bit more tender. This wasn’t tough, but the texture was closer to “soft roast beef” than “braised short rib”. But still, a nicely composed dish, just one with a little room for improvement.
Overall, Chrysalis was rather enjoyable, particularly the well-conceived craft cocktails. I’d love to come back and try out some of the other cocktails and entrées on a future visit, or try some of the great-looking pasta dishes.
