Etch Restaurant Nashville

The Flavor Will Be Etched In Your Memory

Brian Lee Nash, Esq.
January 29, 2023

Besides the food, I love this about Etch the most:

"Deb Paquette is well known in Nashville where she’s lived and worked for the last thirty plus years. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, she became the first woman in Tennessee to qualify as a certified executive chef, and has since won countless awards and accolades. Deb now oversees the kitchens at Etch and her sister restaurant, etc., offering her signature bright flavors and layered dishes to patrons seeking a unique Nashville dining experience."

Located on Demonbreun Street (and offering complimentary valet parking, by the way), Etch offers a warm, inviting, crisp ambiance with a menu that’s got something delicious for all sorts of palates.

For an appetizer, try the Roasted Cauliflower with truffled pea pesto, salted almonds, feta crema, and red bell essence or the Tempura Mushroom Oyster with korean hot chili mayo, and ponzu sauce.

Then, if you want something light for dinner, go for a salad like the Mediterranean with greens, fennel, capers, tomato, bacon, garbanzo beans, caper vinaigrette, manchego cheese, red bell essence, and sunflower hummus.

For something more filling, check out the smash burger or pulled pork sandwich. There’s also Grilled Halloumi Cheese Toast (on sourdough with nigella seed, chicory, mint, honey, fig jam, and seasonal fruit) and Fish Tostadas (gancho spiced market fish, crisp tortillas, recado rojo, poblano pepita purée, black bean salsa, sunflower sprouts, smoked corn sauce, and queso fresco). So yum.

And that’s not all. On the Entrees menu, you’ve got Chicken and Sizzling Rice with Springer Mountain Farm chicken breast, crispy rice, Shaoxing tomato sauce, mushrooms, water chestnuts, snow peas, lotus root, and carrots.

If you want pasta, get the Italian Sausage and Capellini with kale, fennel, radicchio, pistachio parmesan crumble, sage aioli, and rosemary butternut purée. That’s my second favorite item.

And my first? The Argentinian Beef Tenderloin! So good with salsa verde beef, fried potato salad, zucchini fresca, greens, plus rojo and verde sauces.

I’m getting hungry. And that was just the lunch menu! For dinner you can try mussels, charcuterie, Octopus and Shrimp bruschetta, Confit Duck Leg, a Grilled 8 Ounce Filet, Venison, or Pork Chops with a side of Butternut Squash Gratin, Fried Brussels Sprouts, or Crispy Potato Salad!

Order a beer or mocktail or wine from their extensive wine list. Or ask for a cocktail like the Smoked Old Fashioned, Etch Gin and (homemade) Spiced Tonic, Topaz in Limbo (Dewar’s White Label Scotch, green Chartreuse, Chareau aloe liqueur, Cappelletti, and citric acid), or the Proceed With Caution (Wheatley vodka, blackberry purée, lemon, Montenegro, and Fernet Branca).

Top it off with a slice of the ultra-moist Olive Oil Almond Cake or the decadent Pear and Chai Pavlova (chai spiced baked meringue, pear sorbet, poached pear, caramelized rice crunch, apple and pear butter, blackberry purée).

Now I’m beyond hungry.

You can tell—whether it's lunch or dinner—a visit to Etch is time well spent.

Hey, if you’ve already been to this spot, what did you think? Send me your thoughts! I’d love to hear.