One of the things I love so much about
meat-and-three restaurants is the variety seen in each one that I visit. While the meats are often the same or similar among most, and the vegetables do not differ much, the diversity of choices allow one to experience an entirely new plate each day. In contrast, it is fun (at least to me) to compare the same items from one place to another, noting how you can like one restaurant’s take on green beans, for example, just as much as you can enjoy another restaurant’s preparation of that very same vegetable.
I have discovered that randomly visiting meat and threes offers some great little surprises. Last Monday, my youngest daughter and I had some business in Lebanon to take care of and, timed around the lunch hour, we needed a place to eat. We took a round about journey home, venturing by our old house in Antioch, which brought to mind a place nearby that I had discovered a few weeks prior. It seemed like the right place to go.
Carol’s Place [
http://www.meatandthree.com/tn/carolsplace/] sits in the Norton’s Corner Shopping Center on Murfreesboro Road, just east of the Donelson Pike/Murfreesboro Pike intersection, next to a Thai restaurant. It is convenient to the airport, the Dell complex, and a number of other office buildings nearby. On first glance, you figure
Carol’s Place is not a very big place. Walking in the door, you discover you are right - that it is mostly kitchen/food prep with only two or three places to sit at a bar next to the front window. You order inside at the steam table and then pay.
Outside, there are just a couple of picnic tables and another table that seats six. Therefore, it eventually made sense how this place operates successfully, as a pretty continual stream of take-out patrons came and went during our visit. The food even comes in Styrofoam take-out boxes no matter which option you choose … take-out or dine-in. Throw in a healthy catering business and you can see this place doing really well.
It happened to be an absolutely perfect day to do about anything out of doors, and enjoying a really good meal with one of your kids is tops on my list on a day like that. The meal, for Kelley, consisted of chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, regular cornbread, and tea. The jalapeno cornbread, green beans, and white beans all went well with the meatloaf (with brown sugar in the ketchup topping) I chose. You guessed it - the sweet tea was just right.
Each day’s meat choices consist of 2-3 items which are pretty much set for each day of the week, with 10 or more vegetable choices consistently offered each day. A few salad choices and desserts round out the offerings, while there are various daily/seasonal specials, which you can find out about by calling ahead (615-399-9282).
If you live or work in the area, you need to visit
Carol’s Place. It would be a great option for a catered office lunch, a quick meal when you need to get out of the office for lunch, or for catching a nice meal for yourself and/or your family on the way home from work when you don‘t feel like cooking. Let
Carol’s Place do the cooking for you. It might surprise you like it did me.
Enjoy!
Phil (mn3guy)
