I love steak.  I love the traditional food that comes with steak.  I love the steakhouse atmosphere. 

There is something about an American Steakhouse that is special and unique in the world.  I have traveled all over four continents and eaten in some of the most highly acclaimed foodie cities in the world.  Let me tell you NO WHERE can you find the atmosphere and food of an American Steakhouse to be quite the same outside of the United States.  Ok, so how do I know good steak and good steak houses?  Anyone ever heard of “The Palm”?  How about “Smith & Wollensky’s”?  Gallagher Steak House?   Bobby Van’s?  How about the fabled Peter Luger’s, in Brooklyn, (going to way back-in-the-day when it was working on becoming fabled).  Yes, over a period of decades, while living and working in one of the World Capitols of Steakhouses, New York City, I’ve been to all of them.  Multiple times.   In fact, my Manhattan office while working at a Fortune 10 corporation was within six-city blocks of three of them; I was fortunate enough to go all of these frequently.   One other qualifier I have been on the Atkins diet for so long that some folks think I am growing cow-horns…so when I traveled (and I did quite a lot of that with a nice Fortune 10 style expense account) I ate a lot of steak, sometimes twice a day.

Since our move to Nashville I have decided to try out some of the steakhouses in this great and vibrant city.  This is the first in a series of articles on The Steakhouses of Nashville.  Hope you enjoy!

With all that steak-history behind me why start with a steakhouse in a hotel chain?  Because it is a good steak house in an atmosphere that is just as steeped in the traditions of this part of the country as those steak palaces in NYC are steeped in their traditions. 

First, Old Hickory’s ambiance.  The restaurant is located at the heart of The Opry Land Hotel.  What an incredible venue.  Big, sprawling and every inch of it a celebration of Nashville, America’s South and Music City.  The restaurant is an actual life sized replica of the Evergreen Plantation, an antebellum mansion in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  There is an upstairs area, complete with white banister balcony views for special events and catering.  Downstairs there is a very clubby-looking bar, with overstuffed chairs and very traditional and comfortable old wood styling.  There are tables inside the main restaurant and outside on the patio (ok it’s not really outside as the whole building is in an enormous climate controlled space) complete with gaslights, trees, brick walk and the sounds of a waterfall.   So the atmosphere here is just an appetizer for the eyes to precede the food.

The kitchen is under the direction of Executive Chef Forrest Parker, who trained in several fine establishments, including Johnson and Wales, in Charleston South Carolina.   Recently relocating to Nashville, Chef Forrest worked in several upscale restaurants that cater to a very discerning clientele.   We had the pleasure of meeting Chef Parker while we were dining there.  In talking with the Chef and Old Hickory General Manager, Nando Rodriguez, we found out one of the secrets to the success of this great find.  The goal of Old Hickory is to provide the best food and service possible to compliment stays and visits to The Opry Land Hotel and complex.  Since Old Hickory is only one component of the hotel it focuses more about diner experience and quality than meeting an imposing financial target as some stand alone restaurants have to do just to stay in business; point well taken.  Everything at Old Hickory, the décor’, the wait-staff, the wine list and certainly the food are first rate.  While not an inexpensive place to dine it is certainly competitively priced to any other major steakhouse.

The evening we went to Old Hickory my wife and I were with two friends.  One special feature at Old Hickory is the gourmet Artisanal cheese course overseen by the Maitre Fromager, Richard Peterson.  This wonderfully executed offering is a beautiful and elegant way to enjoy some world-class gourmet cheeses along with fine wines or whiskies. The cheeses offered, along with accompaniments, can be had as a spectacular appetizer or as a unique, and very Continental, desert course.  Either way ask the Maitre Fromager to present the cheeses to you and try a few types…it is well worth the experience.

The menu at Old Hickory is excellent.  It features many traditional steakhouse favorites, such as Crab Cakes and Oysters Rockefeller as appetizers, Classic Casers (made at tableside, the traditional way) Beefsteak Tomato salad and Lobster Bisque.  In addition it offers some specialty items, such as Bison Carpaccio and Baked Lobster “Mac & Cheese”.    One of the starters that they are deservedly well known for is their wonderful Lobster Bisque.  This is a lovely, rich potion that has all of a velvety taste and texture usually found only in the finest French restaurants not steakhouses.  This is one worth the extra calories.  But mind you, if you select this bisque and are planning to enjoy one of the larger steak offerings you might want to skip the salad course.

That evening we all had a beef-heavy dining experience befitting the theme.  Two of us had the Cowboy Rib eye, one of the ladies had Bison Tenderloin and I tried the house specialty preparation of a classic, the “1885 Bone In Strip” steak.  Each of these dishes was fantastic and a standalone entree, just as you would expect in a big-name steakhouse.  They were all excellent cuts of meat.  They were rich, and the beef cuts were well marbleized and very flavorful.  The Bison Tenderloin, which is inherently a leaner meat, also had a full-bodied beefy taste and was juicy and tender.  One of the hallmarks of a great steakhouse is whether or not the meat arrives at your table exactly the way you ordered it.  At Old Hickory even though we had three very different types of meat preparations, impressively, they all came to us together and exactly the way we ordered them; Perfecto!  The “1885” steak preparation was a bit of a deviation from the traditional purist approach to steakhouse fare bit since I could take a little taste of everyone else’s, I ventured out a bit with this Old Hickory special preparation.  The “1885” steak is high quality well cured and cut 16 oz bone in rib eye that is prepared with a special dry-rub that contains perceptible amounts of brown sugar.  This rub imparts a slightly sweet and almost molasses like taste to the meat which is surprisingly good.  Maybe this style is not for “purists” but for a bit of a change of pace, this provides a welcome alternative to the ubiquitously found “blackened/Cajun” variations.   Prior to the steak entrees we had a delightful selection of 12 cheeses.  One of our dining companions thought that the steak was a bit anticlimactic after the fabulous cheese course; as for the rest of us, we just enjoyed both to the fullest.  However, we did make one concession to moderation; we went a bit easy on the sides.  However, we did force ourselves to try the Maytag Blue Cheese Au Gratin Potatoes, the Broccolini with Hot Bacon (which also has melted cheese on it), and – another creative specialty – the Baked Lobster “Mac & Cheese”.  The latter is an adventuresome delectable.  It is not really a “mac & cheese” dish with bits of lobster meat but more like a lobster bisque that has been married to a mildly cheese enhanced pasta.  I know it sounds a bit odd – but it is very, very, very good.   I would suggest that if you are going to have this as a side you choose a starter other than the Lobster Bisque.  All were quite nice.  The Broccolini dish was a bit novel and well prepared.  While I did not care for it too much one of our dinner companions just loved it and was more than willing to sacrifice himself to finish it off.  The potato au gratin was good as well. 

For desert we tried a sampling of 3 deserts.  This included some fresh made biscotti, bread pudding and a crème brulee.  They were all well done and nicely presented.  The delicious bread pudding is made of a mélange of breakfast-breads and has a delightful cinnamon taste that works very well with the nicely done custard.  The biscotti, my type of desert, was freshly made and had just the right amount of crunch to hold up to an accompanying espresso and not too sweet.  But a real standout her was the crème brulee.  It was one of the best I have ever tasted and my wife, a real aficionado, said she had wonderful dreams about it for two nights after having it.  We were told that the Old Hickory Sous Chef had previously worked at a Disney owned property and adapted the recipe from there for Old Hickory guests.   No matter how you feel about a standard like crème brulee, you or one of your dinner companions must try this one!

The wine list at Old Hickory offers a broad range of wines for very refined palates (with commiserate prices) to some great value wines.  We had wine with our cheese course so we did not order another bottle with our main meal.  No matter what you might like in wines there will be something to accommodate your preferences and wallet. 

The service here was very good.  It was attentive while not being obvious.  Steakhouses sometimes treat customers as if they are doing the owners a favor by dining there.  But here General Manger Rodriguez’s staff was most professional and attentive.   I have heard that service at Old Hickory can be spotty, but given some of the surprises that can happen on any given day this can occasionally happen in any restaurant; so while I take what I read and hear under advisement, I make my own judgments.  The night we were there, and we were there for a good four hours, our service was spot on.  My observation of the service levels at the tables around us indicated that other patrons that busy night were equally satisfied with the service, as well as the food and ambiance.

So all in all I would definitely recommend the Old Hickory Steakhouse.  Standouts are the lobster bisque, the Cowboy cut, the baked lobster mac & cheese the crème brulee and, for a special change of pace the gourmet cheese service. 

It earns 5 Crabby Old Guy Rib-Eyes out of a possible six.