Visiting Crossville, TN; Forte's Restaurant
Crossville is a quaint little historic community from another time
AUTHOR: ARTSY CHOW ROAMER
Visiting Crossville, TN
FORTE’S RESTAURANT
I’m originally from Tennessee and travel back fairly often to visit friends and relatives. I like to talk with the locals when deciding where to venture out for a good meal and when my anniversary came up recently I did just that.
Most everyone was in agreement that if you want the best meal outside of the chains you need to go to Forte’s on the square. The square being about in the middle of the quaint little historic community of Crossville, TN; halfway between Knoxville and Nashville.
Situated up on the Cumberland Plateau at the Southern end of the Appalachian Plateau and the Appalachian Mountains, this brings a fair amount of cold weather and snow during the winter to the area. My mother still enjoys this for the most part since she can make snow cream to her heart’s desire.
Timeshares bring a lot of Northern visitors to the area wanting to play as many rounds of golf as possible, enjoy the surrounding mountains and lakes and generally take advantage of the senior pricing meant to make it easy on retirees.
DINNER CROWDS GATHER
While the restaurants in town won’t hold up against their betters in Chattanooga, Nashville or Knoxville-there are one or two that rise above the rest and Forte’s is one of them. On my most recent visit, I made an early reservation (think 4:30 here) because it get’s very busy when everyone wants to eat early.
My husband and I were running late and were really trying to make up time as we sped across town from Fairfield Glade to the restaurant. All of the sudden, the blue lights were behind me. “How fast was I goin’ “ I asked the officer as I handed off my license.
“50” he answered. “And the speed limit is…”? “30” he answered. Well I told him we were trying to get to Forte’s for our anniversary dinner. He asked what time my reservation was and I said 4:30. He looked at his watch and said “You’re already 3 minutes late.” He handed me back my license and said “Happy anniversary and get before they give your table away”.
See….that’s a local knowing what an early reservation is worth at this place! I grabbed the last parking spot and noticed they were already gathering outside to wait for the precious table that wasn’t already reserved for this Saturday evening.
DINING ROOM OR BAR
One of the criticisms I have of the place is that every surface is hard making it very noisy for older folks at peak hours. My relatives complain of not being able to hear each other for the most part. This is because the hard surfaces make for easier cleaning when they are turning the tables over as much as they do.
Because of this, I opted to eat in the bar which is separated from the main dining room with a wall that offers maybe 8-10 seats at the bar and 4-5 tables so a lot of the noise from the main dining room is cut down substantially. Since Covid was and still is a thing, it put us close to the door where fresh air was coming in with every patron as well.
LOCALS LOVE THE SPECIALS
You never know what they are going to have as the specials of the day but I have noticed they tend to get a fresh fish dish, a chicken dish and a pasta choice and/or soup of the day. Their soups are super tasty and you can make a little meal off a hearty bowl with some fresh bread and butter.
The day we visited the fish was a swordfish, the chicken was a pepperoni dish and the soup was a soul warming Italian Toscana. Any would have made a great choice for dinner and they can sometimes run out of these popular choices before the end of the evening.
French Onion Soup, bread and cold drinks at Forte’s
DRINKS, APPS AND FRESH INGREDIENTS
Our anniversary called for a good cold martini-vodka for me and gin for my husband while we looked over the menu. We decided to begin with a soup and settled on the French Onion. Our waitress was warm and friendly-you know the kind that still calls you hon and has been working tables for more years than she would like to say.
The bar was busy enough for two to be making drinks and serving meals. The front door was continually opening and closing as the place filled and people put their names on a list for a table whenever they could get one.
I could tell many were locals but a lot were visitors from the resorts around the area. The server dropped off fresh warm pumpernickel bread with soft butter and we dove in. While munching, our small bowl of soup arrived which was delicious with a thick layer of cheese, good bits of onion and a thick beefy broth.
I saw a lot of soup bowls coming out of the kitchen and all looked and smelled yummy. A bowl of fresh salad greens arrived looking crisp with croutons, parmesan and just the right amount of dressing which we polished off in no time.
SHARABLE ENTREES
One of the things the locals seem to like the most is the size of the entrees. While some can finish it all off, many like to share and my husband and I decided to do so with the Filet Mignon Tornedos. It came with two 4 ounce pieces of meat which is the perfect serving size and we split the broccoli and baked potato which after bread, soup and salad was more than enough.
The meat was grilled perfectly for medium rare and arrived juicy and succulent while the veg was crisp tender and the potato buttery good with a dollop of sour cream. What’s not to love there?
Moist juicy filet with veg and baked potato
CONCLUSION
The locals are right. This is the spot for a well cooked meal with a small town feel and friendly service creating a lovely date night for us and maybe for you in the future. This is just one more reason to enjoy a visit to the area which has an Andy Griffith atmosphere where you can also see a world class production at the Cumberland Country Playhouse. Enjoy this video teaser from Driving Miss Daisy below.
If you liked what you read you might also like other restaurant reviews under Edible Fare on the blog. Look for upcoming posts on a pretty cool playhouse in downtown San Francisco and a Snap Shot on a destination that should be on your bucket list. Until next time…
Cheers!
Artsy Chow Roamer
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