When Cindy and I were spending the night in Nashville, IN recently, we went out for a nice meal at a local restaurant called The Overlook. The Overlook is part of the Salt Creek Golf Retreat just outside of Nashville (see map). The complex includes a hotel and private condos along with a picturesque 18 hole golf course.
We got to the restaurant a little before 8 p.m. To get to the restaurant, you have to go to the front desk area of the hotel and take a long hallway back to the restaurant. On one side of the main lobby is a large hall that was hosting a wedding reception that evening. We thought it was sort of odd as it was a Sunday night.
It turns out the Overlook closes at 8 p.m. on Sunday night. We got there at 7:55 and asked the hostess if it was too late to get a bite to eat. She said, "Oh, no. Come on in."
She sat us at a table that had a great view of the 18th fairway and green. A few golfers were still out on the course at that time of night so we had a great view of the action. The table in the foreground in the picture at the right is the actual table we sat at for our meal.
The place was about a third full when we sat down. And they must not adhere to the 8 p.m. closing time on Sunday nights as there were at least two or three more sets of people that came in to dine after we were seated.
The Overlook had kind of a "modern rustic" theme to it. It looked like at one time they tried to make it look like a lodge with two large fire places at either end of the room. But the paint scheme was sort of a subdued pastel that gave it kind of an elegant look. The tables weren't cramped and you weren't encroaching on anyone's space in the restaurant.
Our waitress, a nice middle-aged lady, came over to get our drink order and to tell us about the specials. I said, "Geez, we're coming in at closing time. Are you sure this is all right?"
As she handed me the wine menu, she said, "Oh, yeah. We say 8 o'clock on Sundays, but we normally keep serving up past 9 p.m., especially in the summer when we get a lot of people staying out here."
The specials, which I really can't remember, didn't appeal to us as much as some of the items on the somewhat limited menu. For main entrees, they only had 10 things to choose from - 3 steaks, 3 seafood dishes, chicken marsala, roasted pork pinwheel, chicken piccata and chicken fettuccine Alfredo. But, quite honestly, they all looked good and I sort of like restaurants that try to focus on a small number of items rather than try to please everyone with a huge menu. A lot of times they get spread so thin that the food suffers.
Cindy got the salmon filet, grilled and topped with a creamy lemon dill sauce. It was then topped with shrimp and roasted almonds, and served on a bed of rice. It did sound very good, but I went with the peppercorn encrusted filet, topped with a Bearnaise sauce. I had my choice of potatoes, so I went with homemade hash browns topped with cheese and onions and green beans was the veggie of the day.
Cindy wanted some wine, so I ordered a half bottle of white wine. There were only about three or four total wines on the list that I was familiar with, so I talked to the waitress to see about a couple of the whites they had listed. She suggested a Steele Shooting Star Sauvignon Blanc. She said it was probably her favorite white wine on the menu. I wasn't familiar with it, so I told her we'd give it a try. She said, "If you guys don't like it, then I'll get you another bottle of something else. That way I can have an open bottle to drink after I get off work!"
It turned out that she wasn't going to be drinking out of our bottle after work. It was a very nice wine - light, yet crisp with a nice dry fruit finish to it. I would have rather gotten a red, but the white was going to be fine.
While we were waiting for our meal to show up, a guitarist-singer was entertaining in the restaurant that night. He played mostly 70's and 80's music and did a very good job. Combined with the full picture window view of a beautiful course, the setting sun and the music, it was a very relaxing evening.
Our food came out and I have to tell you that it was very, very good. Given the look of the restaurant, the great service we were getting, the atmosphere of the place, I wasn't disappointed in the food one bit. My steak was a wonderful taste mixture of the cracked peppercorns, Bearnaise sauce and perfectly cooked medium-rare beef. Actually, I will say the hash browns were just "so-so". But that didn't matter. I usually only take a couple bites of my potato when I get a steak and a potato side.
But Cindy's grilled salmon with the creamy lemon dill sauce was as good as advertised. She gave me a couple of bites and it was outstanding. I've got to figure out how to make a lemon dill sauce sometime. It was very delicious.
We got our bill and it was just over $80 bucks before tax and tip. Our waitress, who was very good, got a nice tip. And on the way out of the restaurant, I walked over and threw five bucks into the tip jar in front of the guitarist.
Sometimes when you find places like The Overlook out of the blue, it helps add to the magic of the experience. But everything about the place was damn near perfect. It's been a few weeks since we've been there and we still remark about how great The Overlook is. If we make it back to the Nashville area, we'll probably stay at the hotel and have a couple more meals at The Overlook.
(Update - The restaurant at the Salt Creek Resort is now called the Brown County Steak and Seafood Company. I don't know if it's the same people who run it, but I'm guessing it's not. Still, it may be worth trying out if you're looking for something a little more upscale in the Nashville area.)
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