RIP, Rainbow News & Cafe
I’ve had this story on my to-do list for a few months - I’ve wanted to pick your brains about the shuttered local restaurants you miss.
Rainbow News & Cafe immediately comes to mind. When I was working on my first review during the summer of 2005, I reviewed Christopher’s New Global Cuisine (now simply, Christopher’s). Chef-owner Chris Fulk renovated a rambling Victorian on Brookstown Avenue for his fine-dining venture that was the former home of the Rainbow News & Cafe. It seemed like whenever I mentioned Christopher’s to someone, they began flipping through their memories of the Rainbow as if they were turning through an old album full of faded photos of friends. Oh, the vegetarian chili. Oh, the burritos.
I’ve heard similar anecdotes about Staley’s Charcoal Steak House, later the home of the short-lived, old-school glamorous, decadence-with-abandon Frankie Rowland’s (they laced their mashed potatoes with brie). Incidentally, on a local history side note, investigators looking into the doings of notorious former Davidson County sheriff Gerald Hege found that he and his cronies celebrated with at Staley’s - and paid their check with county money. I suspect some of you can still taste Staley’s steaks. In fact, I know - one reader e-mailed me in January with an entire list of their mourned restaurants. He was partial to Staley’s Chateaubriand (that inandof itself is a great throwback - Chateaubriand is a rather old-fashioned word for filet mignon).
And there are other restaurants you probably remember: Sam’s Gourmet, Leon’s, the Rose and Thistle.
So bring on the memories, please, personal and otherwise. I’m looking for people to interview (in case that wasn’t obvious). Send me an e-mail at , or call me at 727-7302. Please include a way to get back in touch with you in your note or voice mail message.
