— HoneyFire BBQ—
$9 / September 2024
I will be the first to admit it: you tend to eat at restaurants closer to your home than ones you must make an effort to get to. I don’t live thaaaaat close to Bellevue’s HoneyFire BBQ, but close enough. Let’s say it’s in my general catchment area.
Shane Nasby, who cut his teeth on the professional barbeque circuit, started HoneyFire, and while he no longer owns it, the menu is pretty much the exact same, if not exactly the same, and there’s been no downturn from a very-high quality level. There’s been no obvious tinkering with the recipes. That speaks volumes.
The parmesan green beans are exemplars of the Southern style, you know, texturally one level above baby food; for a Northerner used to a much stiffer legume, these are an acquired taste. Spend enough time in the South, especially at HoneyFire, and you will acquire it.
The smoked chicken sandwich is unparalleled among its kind in Nashville. To some degree, that’s not saying all that much. Chickens don’t really lend themselves to smoking the way pigs do, and yes, it’s possible to make good smoked chicken, but for some reason, empirical evidence suggests it’s just plain hard. Ribs, pork shoulder, brisket, even turkey takes better to a smoker than chicken does.
But not at HoneyFire. The meat is moist, the pieces smartly diversified in size, a chunky approach, not a pulled one. It’s seasoned plenty, enough that you probably don’t even need the sauce (but you want the sauce). Capping it off is a terrific bun that’s been griddled, and if you’ve ever had a grilled bun with a burger, you know how important that is.
Speaking of burgers, Nasby is currently hanging his hat at Cledis, a primarily beer-and-burger joint over on Elm Hill Pike in that Nashville netherworld between downtown and the airport. There’s lots of space both inside and outside, where the food is cooked in a truck. The burgers are sensational. Nasby is expanding Cledis to a second location … in Bellevue. Bellevue is in my general catchment area. Smoked chicken for dinner, a burger for dessert. See ya there.