Good Food and Fun in Franklin Tennessee!

Before our recent trip to Nashville for the weekend, I did a bit of research to determine what attractions we might want to explore as well as which restaurants might be of interest.  To narrow down the restaurant selections, I used Trip Advisor.  I used the ratings…generally using a 10:1 ratio of Excellent/Very Good vs. Poor/Terrible.  I also considered the cuisine offered and read the most recent reviews…

Why the photo of the hand!?  Some readers will be relieved to learn that my blogs for the next couple of months will be a bit less verbose… Carpal Tunnel issues and typing just are not compatible!  My left hand ‘lights up’ when I type too much…and too much isn’t very much at all.  Hopefully, future surgery will fix the problem.

Pain = fewer words and shorter blogs…

This is Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant in Franklin Tennessee.  There is also a Puckett’s in Nashville… Puckett’s in Franklin had 76 positive reviews in Trip Advisor vs. 7 negative ones.

There are actually some ‘stocked’ grocery shelves in Puckett’s… This was right after we arrived and the place was filling up fast! 

This was a ‘live music night’ at Puckett’s and Dawn Marie reserved a table for us… (The cover charge was $12.00 each) Having reservations was a very good thing as customers lined up at the door trying to get seated.  One guy and his companion blocked the host’s station as he worked to bluff his way in…and he succeeded.  I grew tired of his rants and stood in front of him to ensure that we got seated.  They tried to seat us at the bar…but Dawn cleverly and quietly told him that I’d never be able to sit at the bar through diner and the show… Sometimes there are benefits to being a senior citizen!

We ordered appetizers…a big basket of fried pickle and jalapeno chips, ($6.79), but we forgot to take a photo.   

Dawn Marie ordered a side salad with her entrée…a mix of greens with onions and tomatoes. She thought that the salad dressing was excellent!  It was $1.00 extra with her meal.

Dawn and Laurie both ordered the same entrée…Chicken Fried Chicken. ($13.99) The meal consists of fresh boneless chicken breast, battered in Puckett’s own fried chicken breading, topped with white pepper gravy.  Laurie had hers with mashed potatoes and green beans.  She chose the Cajun Corn Cake over the yeast roll.  Both Laurie and Dawn Marie really enjoyed their dinners!

I’ve been really craving some top notch ‘bone-in’ fried chicken…and this was it!  I ordered Puckett’s Southern Fried Chicken. ($12.99) The chicken is marinated in spices, battered and then fried golden.  It was served with mashed potatoes, green beans and a Cajun corn cake.   I also asked for white gravy for my potatoes…

The chicken was excellent!  It’s the best fried chicken that I’ve had since we ate dinner at The Cotillion Restaurant in Wildwood Florida back in February of 2012.  Check it out at http://bigdaddydavesbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-southern-dining-wildwood-florida.html.

The headliner for our evening entertainment was Carolyn Martin.   Singer Carolyn Martin has been described as “… a winning throwback to the days where emotion was measured as artful rather than loud and histrionic.” Her music was a combination of Texas Blue Grass, Country and Jazz…  To learn more about Carolyn, just go to http://www.carolynmartinmusic.com/. 

We were also very impressed by the musician to the left of the photo above.  His name is Rory Hoffman.  He plays many, many musical instruments and he can do things with a guitar that no one else can do… Did I mention that he’s been blind from birth!?  You can check Rory out at:       http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2012/05/20/peter-cooper-on-music-blind-picker-rory-hoffman-does-it-all-wrong-but-hes-doing-something-right/.

This was Laurie’s decadent dessert…  It’s the Triple Treat…brownie with ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce and nuts… ($5.49) It was very good but she couldn’t finish it!

I had the small cobbler…Nana’s Homemade Cobbler of the Day. ($2.99) It was great!  I only wish that I’d had room left for the larger version… Dawn Marie ordered Puckett’s Hot Apple Pie with Ice Cream and topped with caramel sauce. ($5.95) Unfortunately, our photo of her dessert didn’t come out well.  That’s sort of appropriate as it was so hot that she burned her mouth on it and most of the ice cream melted before she could eat the pie!  Our waitress did bring out extra ice cream…

We really enjoyed our experience…and our dinner…at Puckett’s.  Once we got past the front desk, our service was just fine.  We would recommend Puckett’s Grocery to anyone visiting Franklin Tennessee!  For more information, just go to http://www.puckettsgrocery.com/franklin/index.php.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave