- Flower and Herb Barn Nursery
- 1800’s restored farmhouse
- Outdoor patio seating
- Best BLT
Tourists are drawn by the thousands to the many craft and specialty shops, as well as the music, theater and dining options, in Nashville each year. But just five miles north of Nashville—in Nineveh—sits a gem of a restaurant worth a trip all its own. On the grounds of a bustling and blooming nursery called The Flower and Herb Barn, The Farmhouse Café and Tea Room makes delicious use of locally grown ingredients and herbs in a restored farmhouse, where the antique-laden main dining room, the cozy front porch or the landscaped patio offer approximately 70 picturesque spots to dine.
Pull up a vintage seat (the furniture consists of mismatched pieces that span the century) for lunch or dinner in the 1800s brick farm house and find yourself staring down a starter bowl of tortilla chips with fresh herb dip. Made with seasonal herbs and cream cheese, the dip offers a few unexpected surprises, too, like shredded carrots and peppers.
The menu offers other treasures to get your taste buds firing. Choose from a variety of sandwiches, soups and salads—all with farmhouse flair—for a midday meal. The herb barn chicken salad sandwich (with “rosemary and dill herbal accents”), the chicken papaya salad with honey-lemon balm dressing and Brown County’s “best” BLT (featuring a special sun-dried tomato herb mayo dressing) top the list of lunch favorites. For dinner, try the summer chicken breast stuffed with spinach, the Brown County grilled pork chop, served with grilled asparagus and red skin potatoes, or the grilled salmon, coated with herbs and butter and cooked over a wood fire until (as the menu claims) it’s “just right.”
With iced kiwi, mango and sassafras tea options, the list of drinks and smoothies looks just as tasty as the dessert menu, which includes fresh fruit ambrosia (a frozen fruit treat), cheesecake and ice cream. After your meal, stroll through the shaded aisles and outbuildings filled with herbs, shrubs, trees and plants, as well as pots, lawn ornaments and antiques. In all, an entire afternoon and evening can be spent meandering through the gardens and cabins and dining at The Farmhouse — making it a tourist destination in its own right. The eatery is now enjoying its fifth season, manager Laura Anderson says, and if you hear her tell it, “we get better every year.”
The Farmhouse Café & Tea Room
5171 Upper Bean Blossom Road, Nineveh
(812) 988-2004
www.farmhousecafeandtearoom.com
Lunch: Served 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; dinner: 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Story by Sherri Dugger
