Favorite Eats: The Pharmacy - Nashville

One the perks of my job is that I can count on at least one trip to Nashville each year. The thing I like most about travelling to Nashville is discovering fun new places to eat. In fact, there are so many restaurants in the greater Nashville area that you could probably visit a different one each day and not repeat in a year.

I always make a point to try to dine where local residents like to eat and just a few weeks ago discovered a place that will be well worth a return visit: The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden. Tucked away in an East Nashville neighborhood it would be easy to miss if you didn't know where to look for it.

The restaurant's slogan is that it is Nashville's Wurst Burger Joint. In that slogan lies the clue to the other great secret of their menu: their wursts (German style sausages) are fantastic. They are all made by hand, then grilled outside on the charcoal grill before finished indoors an the flat top before being served. We sampled both the burgers and the wursts and found them equally enjoyable.

Another great feature is their old-fashioned soda fountain. My youngest daughter enjoyed a creamsicle soda while my older daughter went for the strawberry ginger ale. My wife decided to try the Mexican Coca-Cola from the bottle (which is sweeter than Coke found in the United States) while I enjoyed a Sprecher Root Beer on tap which was just perfect with our meal.

For dinner we decided to share (which we often do when we can't decide what to eat). We ordered two Biergarten platters (each came with 3 wursts) and were able to sample all six varieties of the wursts they had available. Our personal favorite was the Bockwurst as it was the juiciest of all of them though they all had a good flavor. For our burgers, we ordered the Farm Burger (country ham, applewood bacon, willow farm egg, and maple mustard) and the Mission City Burger (guacamole, pico de gallo, slow-cooked black beans, and horchata crema fresca). Both were very good though the Mission City Burger had the slight edge.

But the best part of the entire experience was dining out in the biergarten. It was a lovely evening, not too hot and the atmosphere was perfect. It would be the perfect place to meet friends and hang out.

We all agreed that this would be one place we would visit again. According to the staff it gets busy quickly so you have to be prepared to wait. We went around 5:00 in the evening and had no problem getting seated but by the time we left at 6:30 the line was already out the door.

Nashville is an endless series of gastronomic adventures. If you are ever there, be sure to add The Pharmacy to your places to visit.