A coworker of mine mentioned a new Franklin restaurant, The Honeysuckle, that opened near the mall within the last month or so. It's where the Pie in Sky pizza restaurant used to be. While my initial thoughts were that it's a bizarre place to stick an upscale restaurant concept, there are others nearby that seem to do pretty well, including J. Alexander's, Stoney River, and Wild Ginger. So my friend Lauren and I decided to give it a try.
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Image Source: The Honeysuckle Facebook |
The inside of the Honeysuckle screams "upscale hipster" to me. It's like they ordered from a catalog of reclaimed wood and custom booth seating for the skinny jeans set. I'm not complaining, it's just such a transformation from the previous restaurant, and it's right by the mall and all the chains.
It wasn't crowded for weekday lunch, but that's likely because it hasn't caught on yet with the Cool Springs corporate set. Once they get wind of it, I'm sure there will be Corporate AMEX bankrolled meals in spades.
I was craving a burger, so I ordered their angus burger with a fried egg and bacon, my favorite way to eat a burger. One of the reasons I chose the burger was because it came with their duck fat fries, because duck. fat. fries. And I definitely loved those fries! Perfectly crispy. The burger was alright, but not as good as the local Burger Up location. There was also a bit too much bun, which impacted the burger experience. That said, they nailed the egg. It was absolutely perfect!
Lauren had the Oyster BLT, which also had the same "too much bread" issue happening. They probably should have hollowed out the bread a little like a po' boy, because it made it difficult to tackle. She ended up eating it more like an open-faced sandwich, since the bread was also starting to get soggy.
My only beef with this place (other than to much bread to meat ratio, which is a first world problem) is that the service was... off? The best words to describe our server would be sullen and distracted. The restaurant wasn't crowded, but he was a disappearing act. We wanted to ask some questions, since the place is new, and every time we tried to catch him for a second he would turn his back and leave us. It was almost comical! Water refills were a little slow to come too. Again, distracted and sullen waiter didn't show us much love. That kind of behavior may fly in a super swishy 12South joint, but in Williamson county you need to be a little more smiley and sweet to please the residents. Just a tip! The host, in contrast, was an adorable hipster sweetheart.
Overall, I'd probably come back here if my coworkers wanted to, or to sample their cocktails on a date night with Dan. I feel like I need to give it another shot, maybe some charcuterie or an evening visit. It still feels like it belongs someplace else (like downtown Nashville for Franklin, for example) given the style and target market. But maybe this is catering to the Cool Springs executives and Williamson county families looking for a date night meal away from the kiddos. We'll see!
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