Spotlight on Nashville: Burger Up and Las Paletas

To quote my sister, "Saturday night was the best night of my life." While that might be a slight exaggeration, we did eat some excellent food. My family and I tried out a new restaurant, Burger Up, Nashville's newest (and only?) upscale burger joint.

Located in Nashville's trendy 12th South district, Burger Up is a locavore's dream. Whenever possible, their menu includes products local to the Tennessee area. For example, all burgers feature beef from Triple L Ranch in Franklin, TN and chicken comes from Wedge Oak Farm in Lebanon, TN. Even their industrial-style decor is eco-friendly using re-purposed wood from General Manager Michael Pontes' family farm.While being environmentally conscious is important, it doesn't matter if the food isn't up to par. Fortunately, the fare at Burger Up is delicious.

My party started off with an appetizer of fried pickles ($5). Perfectly crunchy, these house-made pickles were well-seasoned and a tasty way to start the meal. My sister and I also split the local salad ($8), a rich bed of greens chock-full of candied pecans, white cheddar cheese and crisp Granny Smith apples, but unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

For my main course I sampled the Woodstock Burger ($11), a juicy patty topped with bacon, white cheddar cheese, and Burger Up's special blend of Jack Daniel's ketchup. I've always been of the mindset that everything tastes better with bacon, and this burger was no exception. When dining at Burger Up, I highly recommend substituting the traditional fries for the restaurant's sweet potato variety, but that being said, my batch was slightly over-salted.

Filled to the brim with well-seasoned local cuisine, we left Burger Up and headed to their "cooler" neighbor, Las Paletas, for dessert.This gourmet popsicle shop is known for unique, refreshing flavors not commonly found in the freezer section of the grocery store. My family stayed on the safe side of the Las Paletas popsicle spectrum sampling Strawberry, Blueberry-Lime, and Chai ($2.50 each), but the restaurant offers several more exotic flavors including avocado and hibiscus. Recently Las Paletas has drawn national media attention for their Mexican frozen treats. Tune in Monday July, 19 to see Las Paletas on The Food Network's "Kid in a Candy Store" at 8 pm eastern, 7 pm central.