Tony S.
Yelp
Our experience here was more than 5 stars. Imagine there are a couple more stars there. Seriously, it was that good! I live in a foodie city (Asheville) and I'm spoiled with at least good and often great food. But the meal and service at 1885 Grill were among the best I've had in years. It's located in the cute little historic St. Elmo area of Chattanooga, near the base of Lookout Mountain (the incline is a couple doors down). This place is not fancy by any means. The atmosphere is homey. But what it might lack in ambiance, it more than makes up for in great food and service. We were there on a Monday night for dinner. Every inside table was full and despite looking like rain, even a few of the patio tables were occupied. At one point there was a wait. Our meal was not rushed at all, the pacing was perfect. There's a small bar inside, and the bartender was on the ball. They have a good wine list and several interesting cocktails (we had the Parkside Paloma - very nice). We were intending to order a vegetable-based appetizer, but our server noted they were having a special on chicken wings with their award winning bbq sauce (they have several trophies on display). We're not fans of sweet bbq sauce, but on the advice of the server, decided to give theirs a try. The wings were excellent. The sauce, while not spicy at all, was also not especially sweet. It was just very tasty. For entrees, we chose mushrooms and grits (with a stone ground grit cake in the center, surrounded by creamy grits) and a blackened trout filet. We were told the grit sauce was "very lemony", which it was indeed, but in a great way. It really took the grits, the mushrooms, the wilted baby kale, red peppers and capers all up to the next level of good. The NC trout was grilled about as good as you could ever grill a piece of fish. The outside was crispy (even the skin on the bottom was wonderful) and the inside was cooked through but still tender. I chose the two sides of french green beans (seasoned to perfection) and mashed potatoes with scallions and feta cheese (those literally took me to potato nirvana). Both entrees, well priced, with good portions, left us full, but still something on the dessert menu called to us. We decided a little slice of pie would be a nice way to end our wonderful menu (see the photo, "little" did not come into play at all). Our server told us they make everything there, including the key lime pie, which was served surrounded by raspberry sauce. We had never seen that before (it seemed more like what you'd do with a cheesecake). I love key lime pie so I wondered why surround it with raspberry sauce. Now I know why. It took everything I love about key lime pie and made it even better. In summary, this was fantastic food and service we will remember for some time at a restaurant that made us feel welcome and repeatedly exceeded our expectations.