Fancypants
Restaurant · East Germantown
921 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN 37207
Highlights
Creative vegetarian dishes, circus theme, fun vibe, unique cocktails
Creative vegetarian dishes, circus theme, fun vibe, unique cocktails
"Fancypants doesn’t take itself all that seriously, and a meal here will remind you that food can be fun and taste really good, too. You’ll walk in past red drapes and gold streamers, and immediately get handed a “booze amuse” cocktail with bubbles, lemon, hibiscus, and bitters as you wait for your table. Dinner is $75 a person and includes three courses of your choice—the miso butter malfadine, buddha’s hand vodka shells, and turnip noodle lasagna are the best things on the mostly vegetarian menu. You can (and should) add some appetizers for an extra cost, like a cheeky high-low version of sour cream and onion dip that’s topped with caviar and served with Ruffles." - jackie gutierrez jones 2, ann walczak
"If the reason you were headed to Locust was for the fun that comes with the meal, Fancypants will sub in nicely. Where Locust gives you comic book-like instructions to eat a beef tartare handroll, Fancypants sends you an intermezzo cone with coconut parsnip foam sticking out of a Hot Wheels-esque ice cream truck. The red walls, bold cocktails, and option to share a 32-ounce tomahawk steak are quite different than the seafood-heavy slate at Locust, but eating lasagna noodles made out of turnip shavings has a similar shock and awe factor." - ann walczak
"Fancypants, a vegetarian-forward restaurant from the chef behind Butcher & Bee and Redheaded Stranger, sure has a sense of humor. One that serves hors d'oeuvres cones of parsnip foam in tiny plastic toy ice cream trucks and has pepper grinders the size of Morgan Wallen’s ego. The whimsy is just a prequel to the food that’s seriously good and can stand on its own, though. Ingredients are often reimagined—turnips turned into lasagna noodles, for example—and the results are almost always revelatory. And sometimes polarizing. This isn’t the place to take somebody who wants to stay in their comfort zone. They serve a couple of different menus: a $75 three-course, vegetarian tasting, a $125 prix fixe that includes steak, and an all a la carte option on Sundays. You also always have the option to add on that 32-ounce porterhouse, you know, on the side. photo credit: Andrew Cebulka photo credit: Emily Dorio photo credit: Emily Dorio photo credit: Emily Dorio Pause Unmute We have tried out nearly every menu option, but our favorite is to go all out with one other person, each getting the three-course option, and sharing everything. You can basically try the whole menu that way. And whatever you do, add at least one bonus item like the tartare sunchoke mayo and bone marrow shortbread. Polarizing tea leaf caesars and smoked beet au poivres aside, every time we’ve left Fancypants, it’s a meal we’ve thought about for weeks. We’ve even called people we haven’t talked to in years, just to tell them about the onion noodle cacio e pepe. Food Rundown Steak Tartare Tartare doesn’t get more delicious than this. It's wrapped in a rich, umami driven sauce and topped with crispy flakes of feuilletine-like shortbread and fried sunchoke leaves. This one's an instant classic. Hamachi Crudo Soft curls of hamachi are swimming (literally) in a little pool of coconut water. It’s a welcome, clean and refreshing lift to a meal here. Just don’t underestimate the clear liquid in the dish. There’s layers of acidity, spice, and fruitiness ready to pounce. Miso Butter Malfadine Unlike the cacio e pepe, this is actual pasta. If you ask your server for some recommendations when this is on the menu, this will likely be one of them, the miso sauce and pops of vinegar making it easy to love and hard to forget. photo credit: Andrew Cebulka Chewy Rice Noodles Little chewy pillows bounce delightfully in your mouth. The sauce is velvety and complex with the perfect amount of spice. Herbs and crispy bits on top balance everything out. 32-Ounce Porterhouse Offered as a bonus item for $165 or as a final bow during the Chef’s Steak Dinner for $125, this steak arrives cooked to a perfect temperature, sliced for convenient sharing, and alongside grilled onions, smashed potatoes, and a too-lemony bernaise sauce. It’s a very good steak, but especially after multiple courses of exciting and creative things, it might earn a collective shrug. There are plenty of places for a great steak in the city, so this isn’t the reason we'll be coming back to Fancypants. Dessert It's all about the slab of festive cheesecake that's nearly drowning in sprinkles and topped with fun little dollops of torched meringue. The sour-style batter holds up to the sugar-coma inducing garnishes nicely. Cocktails The seasonal drinks here are good, but there’s something special about the classics at Fancypants. The Overalls, for example, brings beetroot and toasted pecan to an old fashioned in a way that actually adds something to the party, rather than dressing up just to look pretty. And their dirty martini called Tuxedo Pants accessorizes itself with a cocktail onion and a whipped feta stuffed olive that’ll have you ordering more than one." - Ann Walczak
"If our diet consisted of the crispy-edged turnip lasagna and other creative vegetarian dishes from Fancypants, we’d never eat another cow again. This spot from the Butcher and Bee and Redheaded Stranger team has a mostly meat-free tasting menu packed with some of the most interesting and delicious dishes we’ve had lately. There’s a stuffed poblano chile with all the flavors of mezcal, a chicken fried cauliflower swimming in a luscious coconut gravy, miso butter mafaldine, and a comically-tall piece of funfetti cheesecake. It’s the place for a super fun, sceney dinner with a dining room that has a distinct circus theme—and feels like a world where Barnum and Bailey got a culinary degree." - jackie gutierrez jones 2, ann walczak, adam sloan, bailey freeman
"If our diet consisted of the crispy-edged turnip lasagna and other creative vegetarian dishes from Fancypants, we’d never eat another cow again. This East Nashville spot from the Butcher and Bee and Redheaded Stranger team has a mostly meat-free tasting menu packed with some of the most interesting and delicious dishes we’ve had lately. There’s a stuffed poblano chile with all the flavors of mezcal, a chicken fried cauliflower swimming in a luscious coconut gravy, miso butter mafaldine, and a comically-tall piece of funfetti cheesecake. It’s the place for a super fun, sceney dinner with a dining room that has a distinct circus theme—and feels like a world where Barnum and Bailey got a culinary degree." - ann walczak, jackie gutierrez jones 2, adam sloan, adam sloan, ann walczak, ann walczak, ann walczak, jackie gutierrez jones 2, jackie gutierrez jones 2, jackie gutierrez jones 2, jackie gutierrez jones 2, jackie gutierrez jones 2, ann walczak, ann walcza
