Rosepepper in Nashville

We had planned to go to the Family Wash, which, from what I gather is a hip ex-laundromat that specializes in Shepherd's pie--with the vegetarian version even better than the meat. Unfortunately, they were closed on Monday. :(

So we ended up at the nearby Rosepepper instead. One friend had previously been unimpressed with it so we were nervous. It turned out to be a good place to hang out and for my friend Stacey to catch up with her old friends. The restaurant was not busy (although we couldn't get an outdoor table) and we were able to hang out after we finished eating. First, drinks: margaritas and mojitos were strong! The mojito was a bit on the sweet side, but I guess that's typical. Chips and salsa were complimentary and the three salsas were great. I liked the hotter red one best and was a fan of the green one as well.

For appetizers, we had a cheese dip and avocado fries. The avocado was like tempura--it was a little strange, but the dipping sauce was good. As strange as it was, I kept eating it anyway. The cheese dip was also good.

I ordered tamales which were not good. I haven't had many tamales but I think the meal for this one was over processed or something; it was almost clay-like. For what it's worth, I did prefer the pork tamale to the chicken; the chicken was too dry and the pork had more flavor. Stacey had some kind of sizzling steak thing--she didn't love her dish either. Our other friend won--he got enchiladas with chile verde and a fried egg on it. I didn't try it but apparently it had a nice heat and he and Stacey really liked it.