Fall Countdown Template

Four Restaurants You Have to Try in Clarksville, Tenn.

Are you making the move to Tennessee's Top Spot? I'm here to help you with the most burning question any transplant has about their new town: Where the heck am I going to eat? Never fear, folks! I've compiled a beginners guide to my favorite eateries in Clarksville, Tennessee. Get your forks, stomachs, and taste buds prepped.

1. Smokin Chikin

Nashville might reign hot chicken champion, but Queen City serves up some delicious rotisserie poultry. Smokin Chikin boasts a hefty menu of unique flavors and knock-your-socks-off sides that you won't find anywhere else. For those who prefer their food spicy, I recommend ordering the Tandoori option. If you need your chicken on the milder side, the Caribbean BBQ marinade is a consistent crowd pleaser. What's my choice for sides? You can't go wrong with hummus and island fried rice. Patrons even have the option of upgrading to premium, gourmet, and "loaded" sides (BBQ loaded fries are definitely on my radar).

2. La Casa Taqueria

Nothing entices me more than tacos and low prices. La Casa Taqueria blends the best of both worlds with their outstanding street tacos and affordable entrees. Only have $5 to spare for lunch? No problem. La Casa Taqueria's street tacos come in at only $1 a pop. Restaurant goers can choose from meats such as chicken, steak, pork, beef tongue, and more! If you're a breakfast lover, La Casa Taqueria serves desayuno dishes all day. The "Burrito A La Mexicana" is a personal favorite - plus, it's vegetarian friendly!

3. JibBop

Here is my rule for spiciness: If I'm not crying, it isn't hot enough. JibBop, a Korean restaurant in the heart of Clarksville, satisfies all of my dietary needs. It's scrumptious, spicy, and filling. Since I'm freshly graduated from college, I typically stick with JibBop's "cupbop" options. The Jeyuk Bokeum cupbop ordered "very spicy" style is truly one of the best dishes I've ever consumed. It's filled to the brim with rice, noodles, spicy pork, and two dumplings. At $7 a cup, you won't find a more delicious and affordable meal near Clarksville's center.

4. Roux

Although it has only been open a few months, Roux quickly earned a spot on the top of my "Places You Must Eat in Clarksville" list. In the mood for some authentic Cajun food? Roux has it. The Crawfish Bread appetizer had us audibly yum-ing until the plate was clean. For my entrée, I decided to go with the Crawfish Etouffee. It was masterfully flavorful, accompanied by French bread to soak up the etouffee goodness. My advice? Grab dinner at Roux and catch a show at the Roxy!

Bluff City, TN: Backyard Terrors Dinosaur Park

Brace yourselves, folks. I am about to introduce you to the most exciting and fun thing you can do in Tennessee for zero dollars (BUT... you should definitely donate money to this awesome destination). Backyard Terrors Dinosaur Park is an attraction of jurassic proportions that sits nestled in the creator's backyard. "Backyard?" you ask. Yes, his backyard. Don't let that fool you; this park is MAJOR fun and could easily take up a few hours of your time.

When we drove up to Backyard Terrors, there wasn't a soul in site (most likely because we went close to closing time). As soon as we stepped through the Jurassic Park-like entrance, we knew that we were in for a treat. The dinosaurs inside of Backyard Terrors are not only impressive, they are incredibly lifelike. More so than the dinosaurs we paid high prices to see at other attractions. If I take into consideration that this is the art of one person with a passion for dinosaurs, I might have to label Backyard Terrors one of the most spectacular attractions I've ever been to. 

Realistic dinosaurs are around every corner, and there is definitely no shortage of them. If you're into learning while vacationing, you're in luck! Each dinosaur is accompanied with info for you to increase your knowledge of the prehistoric. 

There are not one, but TWO dark walk-throughs with animatronics. One features feisty raptors, and the other is all about terrifying water-dwelling creatures. You can check out footage from both displays in our video!

After checking out the dinosaurs in the main area, we trekked through the Mesozoic Nature Trail in absolute AWE of the grandeur of this place. 

For the little ones (or the little ones at heart), there is a fossil dig area where you can take on the role of archeologist. 

 The cherry on top is the gift shop, where I picked up one of the coolest patches on this planet. To this day, Ben still resents me for buying the last patch. Like the other areas of the park, there aren't any employees to be found in the gift shop. The entire attraction is purely self-guided.

Since it is the holiday season, you might consider donating to Backyard Terrors' Go Fund Me page! I cannot imagine a world where this place doesn't exist to bring free fun to dino lovers of all ages.

Paducah, KY

Cassidy: I once picked up a brochure for Paducah, and it has stayed in the back of my mind ever since. At the spur of the moment, Ben and I hopped in my car and drove there to see what type of adventure awaited. 

Cassidy: After arriving in Paducah, our first stop was the Midtown Market to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. Ben and I both opted for the Johnny Appleseed sandwich: turkey, apples, white cheddar, bacon, lettuce (or lack thereof, if you're me), and poppyseed dressing on sourdough. 

Ben: If you haven't had a sandwich with fruit on it before you need to stop what you're doing and eat one immediately.

Cassidy: I am a big advocate for fruit on sandwiches. 

Ben: On guard is this green-eyed box office boy. He watches over the town of Paducah. The locals swear that they have seen him move around town after dark. He's always back in the same spot come sunrise, but in a slightly different position from the day before.

Cassidy: And here we have a completely made-up legend from Benjamin Neal. But really, this green-eyed box office boy did watch over my car while we explored Paducah. 

Ben: Down on the waterfront there is a very large flood wall and on the other side of the wall are...

Ben: A lot of very well done murals.

Ben: Each mural is intricately painted and it's definitely worth checking out all of them.

Cassidy: Tucked away in downtown Paducah sits the Maiden Alley Cinema. I can guarantee this spot would be my local hangout if I was a resident Kentuckian. According to their website, this little gem screens independent films (they were getting ready to start showing Anomalisa the day after we went) and hosts special events. Since there weren't any movies showing while we were there, I had to admire the theater from afar. 

Ben: Why does this town have such an awesome nickname as the "atomic city?" Well because in 1950 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission chose this town as the site for a new uranium enrichment plant.

Cassidy: Since we went to Paducah on St. Patrick's Day, naturally we had to visit a park to go four leaf-clover hunting. We didn't find any clovers; however, the real luck came when we scored some awesome deals at the Dippin' Dots Treatery. I stuck to my trusty mint chocolate chip dots (which were half-off for St. Patrick's Day), and Ben tried out a cotton candy Dippin' Dots milkshake. Both were A+. 

Ben: In fact... the Dippin' Dots headquarters is in Paducah.

Ben: There's also a very cool old Coca-Cola plant in town that is now a brewery, a tea shop, and apparently a place to do yoga on the second floor. The building has some great architecture on the inside and looks really good on camera. 

Cassidy: When in doubt, take photos in front of a wooden wall. 

Ben: For dinner we decided to eat at Bob's (Home Of The Fiesta Burger).

Cassidy: If you know me, you know that I absolutely live for places like this. Bob's Drive-In serves classic Americana fare with a twist. Their "fiesta" burger is smothered in chili, and it is as glorious as it sounds. 

Ben: This was really a great place. The employees were nice and the food was just what we wanted. It's a little drive-in fast food restaurant (very similar to sonic, but a lot more retro). There was plenty of outdoor seating and a little playground off to the side. Also, this place looks perfect on camera.

Cassidy: Oddly enough, this is the first time I've ever been to a non-chain "drive-in" type restaurant. It is set up exactly like Sonic, where you can order from your car or at the front. 

Ben: We both ordered a classic Bob's Fiesta Burger to chow down on in Cassidy's car (it came with a side of fries). We were starting to wish that we lived in Paducah to be closer to this beautiful roadside drive-in.

Nashville, TN: The Food Truck Festival

Ben: Ahhhh the Nashville Food Truck Festival, what a horrible experience for someone like me. For some reason, the popularity of food trucks has risen in the past few years, but I think it's all hype. I thought the purpose of a food truck was to provide very tasty, unhealthy, and cheap food. Sure, my only experience of food trucks was at state fairs and such (and I guess their prices were kind of high there too, but that's because it's at the fair and to be fair, it's not always fair at the fair.)

However, I do think that this food truck festival just left a bad taste in my mouth, because it was a step into a new world: A world of communism. That's right, communism. Where everything costs the same amount. Everything was five dollars or more. If ice cream was five dollars over there, then ice cream was five dollars over here. Where was the invisible hand to lower the competitors' prices? Not here.

Also, it's important to note that a lot of these "food trucks" were just big corporations who wanted to get into the action of food trucking. These well-known establishments even hiked up their own regular in-store prices to meet the communist standards of nothing under five dollars.

So, here's my advice: Keep on trucking, past the Nashville Food Truck Festival.

Cassidy: This is a prime example of what we like to call a "drama queen." 

Ben: No, I explained this already, queens are for monarchies, and this was a communist regime.

Cassidy: I swear that I don't work for the Coca-Cola company. But hey, COKE, if you need a girl who shamelessly promotes your products in every single picture, I'm your lady. 

Ben: Also, that is a grilled cheese from The Grilled Cheeserie - a very popular food truck in Nashville with over-priced grilled cheeses. I wanted one so bad but I couldn't pull myself to spend five dollars on a single grilled cheese. (Especially when you can go to the grocery store and make your own gourmet grilled cheese for way less. I won't go into details but the trick is low heat, high quality bread, real butter, and a nice thick-cut sharp cheddar cheese.)
Cassidy: But honestly, The Grilled Cheeserie makes a great grilled cheese. I suggest adding chicken to your grilled cheese if it's available.

Ben: So, after pouting for a couple hours, I decided to do some spelunking and I caved in and bought a "sliders" from some random food truck. Before I continue I want to state that this place made excellent "sliders," they were actually pretty delicious. Okay, so that's the last good thing I'm going to say about this food truck festival.

I'm walking around complaining to Cassidy about prices and searching trash cans for my coke rewards bottle caps, when I see a sign on a food truck that says, "SLIDERS $4.00!" Finally, a restaurant that understands what I'm all about. So I ordered the "All American" which is basically just a plain cheeseburger with homemade pickle slices on it. I pay with my card, select the "no tip" option, and wait for my "sliderS". That uppercase "S" was no typo on my part, the only typo present that day was the "s" at the end of "$4.00 sliders", for there was no "s" when I was handed my tray of, count them, one slider! This was like the horse cookie incident all over again, how did I find myself in the position of paying four whole dollars for a single "sliders?" Who would have thought that just "s" would have caused such an in-justice?

(I also bought a bag of chips for a dollar fifty (which I think should be illegal) however, I was able to justify them out to only being fifty cents because I saved a dollar not buying a stupid five dollar grilled cheese. Their drinks were a dollar, but they were non-refillable cans, so I knew I had to continue searching for a better value.)

Cassidy: Ben, being the dramatic never-wanting-to-pay-for-little-cheeseburgers person he is, wanted to throw this little 'burg away. He actually wanted to throw it in the trash because it was one single slider instead of multiple ones. I'm very anti ever throwing away food, so I started to get really, really angry about this. So, I threatened to eat the burger. I was so close to eating the entire burger in one bite so he could not throw the poor thing away. I finally talked him out of it, and I still got to take a bite. It was extremely, extremely good. Tasty as heck. 

Ben: I don't have a problem with paying four dollars for a fancy cheese burger*, but that's when it's a full sized burger, not a dinky little "sliders." This is an artist's rendition of the size of the "$4.00 sliders". Next to the little nugget burger is a Tardigrade. (A.K.A Water Bear. A.K.A Moss Piglet) It is the smallest known animal in the world. The Moss Piglets are also one of the few organisms that can survive the harsh conditions of outer space. They are a pretty extreme species, you should look them up.

Cassidy: I wish there were little tiny cheeseburgers floating all around me. 

Ben: The fun starts here. After being disappointed at the food festival, I knew that we could always fall back on the good ole' farmers' market. 

Cassidy: Instrument-wielding vegetables triumph over everything.

Ben: We got a Mennonite Grown Big Beef right here!
Cassidy: That's my actual name.

Ben: The farmers' market is a wonderful place. I've lived next to it for the past three years, but it took a girlfriend to allow me to step out of my dorm room and explore great places like these that are less than a mile away from where I live.

Cassidy: D'awwwwwwwwwwwwww. 

Ben: Anyways... The Nashville Farmers' Market is one of my favorite spots in Nashville. It has great produce, a delicious food court with a lot of great restaurants (that don't expect you to tip and that don't charge you five whole dollars for a small moss piglet burger), and it's right next to the bicentennial park. I'll go more into my secret love for the farmers' market in another post.

*I actually do have a lot of problems with spending four whole dollars on a single cheese burger no matter what size it is.