Ellen Fort
Verified
As seen in:
Medium,
MSN,
The New York Times,
Flipboard,
Bon Appetit,
Eater,
Eater SF,
Nashville Eater,
Saveur,
NewsBreak
and
Senior Editor @Saveurmag
IG: @ellen_fort_feasts
Email me: ellen.fort AT saveur dot com
Former: Food Editor @sunsetmag; Editor, @EaterSF
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Ellen Fort
Bar Cala Cala Brings 'Hi-Fi Discoteca' to East Nashville
If there's one thing to take away from the Nashville dining scene right now, it's that there simply aren't enough "hi-fi discoteca" culinary experiences. Thankfully, that wretched period is coming to an end: Bar Cala Cala has arrived with natural wines, raw fish and, importantly, a disco ball. Brought to life by chefs Ryan Costanza (Present Tense) and Joshua Walker (Xiao Bao), Bar Cala Cala is both a listening room and a restaurant, with a menu of "Italian coastal cooking" taking center stage.
Why Bad Idea’s Velveeta Ice Cream Is More Than a Novelty Dessert
Photographed by Danielle Atkins Growing up in the suburbs of Nashville, Colby Rasavong didn’t dream of French cuisine—the foundation for the restaurants where he cut his teeth—or the elevated, Appalachian-inspired food he would later cook with chef Sean Brock. He also didn’t eat much American food until his teens, an easy thing to do when living in one of the largest Lao communities in the US.
The Best Hot Chicken in Nashville Original
Who serves the best gorditas in Mexico City? Or Baltimore's can't-miss crab cakes? Welcome to Taste of the Town, where we call on a local expert to share the best versions of one of their city’s most iconic foods. Here, we take a walk on the scorching side with Nashville's most electrifying hot chicken. Hot chicken is enshrined in Nashville’s culinary canon, having been honed in the city’s Black neighborhoods for nearly 80 years.
The Best Hot Chicken in Nashville
17 hours ago You won your court case — why can't you collect the money? One Tenn. woman's fight explains it all www.youtube.com on YouTube • 17h A 79-year-old East Nashville woman won a $1,500 small claims judgment, but collecting proved complicated. From unpaid judgments to wage garnishment, what happens when someone you take to court won't pay?
Découvrir Nashville, Tennessee : bien plus que le poulet épicé...
Si Nashville est depuis longtemps une destination prisée pour sa musique et sa cuisine du sud des États-Unis, sa scène gastronomique est devenue plus avant-gardiste ces dernières années. Avec sa grande diversité de communautés aux racines profondes et un intérêt croissant pour la gastronomie, la ville a accueilli toute une variété de cuisines, de chefs et de restaurateurs désireux de profiter de la popularité grandissante de la ville, en tirant parti de ses nombreuses facettes.
Nashville is So Much More than Hot Chicken
Nashville has long been a destination for great music and Southern cuisine and within recent years, the food scene has become equally cutting edge. With a variety of deeply rooted communities and a growing interest in food, the city has experienced an influx of cuisines, chefs and restaurateurs looking to join in on the city's growing popularity, building on the many layers of Nashville.
Eat, Imbibe & Explore: Embrace the Experience
There’s no denying — as demonstrated by these pages — that the Williamson County dining scene is vibrant and diverse. That doesn’t only mean you can choose from a dive bar, a popular chain or a romantic tête-à-tête. You don’t even need to dine with a roof over your head. The area offers an abundance of ways to enjoy eating and drinking in unorthodox (and exciting) settings.
115 Karaoke Songs, 600 $5 Beers and 1 Hot Christmas in July at Santa’s Pub
On a hot, sticky Saturday night in July, patrons showed up in a steady stream to the gravel parking lot of Santa’s Pub, a double-wide trailer as red as Jolly Old St. Nick’s trademark suit. Ricky, the door guy, checked IDs, announcing loudly to each new group as they arrived: “Welcome to Santa’s! Cash only, beer only! Beers are four and five dollars!” Christmas lights wrapped around the banister of the deck, illuminating murals depicting Santa behind bars (crimes unknown), among other scenarios.
A Nashvillian’s Guide to Iceland
Like the city itself, the Nashville airport is morphing into a heavily trafficked beast that’s drawing in world travelers. But it’s also giving Nashvillians more opportunities to become world travelers. Nashville’s direct flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, launched in April, opening a portal to another world. The entire country is about the size of Kentucky, but with a much smaller population, estimated at around 400,000 people.
Nashville Lures Little Miss Mao, Turkey and the Wolf
New Orleans has always been known for its hospitality — it’s a city where the party never stops and the good times are always rollin’. Likewise, Nashville has long drawn creative types to town for good music and — more recently, for good or ill — a Lower Broadway bar scene that’s begun to rival that of Bourbon Street.
The Best Spots for Afternoon Tea Service Around Nashville
Afternoon tea at the Hermitage Hotel. Hermitage Hotel.\ Cute settings, cucumber sandwiches, and more by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Jan 16, 2025, 6:29am CST Afternoon tea at the Hermitage Hotel. | Hermitage Hotel.\ by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Jan 16, 2025, 6:29am CST Southerners are known for their love of iced tea, particularly when sweetened and garnished with a wedge of lemon. But they are also fond of hot tea service, and afternoon tea has long been a tradition.
The Best Restaurants for Dining With a Big Group in Nashville
Husk operates out of a 19th-century mansion with plenty of space for a crowd. Bill Addison Spots that can accommodate a big, bustling group in the Tennessee city by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Jan 2, 2025, 7:00am CST Husk operates out of a 19th-century mansion with plenty of space for a crowd. | Bill Addison by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Jan 2, 2025, 7:00am CST Nashville has gained a reputation as a destination for groups of all types—including, but not limited to, bachelorette parties.
The Best Holiday Pop-Ups in and Around Nashville
The holiday season is officially full steam ahead, which means that pop-ups are popping off all over Music City. And this year, they’re more over-the-top than ever, with themes ranging from the Polar Express to Whoville and retro ski lodges. Here is a running list of all the holiday pop-ups taking over your favorite bars and restaurants in and around Nashville. Perfect for festive imbibing, snacking, and general holiday merriment until the ball drops on 2024.
Best Restaurants Open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Nashville
Inside Choy Nashville. Victoria Quirk Your official guide to all of the dine-in and takeout options around the city by Ellen Fort and Eater Staff Updated Dec 2, 2024, 6:11pm CST Inside Choy Nashville. | Victoria Quirk by Ellen Fort and Eater Staff Updated Dec 2, 2024, 6:11pm CST The holidays are synonymous with stress — the shopping rush, social obligations, and getting holiday cards out on time — but the holiday meal doesn’t have to be.
The Best Lunches in Nashville
The grilled cheese goods at Cafe Cheeserie. Cafe Cheeserie Mid-day hunger should never go ignored by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Nov 8, 2024, 4:45pm CST The grilled cheese goods at Cafe Cheeserie. | Cafe Cheeserie by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Nov 8, 2024, 4:45pm CST Though Nashville’s original mid-day meal is the meat and three, there are many different ways to avoid a sad desk lunch in Music City. Notably, this city’s sandwich scene has exploded with carefully crafted banh mi and sky-high Italian combos.
The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now Original
Food|The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-nashville-restaurants.html You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. In the Where to Eat: 25 Best series, we’re highlighting our favorite restaurants in cities across the United States. These lists will be updated as restaurants close and open, and as we find new gems to recommend.
The Essential Appetizer of Argentina Is a Sizzling Pan of Melty Cheese
By Ellen Fort Published on October 3, 2024 It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR contributing editor Ellen Fort. Follow along as she discovers the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: Everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour. When I first started dating my husband, we were in our early 20s, living and working in Washington, D.C., a long-standing hub of international cuisine.
Provoleta Recipe (Argentine Grilled Provolone Cheese)
By Ellen Fort Published on October 3, 2024 In Argentina, an asado is both the gathering and the meal, in which vegetables and meats like beef, chicken, pork, and chorizo are cooked on an open fire or a grill called a parrilla. The main event is often preceded by provoleta, a traditional appetizer consisting of gooey melted provolone cheese topped with oregano and red pepper flakes.
The Best Ice Cream Scoop Is an Under-$20 Classic
Chilling your base ensures it’ll churn into ice cream as fast as possible, which translates into small ice crystals for creamier ice cream. Heami Lee We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. When it comes to desserts, nothing says “summer” quite like ice cream. Cold, creamy, and satisfying, the quintessential sweet treat can’t help but conjure memories of childhood.
Where to Find Nashville’s Most Iconic Dishes
Where to Find Nashville’s Most Iconic Dishes Nashville is known for its legends — larger-than-life icons who’ve put this city on the map for their songs and charisma: Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn, to name only a few. But at the heart of Music City is a town that likes to eat, where dishes have become as famous as the musicians …
Where to Find Nashville’s Best Iconic Dishes
The spread at Edessa, a local legend in Nashville’s flourishing Kurdish community. Edessa Restaurant From the cayenne pepper-spiked fried chicken to fried bologna sandwiches that fuel the city’s musicians by Ellen Fort@ellenfork Aug 8, 2024, 3:45pm CDT The spread at Edessa, a local legend in Nashville’s flourishing Kurdish community.
This Nashville Restaurant Is Basically an Appalachian Art Gallery with Amazing Food
Geometric color blocks abut in a soft patchwork prism of reds, pinks, blues, and grays, each section of cotton fabric bonded to the next by impossibly tiny stitches. The quilt gracing the entrance to Nashville’s Audrey was sewed by Andrea Williams,a descendant of a member ofthe famed Alabama quilting collective, Gee’s Bend. Standing beneath the abstract piece, diners might notice the rich, earthy fragrance of vetiver and the faint chirping of crickets.
Corn Nuts Get a Glow-Up in This Filipino-Inspired Snack Mix
Photo: Matt Taylor-Gross • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR senior editor Ellen Fort . Follow along as she discovers the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour. Salty drinking snacks are the threads that hold together the fabric of society.
Corn Nuts Get a Glow-Up in This Filipino-Inspired Snack Mix
Salty drinking snacks are the threads that hold together the fabric of society. They’re usually nothing fancy: maybe it’s a bowl of cocktail peanuts and a plate of cheese straws your aunt sets out next to the white wine, or a giant jar of rosy-hued pickled eggs at the end of the bar. Bars with popcorn makers have also always been a favorite of mine.
Our Favorite Valentine’s Gifts for Food Lovers
Valentine’s Day approaches, whether or not you’re feeling the effects of Cupid’s arrow. Regardless, it’s a great excuse to shower your loved ones—romantic, platonic, or related—with tasty treats and lots of love. We’ve rounded up some excellent gifts that will please the food-lovers in your life, from beautiful handblown martini glasses and adorable heart-shaped baking dishes to date-sweetened chocolates festooned with dried berries and rose petals.
Our Favorite Valentine’s Gifts for Food Lovers
Valentine’s Day approaches, whether or not you’re feeling the effects of Cupid’s arrow. Regardless, it’s a great excuse to shower your loved ones—romantic, platonic, or related—with tasty treats and lots of love. We’ve rounded up some excellent gifts that will please the food-lovers in your life, from beautiful handblown martini glasses and adorable heart-shaped baking dishes to date-sweetened chocolates festooned with dried berries and rose petals.
The Best Places to Celebrate on New Year’s Eve in Nashville
The year 2024 may have felt more like a decade than a year, but that’s all the more reason to see it out in style. Nashville will be rockin’ and rollin’ on New Year’s Eve with all kinds of special dinners, parties, and Champagne toasts — not to mention one of the region's biggest and brightest midnight countdown and fireworks show.
The Best Black Friday Kitchen Deals of 2023
The global guide to cooking, entertaining, and food travel. Bring home the world's best recipes, drinks, seasonal dishes, and tips. New York, NY 2K followers # Black Friday Deals# Kitchen Appliances# Culinary Tools# Cyber Monday Sales# Holiday Shopping This is original content from NewsBreak’s Creator Program. Join today to publish and share your own content. Published by The global guide to cooking, entertaining, and food travel.
The Best Black Friday Kitchen Deals of 2023
The holiday shopping season is in full swing, with big deals on appliances and kitchen tools making their yearly appearance in the pre- and post-Thanksgiving period. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger on a big-ticket item, this is the time of year when discounts will be at their deepest—it’s time to go for the splurge. Cookware, bakeware, countertop appliances like air fryers and ice makers, stand mixers, and so much more will marked down for the days ahead.
The Best Stocking Stuffers
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. First, let’s disabuse ourselves of the notion that a stocking stuffer must be truly small enough to fit in a stocking. Once we can all agree that a stocking stuffer is more of a lagniappe, the quirky, cute gift that refuses to fit into a category, we can get on with the fun stuff.
How to Host a Lowcountry Boil, According to an Expert
There’s no better group activity than getting your hands dirty together—especially when the end results are edible. This is universally true, but what’s eaten varies by continent, country, state, city, and even neighborhood.
Sesame-Cheddar Wafers
These bites of crispy, toasted cheese are the ideal salty snack to serve with cocktails. Serves 8 Cook 30 minutes Ingredients ½ cup white sesame seeds 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting ½ tsp. cayenne pepper ½ tsp. garlic powder ½ tsp. kosher salt ½ tsp. mustard powder ½ cup unsalted butter, softened ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR senior editor Ellen Fort.
Meet the Team
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID MALOSH; FOOD STYLING BY PEARL JONES; PROP STYLING BY SOPHIE STRANGIOEDITORSEditor-in-Chief/CEO Kat CraddockManaging Director, Edi
Soy Pickled Tomatoes with Silken Tofu
Instructions Step 1 For the pickled tomatoes: In a medium bowl, stir together all the ingredients and set aside to marinate for 10–20 minutes. (Alternatively, cover and refrigerate for up to 12 hours; bring to room temperature before using.) Step 2 Meanwhile, make the tofu: Place the tofu onto a platter. Without cutting through to the bottom, slice the tofu in a crosshatch pattern at 1-inch intervals (this will help the sauce penetrate).
Here’s What SAVEUR Editors Are Buying on Amazon Prime Day 2023
It’s beginning to look a lot like Prime Day as Amazon gears up for its two-day sales event with some early sales. From July 11-12 there will be gobs of deep discounts on all kinds of goods, from food to electronics to clothing and home goods. Here at SAVEUR we are holding out for some really special items that we’ve had our eyes on all year long.
Introducing Your Favorite In-Home Pizzaiolo: You
There’s nothing like a pizza hot from the oven—the cheese still bubbling atop a puffy, blistered crust. Until recently, that kind of pizza perfection was limited to restaurants with seasoned pizzaiolos and wood-burning ovens. My homemade pies were lackluster at best; conventional ovens, I learned, don’t get ripping-hot enough to achieve that crispy, chewy crust. But a year ago, Ooni’s gas-fueled oven changed the game at my house—as it did for many cooks across the country.
Hanky Pankys
Recipes An unassuming delicacy with Midwestern roots transforms ground beef into a craveable party trick with liquid smoke and Velveeta cheese. Serves 4-6 Cook 15 minutes American Appetizers Cheese Dairy Recipes Ingredients 1 lb. ground beef 1 lb. bulk Italian sausage, hot or mild 1 lb. Velveeta Original ½ tsp. liquid smoke 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 12 oz.
Seven Nashville Restaurants Where We Want To Be Regulars
A truly welcoming neighborhood restaurant is easily identifiable by its regulars. They’re the diners who slide into the corner seat at the bar with a small wave and a smile to whoever’s behind the bar, the hosts who bring their friends to share their favorite dishes on the menu, and the family who dines early every week with their kids before the restaurant gets busy. And what brings them back?
Toasting Women Founders at the Inaugural SAVEUR Salon
Culture Mezcalitas laced with hot honey, caviar-topped flaky flatbread, and plenty of bubbles fueled the conversation at editor Ellen Fort’s Charleston round table. Culture Features Profiles On an early evening in Charleston, South Carolina, a group of dynamic women gathered at the home of Molly Fienning, CEO of Red Clay Hot Sauce, for a celebration of women in food and beverage.
The Resy Guide to Outdoor Dining in Nashville — Resy | Right This Way
Today 2 Close Remove 2 Add Update 1. Margot Café & Bar map East Nashville There’s no more charming mealtime than a brunch, lunch, or dinner on the garden patio at one of East Nashville’s mainstays. Sidewalk seating is also available — either way is right to enjoy Margot’s increasingly springy dishes, like English pea and feta bruschetta with lemon and mint. Bonus: Pups are welcome to join, too. 2.
Fried Cornichons with Hot Mustard
It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR senior editor Ellen Fort. Follow along as she discovers the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour.
Hot Jilda From NYC’s Txikito Original
It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR senior editor Ellen Fort. Follow along as she discovers the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour. The Gilda has been a staple in the Basque canon of pintxos for decades, putting together an olive, anchovy, and pickled Guindilla pepper on a skewer for the ultimate savory bite.
Classic Gilda Recipe | Saveur
It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR senior editor Ellen Fort. Follow along as she discovers the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour. Named after Rita Hayworth’s bold, spicy character in the eponymous movie from the 1940s, the Gilda quickly became a classic Basque pintxo.
Welcome to Snacky Hour
There’s no denying that a big, beautiful meal served at a table with friends is one of life’s most enjoyable experiences. But there’s something particularly satisfying about the in-between times, the things we eat because we crave them, the things that we’re just eating for fun. We’re talking about snacks, the crispy, crunchy, salty, sweet, sour bites that we can share (or not share) with friends. So, welcome to Snacky Hour, my dream come true (and SAVEUR’s newest column).
These Spicy Baked Crackers Are a Sleeper Hit Original
It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere, at least according to snack-obsessed SAVEUR senior editor Ellen Fort. Follow along as she discovers the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour. Saltines, the bland-but-ubiquitous crackers found in every grandparent’s pantry, are often relegated to sick day snacks paired with ginger ale, or stacked alongside a bowl of tomato soup.
What Could a Gas Stove Ban Mean for Cooks?
It’s a familiar, reassuring moment for many cooks: the click of the knob, the hiss of the gas as it ignites, the blue-orange flame signaling that things are about to start sizzling. But despite Americans’ long love affair with gas, cooking with it may become a thing of the past, as health and climate change concerns rise.
The Best Cookbooks of 2022 Original
The year 2022 yielded more than its fair share of excellent cookbooks, including deep dives into cuisines like Gullah Geechee, Kashmiri, and Sri Lankan, as well as well-tested everyday recipes that fill in the gaps between intricate cooking projects. Overall, there are many to recommend, even beyond the best gifts to give during the holidays. To make sure we covered all the delicious bases, here are more of our very favorite cookbooks from friends and cooks around the world.
Our Favorite Vitamix Blender Is Majorly Discounted This Cyber Monday
Shopping & Reviews Shopping Guides If you've been waiting for the right moment to take the plunge on a pricey Vitamix, wait no further: Our very favorite model is on mega sale today for $300, down from $480. This blender is incredibly powerful and designed to last a lifetime. It's also simple to use and clean, and made to last through the toughest of blends in both home and commercial kitchens.
The Best Culinary Stocking Stuffers Make a Big Splash
Shopping & Reviews Shopping Guides Sometimes the best gifts aren’t the biggest gifts, but the ones that can be slipped inside a stocking or carried in your bag on the subway. A candle that smells like a dinner party? A perfect gold spoon? Whimsical knife rests shaped like tiny vegetables? The best culinary stocking stuffers run the gamut, but they are all cheeky little numbers that will deliver big. What DOES a dinner party smell like?
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Ellen
Contact Ellen, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack