1. Sky Blue Sandwich Company (Toronto)
The owners of Sky Blue Sandwich Company have created a menu
including more than two dozen specialty sandwiches named after
Wilco songs. Included on this menu is the “One Wing,” with roasted
turkey with cream cheese, cranberry sauce and a hint of stuffing
served on their cranberry and cream cheese bread; the “Casino
Queen,” with smoked turkey topped with a balsamic onion marmalade,
bacon, and avocado; and the “Bull Black Nova,” a cheese sandwich
with a black olive and a sun-dried tomato spread, on three cheese
bread with capicola and grilled onions between provolone cheese.
Other Wilco songs you will find on the menu include “Pieholden
Suite,” “Via Chicago,” and “Hell is Chrome.”
2. Sticks and Stones Clay Oven Pizza (Greensboro,
N.C.)
Sticks and Stones Clay Oven Pizza gets its organic flour from Eli
Whitney, N.C.; milk, butter, and cream from Julian, N.C.; fresh
produce from Browns Summit, NC; and the names of all its menu items
from Jacksonville, N.C., native Ryan Adams. The owner and one of
the original chefs were responsible for naming the menu items. As
shown by the following menu items, both men were clearly fans of
Adams’ work: the “Easy, Tiger” soup of the day, the “Goodnight
Rose” sandwich, “Easy Plateau” and “Let it Ride” pizzas, and “To Be
Young,” a decidedly youthful menu choice of chicken fingers and
French fries.
3. Olivia (Austin, Texas)
The most prominent item adorning the walls of Olivia is a concert
poster of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings that was given to Chef
James Holmes by his grandfather. To show his admiration for Nelson,
he named Olivia’s fried chicken dish, “Willie Nelson Chicken Fried
Steak.” As one food writer observed about the dish’s namesake—“you
got the ‘herbs,’ you got the ‘smoke,’ you got the ‘ounces.’” But
for a much more literal interpretation, one needs only to look at
the ingredients—six ounces of meat, red eye gravy and
smashed potatoes. According to Holmes, the dish is “an
homage to an unfortunate run-in with the law in El Paso in 2010.”
His love of music does not stop there, though. You can find him
selling his fried chicken to festival goers at Austin City Limits,
and his second restaurant, Lucy’s Fried Chicken, recently finished
hosting its five-day South By Southwest showcase, which included
Alejandro Escovedo, Li’l Cap’n Travis and more.
4. Blue Canoe (Tupelo, Miss.)
Blue Canoe, a restaurant in small-town Tupelo, Mississippi serving
traditional bar food with a twist, got its name from owner Adam
Morgan after a song from one of his favorite bands from college,
Blue Mountain. Morgan chose the song “Blue Canoe” for the lyrics
“Ridin’ round the county drinkin’ from a jar / Big blue canoe up on
top of the car,” because it conveyed the relaxed atmosphere he
wanted for his restaurant. To date, Blue Mountain has played at
Blue Canoe four times. Morgan’s love of music is also evidenced by
the live regional talent he brings in regularly: “I try to bring in
music that appeals to a 25-year-old as well as a 65-year-old,”
Morgan said. “Obviously I step out from that from time to time, but
I’d still call it my philosophy as much as anything.” While you’re
there, be sure to check out Morgan’s nod to Paul Simon with the
“Mother and Child Reunion” sandwich.
5. Magnolia Pub and Brewery (San Francisco)
This Haight-Ashbury gastropub and brewery pays homage to the area’s
Grateful Dead roots with not only its name, which originated from
the song “Sugar Magnolia,” but also its large selection of craft
beers brewed in-house. Among the award-winning beers included on
its menu are the following selections that represent owner Dave
McLean’s love of the Grateful Dead: New Speedway Bitter (“New
Speedway Boogie”), Bonnie Lee’s Best Bitter (“Wharf Rat”), Stout of
Circumstance (“Saint of Circumstance”), and Spud Boy’s IPA, as “Spud Boy” was the nickname Jerry Garcia gave
himself in the band Old & in the Way.
6. The Glass Onion (Charleston, S.C.)
The name of this spot, which has a heavy rural South, New Orleans
and Lowcountry influence, was taken from the Beatles’ White
Album. As the three original owners were fans of the Beatles as
well as some of the first in Charleston to embrace the idea of
eating seasonally, locally and naturally, it should be no surprise
that the name “The Glass Onion” came to mind. One can see the
parallels between the band and the restaurant. The band’s lyrics
were often considered puzzling, and the owners’ concept of
farm-to-table was abstract at the time. And just as Lennon has
commented on how people read into the band’s lyrics too much and
try to find meaning that is not really there, The Glass Onion
wanted to create comfort food in a non-pretentious environment
where “what you see, is what you get.”
7. Area Four (Boston)
Michael Krupp began his professional career as a music-video
producer for Island/Def Jam creating videos for hip-hop and rap
stars in the 1990s and early 2000s. Today, Krupp is co-owner of
Area Four, a restaurant whose philosophy is decidedly punk rock. As
Krupp has stated The Clash “is a subject near and dear to my
formerly punk rock heart,” his passion for the band, and other punk
artists is apparent in all aspects of the restaurant, including the
menu, which features the “Daily Quote from The Clash’s Joe Strummer
for Your (and Our) Amusement.” In addition to his contribution to
the menu, Krupp also customizes the restaurant’s playlist daily,
which undoubtedly includes musicians who pull at his punk rock
heartstrings.
8. Cactus Jack’s (Evergreen, Colo.)
It should come as no surprise that a restaurant in Colorado, the
state Widespread Panic has called its “second home” as well as the
state where, in 2008, the mayor of Denver named June 27 “Widespread
Panic Day” to honor the band’s 32nd sold-out show at Red Rocks
Amphitheater (which was more than any band in the venue’s history),
would dedicate their menu to that band. Cactus Jack’s has 25
signature burgers all named after Widespread Panic songs or songs
covered by the band, including the “Action Man,” the “Bowlegged
Woman,” the “Sandbox,” the “Big Wooly Mammoth,” the “Waker” and the
“Dirty Side Down,” which has two grilled cheese sandwiches as the
bun.
9. Yellow Submarine (Miami)
The Yellow Submarine is not a brick-and-mortar restaurant but a
food truck operated by Yayo Alarcon and his brother, Andi. In 2009,
the brothers wanted to bring to Miami the trend of food-truck
eating, which was already popular in other cities. They named their
truck after the Beatle’s song and included menu items such as “Lady
Madonna” (The Beatles), “Imagine” (John Lennon), “Killer Queen”
(Queen), “Original Sin” and “New Sensation” (INXS).
10. Nellcôte (Chicago)
This Chicago restaurant is based on Villa Nellcôte, a 19th-century
16-room mansion in southern France leased by Rolling Stones
guitarist Keith Richards in 1971. Recording sessions for the band’s
classic 1972 Exile on Main Street album took place in the
mansion, which has been described as “the backdrop for the coolest,
most drugged-up house party ever.” The restaurant mirrors the
luxury of the original Nellcôte with Italian marble, art nouveau
wrought iron gates, extravagant woodwork, cartouche crown molding,
crystal chandeliers and Parisian herringbone wood floors. “I had a
poster of Keith from the recording of Exile on the wall of
my bedroom during Junior High,” says executive chef Jared Van Camp.
“It was from a guitar magazine. Little did I know how influential
that would be. My dad definitely played a lot of the early, bluesy
Stones recordings. He had a ton of vinyl. It stuck.”
11 & 12. Rosebud and The Family Dog
(Atlanta)
As a passionate advocate of food and music, Chef Ron Eyester
regularly holds events where he pairs his menu with music at his
Atlanta restaurant, Rosebud. Past events have included Strawberry
Fields Forever, where the prix-fixe menu included strawberries as
the core ingredient, and his tribute to the Allman Brothers Eat
a Peach, where fresh peaches were the underlying ingredient.
Other events have included The White Dinner, The Last Waltz and
Jerry Garcia Dinners. If you’re not yet convinced of Eyester’s love
of music, take a look at his farm-to-table eatery and watering hole
that he named The Family Dog after the promotion company of the
famous San Francisco concert impresario, Chet Helms. At the Family
Dog, every Wednesday is “Wieners and Widespread,” which features
hotdog specials and a live Widespread Panic concert playing on each
of the restaurant’s televisions.
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