Nashville Food Friday: Dinner at Fido

Located in Hillsboro Village, Fido is the preeminent college coffee hangout. Owned by the team at Bongo Java and situated in a an old pet store, Fido offers quality coffee, decent food and a good atmosphere to hang out and work in (at least until they shut the WiFi off). When I lived across the river I was a fixture at Fido for brunch and during late afternoon work/study sessions. It's been a long time since I've been back for dinner since becoming and east-sider, so we headed over one night before a Belcourt movie.

Inside, Fido is clean, spacious and comfortable. Lots of dark wood tones and low lighting make the room cozy, if not dark at times. Since expanding, there are lots of tables available and when we went for dinner we had quite a few seating options. I will say that since this is a college hangout the demographic skews very young. Something about young blonde Belmont and Vanderbilt students talking about biology class made me feel REALLY old. But my favorite part of Fido is the art that they feature on the walls. It's always from a local artist and I'm usually very impressed. 

Fido is all counter service; you order up front, take the tag with the cute dog back to your table and wait for your food. The line to order is usually quite long, especially during brunch. But Fido usually has two registers open and the line tends to move quickly, giving you just enough time to decide what you want.

Since it was dinner time, there was no way I was going to order a coffee drink. I would be bouncing off the walls like a maniac, tackling home decorating projects at 3am. Despite my desire for their lovely coffee, I went with the tea punch. This tasted a lot like orange juice and a little like tea. I'm not a connoisseur of fruit tea (I don't think any northerner can claim that) but I wish this had a little less citrus and a lot more tea. Either way, it was tasty and I drank it.

For my entree I had the steak and hash featuring 3 slices marinated flank steak over potatoes and cheese with aioli, spinach and pesto. The dish looked really pretty, but unfortunately the steak was really tough and chewy, to the point that my knife had some trouble cutting it. The steak was flavored well, but with the hard consistency, I didn't really love it. I did however like the mix of potatoes and cheese that the steak was sitting on top of. 

Possibly my favorite thing to order at Fido is their sweet potato fries. They aren't your typical fries because they are roasted in the oven and are therefore much healthier. I could snack on these for days and not feel guilty about it. The sweet potatoes are always cut in these perfect square sticks and roasted to a delicious flavor. To accompany the fries is a mild horseradish dipping sauce, giving a nice kick without being overwhelming. This is a must order, regardless of the time of day.

While I didn't quite love my steak at Fido, I can say that for the myriad of times I've been here (mostly for brunch) I enjoyed it. The coffee drinks are really good and their breakfast offerings are solid, my favorite being the Bubba Scramble. 

Fido is the perfect spot to grab a quick bite to eat before a movie at the Belcourt, or a place to park your computer and get some work done. If you want to do the latter, however, I recommend going in the early morning or late afternoon/evening because they turn off the WiFi during the brunch rush, which is totally understandable during those busy hours.