A Thought and a Half | Southern Food & Lifestyle Blog

Chattanooga Foodie Bucket List

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Remember several weeks ago when I shared my Chattanooga Bucket List? Well, I couldn’t fit every little thing on one list, so I made another.

From the time I moved here last July, it didn’t take me long to figure out that Chattanooga has an incredible food scene. And it’s not just a nice bunch of burger joints and “nicer” restaurants. We’ve got a burger lounge and a New Orleans style bistro and some delicious delis. Not to mention some pretty sweet spots to satisfy your sweet tooth. I happen to like those places a lot.

A city’s food scene says a lot about its culture. The variety of cuisines we have in Chattanooga continues to amaze me. I never would’ve thought I’d find an authentic German restaurant just across the river from downtown. For the record, that’s one of my favorite places to eat. We’ve also got authentic Mexican and Thai, and a Brazilian steakhouse. For Chattanooga to be a “smaller” city, we sure have the food offerings the likes of Atlanta or Nashville.

Are you a #foodie? Check out the #CHA Bucket List, Food Edition! Click To Tweet

So here it is: the Chattanooga Bucket List, Foodie Edition.

Of course there are more than 40 wonderful food spots in town. The way I see it, it just gives me more excuses to go out, explore and eat good food.

chattanooga bucket list foodie edition

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Is Chattanooga’s food scene turning me into a foodie? Good chance. I don’t hate it. I haven’t been to all 40 places on this list, and I’m sure there are many more that I haven’t found yet. Ideally I would love to try one new restaurant every week or so. I can’t wait to work my way through the list and beyond and to continue discovering all of the great food Chattanooga has to offer. I still have so much more to find.

The #CHA Bucket List FOOD Edition is here! Click To Tweet

Join the fun – print out a copy of the list (it’s a .pdf) and check off all the spots you visit. Feel free to share your foodie favorites with me, too. Leave me a comment below, tweet at me or tag me on Instagram!

Stay tuned for one more edition of the Chattanooga Bucket List!

Have you visited any of the popular food spots in your city? What’s your favorite? 

A Galentine’s Afternoon at DeBarge Winery

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Valentine’s Day isn’t just for celebrating romance. It’s also a great chance to celebrate friendships and gal pals in your life, or just to treat yourself. Galentine’s Day is just as fun, I think.

This year for Galentine’s Day, a group of ladies from my work spent the afternoon sampling wine from the DeBarge Urban Winery on the Southside of Chattanooga. I’ll be completely honest, I didn’t even know it was there until the plans were made. But I love visiting wineries, and I was beginning to think there weren’t that many around here. Fortunately that’s not the case.  Living in North Carolina had me spoiled, where I had five wineries within 10 miles.

debarge winery wines

Wine-making started as a hobby for owner Ray DeBarge. In fact, he made his first bottle of wine as a teenager. It eventually grew into a passion that has since evolved into a business that makes many Chattanoogans and visitors happy. The Southside winery has been in operation for four years. They took their time perfecting their wines and starting to distribute; now they’re up and running and ready to make their mark in Chattanooga.

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I Have Big Band Fever in Chattanooga

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It’s not hard to get “in the mood” in Chattanooga for Valentine’s weekend. Just come to the Tivoli Theater and you’ll start to feel it. And don’t forget your dancing shoes. In retrospect, I wish I’d had mine.

One of Chattanooga’s favorite Valentine’s weekend events is the Big Band Fever show at the Tivoli Theater. The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera’s Big Band puts on a fun show full of swing dancing, big band tunes and lots of energy and hand-clapping. In fact, it’s such a popular event in town that they put on two shows: one on Friday and one on Saturday.

If you aren’t familiar with big band music, a traditional “big band” ensemble has at least 10 musicians with trumpets, trombones, saxophones, drums, double bass and piano. Big band music itself is very upbeat, jazzy and catchy; it became popular in the 1930s and 1940s with the Swing Era. If you’ve heard Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong’s music, then you’ve heard big band.

Big Band Fever Tivoli Theater Chattanooga

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The Chattanooga Bucket List

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I moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July of last year. I’d visited here several times when I was younger, but that had been at least 10 years. Fortunately I had a week between moving in and starting my job to get my bearings. It didn’t take long after I started exploring to find out there’s so much more to this city than I remembered.

Chattanooga may not be a huge city, like New York or Los Angeles or Nashville, but it’s big enough and has everything a big city has to offer and more, and everything that makes me happy. And it’s close enough to Atlanta and Nashville that I can get a big-city experience when I want it. From the food scene to the outdoors and everything in between, Chattanooga can satisfy pretty much any craving I could possibly have. They say the Tivoli Theater is Chattanooga’s Jewel of the South, but I think Chattanooga itself is the Jewel of the South.

tivoli theater chattanooga

So today, for all y’all explorers and travelers out there, I give y’all the Chattanooga Bucket List + a FREE printable checklist!

The Chattanooga Bucket List

chattanooga bucket list

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These are 39 of the top things anyone who visits or lives in Chattanooga needs to see, do, taste and experience. Even if you’re only here for 36 hours, check a few of these off while you’re here. Then plan a return visit and check off a few more. I’ve lived here for almost seven months and I still have so much more to explore. This summer, bring on all the outdoorsy adventures and festivals. And CFC matches.

Check out the Chattanooga Bucket List! #travel #visitTN Click To Tweet

Are y’all with me? Download and print the bucket list (it’s a.pdf) and check off everything you see and do. I’ll be right there with y’all. Don’t see something you’d think would be on the list? Have no fear… there are more editions of the Chattanooga Bucket List coming.

Feel free to share your adventures with me, too! I want to hear about them and see them! Leave a comment below, tweet at me or tag me on Instagram!

I’m happy and proud to call myself a Chattanoogan, and it’s my hope that anyone who visits sees the beauty of this city like I do. I think of it as the Jewel of the South for a reason.

What’s YOUR favorite thing to explore in a new city? What’s the first thing you always check out? 

36 Hours in Chattanooga

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For this post, I’m taking a nod from the New York Times’ “36 Hours” travel series. I like their account of 36 hours in Chattanooga, but there’s so much more to this city than what that article shared.

Even though I’ve only lived in Chattanooga for three and a half months, I’ve completely fallen in love with this city. I’m still a “new Noogan” by many people’s standards, but there’s no timeline or rule that says, “you have to live here for x amount of time before you’re allowed to say you love it here.” That’d be pretty lame, anyway.

36 hours in chattanooga

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