Crawdaddy’s

Just beyond the heritage railway station in Cookeville, on its most active commercial street, the venue is accessed through its own attractive courtyard which in the summer comes into its own and is a popular place to dine. They'll assume this is what you want to do if you come here, but simply drinking is allowed, and you may want to go and sit in the bar area or even at it to allow the servers to seat someone else at busy times. I had to go and inspect the taps and bottles in the fridges before ordering as there was no menu at the table for this, but being a foreign visitor there was always going to be something of interest here for me, including Calfkiller brews on tap. The selection may be less eclectic to natives. We would have ate here except the vegetarian options were limited. Ended up eating in Father Tom's around the corner.

Here’s the reason I scored this one lower than the others. Located on one of the main streets in Cookeville near the campus so parking was on the street. Even on a Wednesday, there was no parking close. Three of us were seated at a table set for 4 that was big enough for two people. 80’s top 40 music helped bring my score down a notch. The food is quite good - go there for their Cajun or seafood dishes and the steaks are great. As far as a beer place - they don’t list any beers on the menu nor is there a beer menu so your server will have to tell you which ones they remember. (She did remember that they had a Lagunitas IPA) They also had 2 CalfKiller beers on draft if you want the rates - the beers are so-so. Oh, and you’ll get a frozen mug too.

Good food place with a nice ambiance. Beer selection is not so great. Nice value for both food and beer. Service is typical hit-or-miss student working their way through college: they may know that beer has hops in it, or they might think that hops are for rabbits, you silly customer. Don’t go out of your way if you’re going for the beer; keep on driving another hour to Nashville or Knoxville (or better yet, Asheville).

This is a big restaurant with an inviting outside dining area in a garden setting, plenty of table space inside and a full fledged bar upstairs. They are going for a New Orleans theme and pull it off well enough for Cookeville, TN. The food is Cajun and very tasty. I had a bit of the Fat Tuesday burger which was very good (would have been outstanding if they would cook it below medium), spinach dip with chipotle chips and the best appetizer I’ve had in a while: goat cheese pesto with French bread. The beer selection is not expansive with merely Lazy Magnolia being of any worth in the cooler and the taps not faring much better except for the Calfkiller offerings. However, if a beer enthusiast finds himself in Cookeville, he’s gonna have to drink Calfkiller and this is one of the few restaurant to carry it and has a superior food menu to boot.