Hoosier Thai
Sampler
Longtime readers of this column will recall my general rule of never dining below ground level.
There are occasions when the temptation of a particular culinary delight is enough to overcome simple prejudice.
Happily, the occasion recently arose once again with the opening of Nashville’ s newest restaurant: Hoosier Thai, at 15 South Van Buren Street on the corner of Main and Van Buren streets, one level below the Nashville House.
Any sort of eatery serving ethnic foods is a welcome sight in this midwestern restaurant scene. Since Thai food is a favorite in my family, we were all overjoyed to hear about it.
Accordingly, I took the leap of faith, technically a flight of steps, into the cozy and intimate underground space of Hoosier Thai for a delightful dining experience.
The appetizer menu is excellent, and it was all that I could do to stop myself from making a meal from the“ starter” selections.
There’ s a chicken satay, grilled, marinated chicken on a skewer with peanut or cucumber sauce. There’ s a Thai spring roll deepfried and served with sweet and sour sauce, or a Thai salad roll with choice of chicken, tofu or shrimp. There are shrimp cigars, vegetable tempura, and floured and fried sweet Thai calamari rings.
In the end, I chose the Thai dumplings, steamed soft wontons filled with ground pork, shrimp and veggies, and the crab Rangoon with crab meat, cream cheese and onions in a wonton wrap. Yummy!
They were both delicious and filling and, as I say, nearly a meal in themselves.
Mrs. Sampler loves the sweet Thai iced tea, but I insisted on the hot tea, jasmine, ginger, or chrysanthemum, in the cute little teapot.
Now, perhaps I should inject a word of warning about the restaurant’ s décor, which I can safely say is unlike that of any other Thai restaurant in the world.
That is because the previous occupant, the venerable That Sandwich Place, left behind their extensive collection of Bob Knight memorabilia. I am a little melancholy that I need to explain to some that Bob Knight was a
64 Our Brown County • July / August 2025