Nashville

I will say that my trip last weekend to Nashville was mostly great.  From the lens of a tourist, the city itself was fairly walkable, contained sufficient amount of history and music, and had, generally, really good food (and drink).  The Giants won…and apparently, there are no real Tennessee professional football fans or hockey fans.  The 40-something degrees must have been too cold for them, and the night before the game, the city was overrun by happy Blackhawks people.  But, let's get to the important stuff.  Some eating highlights included:

Monelle’s – Brunch was $15/head and the food was amazing and plentiful, starting with biscuits and gravy and ending with homemade peach preserves and cinnamon rolls.  Rules are that you have to pass to the left once a food item is introduced to the table.  Once it goes full way around, you can pass it to whomever needs it.  Tables are family style and conversation with the other Giants fans, and folks from St. Louis was great.  Come for the country ham but stay for the fried chicken.

Peg-Leg Porkers – This was both a function of convenience, due to its proximity to our hotel, and because it was highly rated.  On the outskirts of the downtown, in the Gulch section of Nashville, there are a couple of micro-breweries…and this BBQ place…which was great.  Order the pulled pork.  Not only was the sauce sweet and tangy, but the pork also contained just the right amount of “bark” to provide the occasional crunch as you dig through it.  The Mac & Cheese was so creamy that it had to contain cream cheese in addition to whatever produces the unnatural yellow color.  Oh, and deep-fried peach pie…a la mode?  Yeah, that happened.

Edley’s BBQ – This was an unanticipated stop, where the other two were more planned.  After a failed attempt to get BBQ on a Sunday night at Hog Heaven (you know, the white shack behind McDonalds?), we were redirected to Edley’s where the BBQ was outrageous.  A zesty, sweet sauce that should be poured heavily over the dry-rubbed ribs.  Collard greens were tossed with bacon.  Is there another way?  Coleslaw was creamy and crisp and dinner was topped off with a small banana pudding.  I’m sure a thimble of it contained about a stick of butter and a cup of sugar.  Heart, don’t fail me now!

Sky Blue Café – A small café with hipster leanings, even if you don’t have plugs in your ears it was worth the visit for breakfast.  The Pancake-stuffed French toast with bananas and Nutella was less of a “stuff” and more of a “stack.”  Still delicious.  However, Em’s Bowl, a bowl of biscuits and gravy and potatoes and eggs with cheese topped with jalapenos and sour cream…that came as advertised.  Like Thanksgiving, you’re not done when your plate is clean, you’re done when you hate yourself (thank you Louis C.K.).

Puckett's Grocery & Restaurant - You can't imagine how many apologies they gave us when they served the tea which had not yet been sweetened.  They quickly took all the glasses away and then refilled them with tooth-shattering sweet tea.  As it happened, it was good to have something quench my thirst because their patented hot chicken-fried chicken had a bit of a zing.  This was our last meal in Music City, and its effects were already working against us...meaning, this was the first time someone in our group ordered a salad all weekend, a weekend where the coleslaw and jalapenos were our excuse for "veggies."   Oh, yeah, we had celery and carrots in our bloody marys.  Practically a salad.

All that said, the city itself is still contending with outdated racial issues, as one might expect in the Deep South.  Being from the Greater New York Metropolitan area it was obvious to me that minorities were grossly underrepresented, both as visitors to Nashville and employed in some of the many tourism-fed businesses.  Several comments were made to my friends and I as we navigated through the Country Music Hall of Fame and Opryland.  One, which was outright racist, was followed by the individual saying “but, I’m not being racist about it.”  The fact that you believe you have to qualify your clearly racist comment probably means that it was.  People have issues.  And, it makes you clearly understand how white/black tensions can escalate so quickly in places like Ferguson, MO and Miami Gardens, FL…and how, in both situations, the killers were absolved of any wrong-doing. 

However, that’s a fairly crappy paragraph to end on.  And, to be honest, I liked Nashville for 2 ½ days.  I can clearly see how being there any longer might bore a person.  Of the two Tennessee cities I’ve visited, I prefer Memphis.  Similar food but I’ll take Graceland, Sun Records and B.B. King any day of the week over Taylor Swift, Alan Jackson and Opryland.