Music City, Athens of the South, NashVegas, whatever you want to call it, there’s no denying that there is a lot of musical history in Nashville, TN. Artists of many genres have come from, or at least found a big stepping stone in Nashville.
Random Fact: Nashville was granted the first FM radio license in the United States in 1941.
My visit in Nashville was brief, but one thing that stands out was the breakfast I had. It could very well be the very best breakfast I’ve ever had yet! But, I’ll get to that later, first is the fun night that I had before! After stopping in Louisville for lunch and coffee I headed down to Nashville, my hotel was about 10 minutes south of downtown, though with traffic it turned into almost an hour. Rush hour traffic in any city is bad, but I experienced some of the worst in Nashville, so when you arrive, make sure it’s not during the afternoon rush hour. I checked in first as I always do, just so I know where to go after I’m dead tired and have just enough energy to drive myself to a bed (this happens more than I’d like to admit, I have a bad habit of wearing myself out).
After checking in and dropping off my luggage I headed into downtown. While there are many things to see in Nashville, like the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, the complete full-scale reconstruction of the Greek Parthenon, and more, I didn’t have much time, so I figured I would find the most active area and go there. This was an easy choice of course, Honky Tonk Central (or Honky Tonk Row). This street is lined with countless bars and stages all with bright neon signs in a Vegas fashion. As you walk down the street, live music is coming out of almost every single door you pass by, and as this is a popular tourist attraction you’ll meet many people from all over.
I don’t know why, but I saw and met many many people from Boston. I saw countless Boston apparel such as Boston Bruins jackets and hats; this stumped me a bit as to why this seemed to be such a phenomenon. I conversed with one guy from Boston who talked about how he hates to fly and how it was much cheaper for him to drive all the way down. Some words of the conversation were lost in the live band that was performing some covers of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, but we both understood each other. I hit another place called Bailey’s Sports Grille; in here I would hear a cover of “Royals” originally performed by Lorde which was done pretty well, along with a couple other songs. In here I met a man from Japan who was on business travel, he said that no matter where he goes he always eats and drinks local so that he can get a taste of the area. I unfortunately haven’t met many other people who do this.
Random Fact: Nashville has been cited for the greatest concentration of guitar pickers in the world,
numbering at 1352, though a proper census of guitar pickers has never been performed.
After that I continued my journey on to a rather famous place called “The Stage on Broadway”. This place easily had the biggest stage of all the places I would hit, considering the name it didn’t come as a surprise. I didn’t spend much time here, the music wasn’t to my liking and the place was overcrowded, so after making it up to the 2nd floor and sitting down for a couple minutes I made my way back through the crowd and left, and hit a place where I would spend a significant amount of time, “Roberts Western World”. While this place had a lot of people packed into it, you could still move through fairly easily and the music was more my pace.
Random Fact: The driveway leading up to Andrew Jackson’s home hermitage
located 10 miles east of downtown Nashville is in the shape of a giant guitar.
The last place I would hit for the night would be “The Second Fiddle”; at this point my memory was hazy due to some sleep deprivation. Over the course of the night I had hit 9 places, but what stood out was meeting many people from all over the US. I even met a guy from my hometown of Cleveland, OH. The following morning I would enjoy a breakfast that I might have to say is the best breakfast I’ve had yet. It was at Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant, which started out as a grocery back in the 1950’s. It isn’t very far from Printer’s Alley which is a place I wanted to check out and is what led me to Puckett’s.
The amazing breakfast that I ordered was the “Southern Stack” which at first scared me a bit. The description didn’t sound that great, and when it arrived I wasn’t too sure what to make of it. It consists of slow-smoked pulled pork on top of sweet potato pancakes, fried apples, with a fried egg on top of it all and a side of home fries. I enjoy pulled pork, but didn’t think it would make for a good breakfast and I’m not a fan of sweet potatoes at all, but this was absolutely phenomenal! Somehow everything comes together perfectly, I’m not even sure how it works, but it does very well! I noticed while enjoying my food, everyone was ordering mimosas, I personally stuck with water but from the amount that I saw get ordered, I’m going to guess that theirs must be pretty special. But since I didn’t try it, I can’t comment on it. However, if you’re ever passing through Nashville, do yourself a favor and give the Southern Stack a try!