Photo courtesy of Google Images
Length of visit: Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010 - Tuesday, Dec 21, 2010
Hotel: Holiday Inn Express on Broadway
Transportation: Car, Train, Plane, Taxi, and Foot
Purpose: Garth Brooks' Flood Relief Concert
While home for my nephew's birthday party in November 2010, my sister, Amanda, mentioned that Garth Brooks was going to put on a concert in Nashville to raise money for flood relief for the area. We decided to take this rare opportunity to see one of the best entertainers (according to many sources) in the industry and check out a city we've never visited.
Getting the tickets is a story in itself. It involved, many, many, MANY phone calls from 3 different phones to Ticketmaster when tickets when on sale for the original Thursday concert. Amanda got through at one point, but they hung up on her because they couldn't understand her - can't blame them, I can barely understand her sometimes. :-) We then gave up after 15 minutes or so, figuring tickets would have been sold out by then. Due to some web searching for stats on how quickly it sold out, we found out that they added more concerts. So the phone calls started again. All told, I think there was 100+ calls from my phone, and mine was brought in later, Joanna's and my sister's each probably had more. We finally got through and got 8 tickets for the Monday, December 20th concert. So Joanna, myself, Amanda, my other sister Cheryl and her husband, Curt, started making plans for a pre-Christmas vacation! Amanda had friends from her college days living in Nashville so she offered the two remaining tickets to them. The final ticket was still up for grabs.
We focused on getting a hotel near downtown for a couple reasons.
- We planned on spending most of our time downtown, so we would be within walking distance, and could avoid a car rental.
- We could walk to the concert and not have to worry about traffic/parking before and after the concert.
The location was so important the we didn't do our usual roll of the dice with priceline.com's Name Your Own Price and actually picked a hotel. We decided on the Holiday Inn Express on Broadway. The hotel was a little bit more pricey than we like, but we figured the location would save us some of the time, stress, and money mentioned above.
The HIE had mixed reviews, some mentioned a "dated interior/decorating", and some complained about price. We overlooked the price, and while the interior did seem to be a little dated, it didn't really bother me at all. The hotel has free Wi-Fi, free breakfast, a pool, and an exercise room... we never got around to using the latter two. The breakfast was good enough that we got Joanna to forgo her usual "local dive breakfast while we travel" rule twice, I think it hurt her a little, but she survived. The beds were comfy and the rooms were clean. We didn't spend much time at the hotel and the location ended up being perfect (except for a big hill you have to climb up to get to it from downtown) so we were happy with our choice.
 |
| Courtesy of Google Images |
Our plane (Amanda, Joanna, and I) landed right about lunch time for us, but we decided to wait until we got downtown to eat, we then walked all the way down Broadway trying to decide where to eat. Since I was really hungry and we were then standing right in front of the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC), I made the call to eat there. We sat at the bar, had a couple drinks and ordered burgers for lunch. The bartender was so nice to us, we actually offered her our 8th (and still unspoken for) ticket for the concert. She said she had to work and declined, but she could have just thought we were really some crazies and didn't want to take a chance. Either is very plausible...I guess.
Joanna and I both ordered the "Local Legendary" burger, which is supposed to be unique to each HRC location. The Nashville version is ___________ and it was VERY good. Yup, can't remember what was on it, but it really was excellent. If you're ever in the Nashville HRC, I definitely recommend it. I thought it was so good, I plan on trying the Local Legendary at other HRC's during our future travels.
 |
| Joanna's Nashville Beer of Choice |
We had dinner Saturday night after Cheryl and Curt were finally able to join us (they arrived in Nashville 6+ later than planned because of flight delays/cancellations). Bar burgers and fries, so nothing special to talk about really. We had originally intended to just stop for drinks, but the band and the service was pretty good, so we stayed. This is one of many famous bar's along Nashville's legendary Broadway that is filled with live music every night. The band was playing very traditional, old school country such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash etc which we all enjoy and they were excellent! Also, if you are in the need for boots, you can get those here too! (No, don't know why, just go with it.)
 |
| Love the flying pigs sign! |
I and my sisters have some family that lives in the Nashville area, and we don't get to see each other nearly as often as we should, so Sunday afternoon was spent visiting. We met at Jack's for lunch and ended sitting there for 3+ hours.
Some of us liked the food, some of us didn't. I think most everyone ordered the pork shoulder, and tried the various sides (mac and cheese, potato salad, corn, etc.) and bbq sauces. I thought the food was ok, did seem to be a little over cooked and dry, I think that's why some of the others weren't so high on it. It was quite disappointing since everyone you talk to in Downtown Nashville raves that it's the best BBQ in town. Maybe we just aren't used to Southern BBQ?
I did like the atmosphere and service though. As mentioned, we sat there for 3+ hours, spread over several tables, but no one bothered us the entire time. No dirty looks, no one asked us to clear the tables. It did start filling up around dinner time (a Tennessee Titans football game ended as well), so we picked up and went to hang out in the hotel lobby for another couple hours and had a great time catching up with our Uncle and cousins.
417 Union Restaurant & Bar
The one time we left the hotel for breakfast, and one of the few times that we actually left Broadway, we headed to 417 Union, a local restaurant serving "classic American fare with an emphasis on Southern traditions". Joanna had subscribed to the Nashville GroupOns once we knew we were taking this trip to try to get some deals and purchased one for this restaurant. (TRAVEL TIP!) The food was excellent. I had a breakfast quesadilla and Joanna had an omelette with fresh herbs (she didn't know which ones, but "they were good!"). Service was a little slow but friendly and we weren't in a hurry so we didn't mind.
A late dinner/snack on Monday night after the concert I think. We ordered a couple of pizzas, which were pretty good. The service, however, was pretty bad, so ate our food and moved on.
The next few entries are bars along and around Broadway. If you want to go bar hopping, Nashville is the place to be! With great, live music in almost every spot and pretty reasonable drink prices, we enjoyed exploring this part of Nashville.
While some of the weekend memories are fuzzy, they aren't about this place. I'd have to put some serious thought into it, but I'm pretty sure this is the worst bar I've ever been in. (Way to go, Curt!)
This was one of our favorite bars on the block. We listened to two very good bands later Sunday night with Uncle Bud. We all agreed that we wouldn't be surprised if we saw the female vocalist on some sort of talent show soon. (We also met a group of people from the Wisconsin area pouting because the Packers lost. Brought a smile to my face.)
One of my co-workers insisted we go here. It was a nice bar, and had a decent band playing. Unfortunately, I think we waited too long, we went in Monday night after the concert and it didn't seem to have as many people or the same energy as the weekend evenings. If/when we go back to Nashville, we would like to give it another try.
No special memories, I only know we were here because we only missed two bars on the north side of Broadway (Tootsie's and The Stage, or The Saloon, something like that). The band was okay and the drinks were weak. And I believe it was the only bar you could still smoke in which made us regret stepping in there when we stepped out and smelled like smoke!
Joanna and I both usually really enjoy piano bars, but I think we waited too long to go in here. We didn't make it in until Monday night and was pretty dead, I don't remember even staying long enough for a drink.
 |
| Jo enjoying the lights on Broadway! |
To be continued...
We had dinner Saturday night after Cheryl and Curt were finally able to join us (they arrived in Nashville 6+ later than planned because of flight delays/cancellations). Bar burgers and fries, so nothing special to talk about really. We had originally intended to just stop for drinks, but the band and the service was pretty good, so we stayed. This is one of many famous bar's along Nashville's legendary Broadway that is filled with live music every night. The band was playing very traditional, old school country such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash etc which we all enjoy and they were excellent! Also, if you are in the need for boots, you can get those here too! (No, don't know why, just go with it.)
