Sunday, October 29, 2017

Wine, Opry & Brunch with a Drag Queen...must be Nashville

Actually only one of those things was synomous with Nashville for me until my recent visit...and it wasn't wine or drag queen.  Claire and I headed to Nashville for a girls weekend.

Claire found us a nice place through VRBO in East Nashville which is pretty cool section of town that is up and coming.  We were a little early to check in so we walked over around the corner to Batter'd & Fried for some lunch.  Was so great to just relax and enjoy a nice afternoon dining alfresco (something we don't get to do much of in Charleston until the heat and humidity break). It's a good neighborhood spot that serves bar food and sushi...and pretty good beer.

Our original plan for the night was to take the Nashville Pedal Tavern around SOBRO but the torrential down pour that started an hour before the tour and lasted several hours made us rethink our plans.  Since we had already hit Kroger for wine earlier, we decided to order pizza and see what we could catch on Netflix.  Grease, Xanadu, She-Ra & He-Man and Austin Powers the Spy Who Shagged Me provided hours of entertainment.  We laughed as we thought about how we would have NEVER been caught at home on a Friday night when we were in college or even into our 30's...age definitely makes you wiser!!

Saturday brought sunny skies but cold temps...luckily we were prepared.  Around the corner from our place, was Marche Artisan Foods which we heard was a great brunch spot.  The reviews were spot on and clearly it was a local favorite as the place was packed.  
During our Netflix marathon the night before, we decided we should probably figure out our plans for Saturday afternoon and stumbled upon a wine & food pairing at Belle Meade Plantation. Luckily, they still had two spots available for Saturday afternoon so off we went.  Before the wine tasting, we toured the home and grounds.  Fun fact: every winner of the Kentucky Derby for the last 25 years can trace its lineage back to Belle Meade.

Here are some pics from the grounds as photography was not permitted inside due to most of the furnishings being orginial to either the house or period (18th & 19th century).





Original Belle Meade Plantation Home



In the original home, it was considered fashionable
to paint the wooden walls and stencil them.

Slave Quarters

Dairy House





If you are ever in Nashville, I highly recommend the wine & food pairing at Belle Meade.  The sommelier was fantastic and they offer VERY good pours and refills.  The winery brings in grapes from the best producing places in the country and does the production just outside of Nashville.  They have three really sweet wines that come from Tennesse fruits as well. We tried five different wines paired with meats, cheeses and chocolates.






No trip to Nashville would be complete without a little live music so we headed to Broadway for some BBQ and music before making the hike out to the Grand Ole Opry.  The Opry used to take place at the Ryman Theatre in the heart of downtown but in the 80's they moved it out to its current location which is about 20 minutes from downtown and the surroundings feel like you're in a theme park sadly.  The show was good but honestly don't think I would do again if I return to Nashville.



Lots of great finds occurred during our Friday marathon...though the wine could have had something to do with it.  While trying to find a brunch spot for Sunday, Claire found Suzy Wong's House of Yum Drag 'n Brunch.  We went for the show but to our surprise, the food was really good...both had chicken 'n waffles.  Though we were tempted by their version of a fish bowl punch (we had reminisced the night before about our the fish bowls at LuLu's Bait Shack in Atlanta...or at least what we could remember from those nights!), our better angels won out and we just stuck with coffee and Bailey's. 

Vanity was our performer and she was fabulous!  We were there for about 2 hours and she would come out every 30 minutes in a new outfit.  Each time she would pass, we would comment about her perfume which smelled so good.  After our pic, we finally asked her what it was and she told us it was Fairy Dust by Paris Hilton. "I know Paris Hilton, right?  But girl, I'm telling you I love it and my Drag Mom turned me on to it.  You can get it on Amazon for like $8."  Good food & company, a show and perfume advise...what more could a girl ask for on a Sunday morning?!