Road Trip: Nashville Edition

I recently returned from a trip to Nashville. I really enjoy the city and wish I made more of an effort to visit more frequently. The last trip I took there was about 2 years ago... almost to the day. This trip was work related but we still had opportunity to eat at some great restaurants. We stayed next to Vanderbilt and within walking distance of the shops and restaurants in Hillsboro Village. This is home to one of my favorite coffee shops: Bongo Java's Fido. The theme is dogs and even the menu includes drink offerings named after all things dog related, including my favorite drink, the hot dog. The hot dog, if you are wondering, is coffee with a splash of milk, chocolate sauce, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and absolutely delicious hot or cold. There is also a great bookstore nearby but it was closed by the time I was able to get there after working.

Part of our meetings where downtown. Our hosts took us to Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant. I had a BBQ sandwich with sweet potato fries and it was delicious! We ate at another restaurant called tayst where all the food is local. It's a cool concept for a restaurant but the food wasn't anything special. Well, at least my meal wasn't anything to write home about. I love that Nashville is working hard to sustain the local, independent restaurant scene. All of the restaurants we visited are part of Nashville Originals. A great concept and way to preserve the small-town feel of Nashville.

For dessert we chose some places that were entirely local, but still tasty. We had frozen yogurt from Sweet CeCe's. One of those self serve fro-yo places where you choose the toppings. I've never seen so many delicious toppings including about 8 different kinds of cereal. We also got cupcakes from GiGi's Cupcakes. I got a White Midnight Madness cupcake which was a dark chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese frosting. The cake itself was good but I didn't love the frosting. It was definitely lacking the tang of the cream cheese and had entirely too much butter/sugar for my taste. I'll stick to my own cupcakes and save myself the $3.

I definitely enjoyed eating at new restaurants and getting to walk around a great city. Our hotel was across from the Parthenon which was great for a long walk after all the tasty food we ate!