Half an Hour in Nashville? Five Must-Go Places

It's a random, last-minute story, but I found myself traveling through Nashville Wednesday night. My beau and I decided to stay in the Music City rather than pushing on, since it's one of my very favorite cities of all time.

We wound up staying downtown and bemoaning the fact that we couldn't stick around for the Tournament with all the other SEC fans. There were plenty from all over the conference in our hotel. The older, die-hard UK fans were already in town, of course. The Tennessee fans were really nice and courteous. In fact, all the fans were nice except one big ol' guy from the far reaches of the SEC-West, but that's a different story...

Anyway, we had about 14 hours (including sleep) in Nashville, which is about the amount of non-game time that BBN members will have in town. We dropped in on a couple of our downtown (or adjacent) favorites. Here are a few suggestions, in case y'all are in town and looking for something to do between games.

1. Noshville. (1918 Broadway) Amazing deli food. The Matzo ball soup is amazing. So are the silver dollar potato cakes. My beau had an open-face roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach, which looked terrific.
2. Provence at the Library. (601 Church) The Dancing Goat blend is the best coffee you'll ever drink. Seriously, if you walk past this place and go to Starbucks, we can't be friends. I had the three-cheese grits cake for breakfast. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't grab a package of the homemade marshmallow peeps for the road.
3. Santorini Greek Restaurant. (210 4th Ave N) This was one of our regular places when my beau and I both worked downtown. Huge portions, awesome food, and a great value. If you're downtown and don't want to move your car,spare yourself the lines for the mediocre chain tourist joints.
4. 417 Union (417 Union) Southern-style fare in a little downtown diner. Fantastic, hearty breakfast. The lunch is pretty darn good, too. If you find yourself missing Ramsey's, stop here.
5. Hatch Show Print. (316 Broadway) You have to go to one touristy place. Buy one of their old-timey posters.

/