Old Friends and Great Food....Welcome to Nashville

I have just recently attended my 30 Year High School Reunion, and I had a blast.  In reality my reunion actually began a few months before it when I decided to try some DDD places in the Nashville, Tennessee area.  In my Junior year of High School I took an elective class called "Gourmet Foods".  In that class I had the pleasure of being teamed up with three of the most fun and beautiful ladies in the entire class and believe me the other guys were very jealous!  One of my teammates was Beth, whom I have known since elementary school days at Mosby Woods.  The other was a lady named Stephanie.  We had a wonderful and fun time during our year together and truth be told I had a bit of a crush on Stephanie, too.  At the end of the year Stephanie graduated and went back to her native Tennessee to attend the University of Tennessee and although we corresponded for a time but lost touch.  I had often wondered what had happened to her and tried to figure out a way to reconnect, but this of course was before the time of computers and the Internet! 



Me and my friend Stephanie



I have been involved in alot of different teams and committees at United Airlines and in 1998 I was involved in a program called the "East Region Employee Development Program".  In this program, members were selected to participate and see how many different employee groups work and function.  There were about 10 of us involved and at the end of the program the members became mentors to other employees that would be selected for the program.  One of the members in the program with me was a  guy who worked at the Nashville station named Brett.  Brett and I became fast friends, having alot in common and just getting along quite famously.  I was actually the unnamed social director of the group.  When we met at Dulles I brought everyone out to a concert at Wolf Trap and when we met in Chicago, I got us tickets for a Cubs game at Wrigley (the game we went to was a 3 home run game for Sammy Sosa, as he chased Mark McGwire to break Roger Maris's home run record).  Since that time Brett left united and lives just outside Nashville and as I write this he is back in Afghanistan for his second long tour since the war began in 2002.

Now back to Stephanie, I joined Facebook and it took several months but finally caught up with her in 2010.  She lives in the Nashville area and has two kids.  I was so psyched to reconnect and sort of floated the idea of visiting her if I ever made it to her area.  I remembered that Guy had visited a few places in the Nashville area and after looking more into it there were 7 places to try.  It looked like the best time for me to go would be during the week, so I wrote to Steph and asked if dring the week would be doable for her and her answer just made me laugh, she wrote "Yeah, we eat during the week, too!"  I kn ew this would be a fun reunion!  I also called Brett and he was in, too!  The plan was for Steph to met me for diner both nights that I was in town and Brett would meet for dinner on my second night.

I flew out to Nashville on a Monday morning after working the night before and as I boarded the flight and on the check-in screen at the gate I saw a name I recognized and as I walked towards the aircraft I saw walking in front of me, Bobby Beathard, the former General Manager of the Redskins! 

After arriving I headed into the city to try a great place that is only opened for lunch.  "Arnold's Country Kitchen" is a cafeteria style eatery that serves a different menu each day for lunch to a very loyal clientele.  The staff is super, very accommodating and friendly.  They show true "Southern Hospitality"!  At the head of the serving line was the owner, a young man that had a great time on the episode with Guy.  I told him why I was there and asked if he would sign my book and not only did he oblige, but he eally threw out the red carpet for me.  he gave me extra servings of items that I should try, I had gotten the roast beef and he gave me some greens to try and when he came out to sign the book he brought out a bread pudding dessert.  Again I am not he biggest fan of bread pudding, but Arnold's pudding could very easily make me  a fan!  I left very full!  After resting a bit and settling in to the hotel I headed out to the town of Hendersonville to try a place that is right across the street from the offices of the Oak Ridge Boys, "Cafe Rakka".  This small cafe features a Middle Eastern cuisine and I chose a light snack of Middle Eastern appetizers, featuring pita bread and falafels (a fried chick pea mound).  I went back to hotel to relax before going to met Steph for dinner and luckily she called me about an hour before we were to meet as the full day of working, travelling and eating had knocked me out so, thanks Steph!  I drove about 30 miles out to the town of Nolensville to "Martins Barbecue Joint".  It was great to finally see Stephanie after 30 years and she looked great, I met up with her and her boyfriend and we had a great visit and a wonderful barbecue meal.  Good Barbecue is another food type that the DC area is lacking, in my opinion!  We left with the plans to meet the next night.

The next day I headed into Nashville to "Bro's Cajun Cuisine".  This place features food from the New Orleans area and I just had to try the Oyster Po'Boy.  I got to meet the owner Mr. Breaux, and he was a great guy.  He has a very strong Cajun accent and sometimes it was hard to understand him, but we talked for a long time about the show, his episode and he told me that Guy told hi to be ready for people like me to be coming in.  The crew now tells owners that their business will grow between 800% to 1200% after the episode is aired!  Mr. Breaux also told me that DDD is the best thing to happen to the small independent restaurant owner, I have to agree.  From there it was off to a small eatery in the Vanderbilt University area of Nashville called "Savarino's Cuchina".  This place is pure Italian, they feature homemade pizzas, pastas and sandwiches.  I tried a pizza and it was good.  Mr. Savarino signed my book and was excited that I stopped in.  I had read on some websites that the service there was not too friendly, I must tell you that I would not agree with those sentiments.  I then drove over to the Farmer's Market and went to what could be described as a large lunch counter called "Jamaica Way".  This eatery features authentic Jamaican cuisine and the owner was surprise to see I had the book, which she readily signed.  I tried the very spicy non-spicy Jamaican turnover and a malt drink.  Very good but way too spicy for me. 

Brett came over to my hotel and we caught up on old times and he told me all about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan (pleas pray for his safety as he is now deployed there for the next year until mid to late 2012).  We then went into the city to meet with Stephanie at "Athens Family Restaurant".  Athens is in a former fast food restaurant  but is making some great Greek food.  Again the diner came to a close way too fast and I had to ay good-bye to two very dear friends.  I really have to thank both for taking time out of their busy schedules to visit with me and I hope that we will see each other very soon, for Brett when he comes home and for Stephanie, very soon.  I travelled home with great memories!