But anyway, that aside, we went to the African American music museum, and for $25, I was really impressed. It had separate halls for jazz, blues, R and B, gospel, and hip hop. And it was so interactive, there were multiple places to create your own hip hop groove, sing with a local choir, participate in a battle rap, produce a track. But one of the best things was going by different eras and being able to take songs and add them to an online playlist which was saved on a provided wristband. And then all those songs are getting emailed to me. So it's an amazing way to find new music and learn how one artist influenced another artist. We spent 2 hours there and I could have easily spent a 3rd discovering more music.
Getting hungry after 2 hours in the museum, we headed literally to the upstairs of the same building to Assembly food hall. I've always been a fan of food halls, at least the ones that are of good quality. And this is one of the best I've ever been to. We went to Prince's, which is the original Nashville hot fried chicken. 4 medium tenders and they were perfect for me but a little too hot for mom. Thank goodness for the white bread, pickles, blue cheese, and honey mustard. We even had a little bit of sushi afterwards, not my usual thing, but after all the barbecue and fried chicken I've had, I needed a come down. And they have a free refill coke station in the hall, although after my second cherry Coke, I was ready for a gallon of water. I still don't know why they didn't have any iced tea or lemonade at those stations. Excellent variety of food, clean floors, places to plug in your phone, a good amount of space to walk around, multiple TVs. What a cool addition to downtown Nashville.
One of my favorite things about downtown Nashville is how close so many things are together. The museum was downstairs from the food hall, which is right across the street from the Ryman Auditorium which is right behind the beginning of Honky Tonk highway, which is loaded with all kinds of great live music venues.
There's also a lot of premium shopping at the site too. I went into an Ariat store and I actually bought a pair of boots. They're the most I've ever spent on shoes. But they're low cut with the look of a dark brown cowboy boot; I guess they're really weathered work boots. Mom called them haggard so I'm calling them my Merles. Oh and the store offered free phone charging, very cool!
We made one stop in Nudies to hear some music and have a drink. I tried the Bearded Iris homestyle IPA, a fantastic balanced IPA that I hope will be available near where I live.
I knew we were going to Church of the City for Christmas Even service since one of our old pastors at Willow Creek is with this church now, although at a different location. Pastor Smallbone had an excellent message about the relevancy of Christmas and why it's worth celebrating.
Then came dinner at Merchant's, a Nashville staple on Broadway. I liked the old school feeling with the black and white wall tiles and the waiters and bartenders dressed in bowties. We split a Caesar salad to start, which was fine, that Parmesan was very well aged and freshly shaved. But the jambalaya that mom had was too tomatoey and came to our table lukewarm. We actually sent it back and got the shrimp and grits instead, which were much better. The server was very apologetic, not that it was his fault or anything.
I made out a little better with my entree; I had the sweet tea brined pork chop with mashed Yukon gold potatoes. Well seasoned and nicely cooked. I wonder how good it would have been if had been served with sweet potatoes instead. And I still think there should have been a vegetable served like green beans or asparagus. And sadly no bread was served.
Back to the room, it had been a long day and it was cooold.
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