36 hours in Nashville — Pillows & Potatoes

My love of food, and particularly Southern cuisine, took me to Nashville,TN. Biscuits, fried chicken and begniets reigned supreme with the local attractions like Broadway, the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Parthenon (yea, I was also confused about this but apparently Nashville is the "Athens of the South," who knew?) taking a back seat.

My love of food is no match to that of the wonderful Thuraiya (@Thuraiyah on Instagram) who was kind enough to curate our culinary adventure around Music City. Before I get into the food though, I'd like to take a second to shout out the very reasonable priced Sheraton Grand in Downtown Nashville. It is ideally located near Broadway with recently remodelled large rooms. Unfortuanately, all my photos of locations/activities disappeared into the abyss that is Snapchat before I remembered to save them, so I only have imagery of the food.

While I loved being in Downtown Nashville for my first visit, I would probably prefer to stay in The Gultch should I ever go back. It has more of an LA feel but it is closer to some cute boutiques and stores. It also felt a little less touristy.

Loveless in Nashville

How much do Thuraiya and I love food? We drove 30 mins outside of Nashville and waited 90 mins in the middle of nowehere for the chance to try the fried chicken and biscuits at The Loveless Cafe. The line was long and full of both locals and tourists (a sure sign of a great meal to come). If you hate waiting, don't fret, there is a lot to do and see in this tiny little "Loveless Village" including a couple of stores and souvenir shops. It was warm so they had free lemonade for their patrons and you don't have to stand in line because they give you a buzzer that rings when they're ready for you.

The Cafe is a famous stop for all your favorite Food Network Chefs and movie and music legends of all genres and backgrounds. It is widely considered one of the best places to eat in Nashville and I can't say that I disagree.

The biscuits come with the table and they were fresh out the oven, soft but not greasy and small enough not to ruin your appetite. There was much debate on what was the best jam but I always prefer berry (strawberry in this case). The sides are pretty small to share but that doesn't matter because you won't want to! My favorite was the creamed corn with the mash coming in a close second. Although the potatoes weren't anything revolutionary, the gravy was just delightful.

Cronuts for Everyone

While the pies looked wonderful at Loveless Cafe, we were too stuffed to indulge in any so we decided to head over to 12 South to indulge in some boutique shopping while we digested our lunch before trying out the ever photogenic Five Daughters Bakery. While 12 South would not normally be on my list of places to go, this branch of the bakery is a lot less busy than the others and the area has a couple of cute boutiques as well as a jewelry store.

Five Daughters is known for their cronuts and although I am not a huge cronut fan, I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. I hesitantly took my first bite and it was by far the best cronut I have ever had. Dominique Ansel who? Just because you did it first,does not mean that you did it best. Aside from the virtually non-exsistent wait, this cronut was soft and had that distinct layering of a croissant while maintaining the structure of a donut. There are several options to chose from but I would say that The Purist is the way to go. It's simple and allows you to really taste both the donut and croissant elements of the dessert.

Breakfast Please

I am not the world's biggest breakfast fan but I did enjoy both Sun Diner, a local 24-hour eatery, and Another Broken Egg, a Lousiana-based cafe. While Sun Diner is a local favorite with an odd seat yourself policy, Another Broken Egg is a mini-franchise. It is a little hard to compare the two but I think for service, Sun Diner is the clear winner while I sightly preferred the food at Another Broken Egg- excluding the truly horrendous hot chocolate.

We had the Hangover Flatbread and the Let's Do the Twist Creme Brulee French Toast at the diner. Both are specialties but the French Toast was generally prefered. This may be because we choose to have our eggs sans bacon but overall, the visit was more about the experience than the food.

Another Broken Egg feels quite franchisey but I loved their begniets which are somewhere between a donut and a begniet. The sweetbreads are on the small side which is great because you'll have enough space to have the wonderful Lobster and Brie Omlette. I felt a little bougie ordering the omlette but it definitely paid off. It was just so unexpectedly good, that said, the hot chocolate tasted a little odd so I would discourage ordering that.

That Biscuit Lovin'

Let me tell you about that little ball of friend dough from Biscuit Love pictured below. They are called Bonuts and I really, really, really wanted to love them, but I didn't. After everything I ate in Nashville, these just seemed meh. That said, Thuraiya loved them so order at your own risk.

I did, however, really like the East Nasty, a plate of boneless fried chicken and biscuits. I would have liked it a lot more if I could try it with the regular gravy. Unfortunately, they normally use a pork-based gravy so I opted for the tomato-based gravy. Honestly, it was the weirdest combo ever and I just skipped on the gravy. I don't understand why the gravy isn't chicken-based and I am even more baffled why of all the vegetable gravies in the world, they choose a tomato-based one (what's wrong with good old mushroom gravy?).

Boutiques and Other Things

My favorite boutique in Nashville is by far Blush. I went to a couple of their locations and they have different items in each store. They are very well priced and the collection has a easy feel to it with a hint of preppy.

If price is not a concern then I would recommend that you stop by Parish or their sister store, Hero, both of which have some stunning upscale fashion. Every item was chosen with love and feels like its part of the same closet.

I don't have a lot of history with country music so I really enjoyed visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was shocked by how little of the Hall was dedicated to Taylor Swift but I loved the exhibit on Shania Twain and I even enjoyed learning about Loretta Lynn, a lady with a beautiful voice and a fascinating life story.