Well, we survived the Nashville scene without too much difficulty. The main purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding of Mrs. Sunsett's youngest nephew.
Somehow, originally, we had been given the impression that the wedding would take place across the street in an art museum. So I did some research and found that the Frist Center For The Visual Arts was, in fact, located across the street from the hotel. As luck would have it, I love art museums. So naturally, I was very excited and began looking forward to it almost immediately. I even looked up the museum's website to see what exhibits would be there. Being a huge fan of paintings, I was immediately drawn to the one marked Matisse, Picasso, and the School of Paris.
"Brilliant", I thought to myself. (I am more of a fan of Impressionism than I am of Fauvism or Cubism. But nevertheless, I was still excited.)
The wedding was on Sunday, but we arrived on Saturday afternoon. The plan was to find someplace to eat with a local flavor, and then find a night club with some up and coming wannabe country band, after we made an appearance in the rehearsal reception in my sister-in-law's suite. The wedding party was to have dinner, first. In the meantime, we thought we'd eat while they were eating
We decided to go to a longtime, well-praised and liked, Nashville staple called Jack's Bar-B-Que (a few blocks away) for some authentic Tennessee BBQ. It was supposed be one of the best BBQ joints in the land.
It wasn't.
Then came the news that the rehearsal dinner was running late, so the 8:30 reception in the suite was moved back, to 10:00 or so. When we finally got to the reception, we learned the disappointing news that the wedding was NOT going to be at the Frist Center, but at a local art gallery three miles away.
"Okay", I thought. Maybe this was going to be a pleasant little gallery in a nice atmosphere, with a local avant-garde touch of style.
Wrong again.
The art gallery was okay, not much creativity from where I sat. The neighborhood was dilapidated and the gallery was housed in what looked to be an old body shop. The wedding was held in the back of the gallery (where all of the paint cans, easels and many other art supplies and equipment were stored).
So to summarize the chain of events of the weekend (which has been officially categorized as a "comedy of errors") :
The dinner at Jack's was highly disappointing, we had no time to check out a local honky-tonk, I didn't get to see the Frist Center (with the fine exhibits that it had to offer), and the wedding was held in a garage in 80 degree heat.
But all was not lost, I suppose. I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express that night.
6 comments:
I absolutely HEART Jack's BBQ. What made it so disappointing??
Emily,
The meat was good enough, but I found the original Tennessee sauce to be disappointing. I guess after such a build-up, the let-down was farther down than it would have otherwise been, without the hype.
LA
Speaking of weddings...My husband and I went to his cousins wedding a couple of years ago and we thought it was going to be great. They were having it at this place called the "Cuneo Mansion" which is an old mansion that was made into a museum and it is where they filmed "My Best Friends Wedding". Well...it would have been great except for the fact that the day of the wedding it was almost 100 degrees. With the humidity, you can imagine how horrible that was.
Then we found out the mansion itself was not airconditioned and the wedding was to be held outdoors and the reception in a tent, that wasn't air conditioned, just fans. And then we found out...no food was served, just drinks and hors d'oeuvre's. The music...let's just say, "heavy metal"...all night long.
The area in the gardens where the ceremony was held was in the full sun, not a tree for shade in sight. Of course, all the guests were dressed in suits and formal dresses. Ugh! There was a swimming pool near the gardens and I was wondering how long it would take before a few (drunk) ushers to the wedding would jump in. (no one did, everyone behaved).
But the washroom facilities were horrible! Very dirty and no toilet paper!
I felt bad for the bride and groom, who would have thought it would get that hot. It didn't even cool down much in the evening. Yikes!
The best laid plans....
I regret never trying Jacks BBQ when I was up that way. Memphis surely has it beat, tho.
When you said wedding=Nashville I thought they'd be going for the Opryland Hotel--a great place to get hitched.
ME,
//The best laid plans....//
That's the thing, this has all the appearances of it being planned this way.
Oh well....they did THEIR way.
AC,
//Memphis surely has it beat, tho. //
I have been to Memphis, I have eaten BBQ in Memphis, and I would say that Memphis has it beat by a mile.
If you want a good place to eat the next time you are in Nashville, I'd try Demo's Steak and Spaghetti House. We ate there after the wedding and it was great. Not too expensive, good food, good service.
Post a Comment