Nashville Redeems Itself

Bright and "early" we were ready to give Nashville a second chance. Our first BBQ location was opening at 10:30am, we got there at 10:25am, and watched the "open" sign light up...

Finally, a real BBQ joint! As soon as we stepped out of the car in the parking lot, you could smell the hickory wood burning and see the stack piled high outside. Inside, we watched from our booth as one of the BBQ masters entered with a pile of wood in his arms and loaded the smoker to keep the fire burning. This was real BBQ. Everything we tasted was amazing--the pork ribs, the pulled pork, and the beef brisket. The three sauces they had available weren't even necessary (but their Kansas City sauce was excellent on everything). Jack's non-sweet cornbread was delicious, too (even Bing, who insists cornbread should always be sweet, agreed).

After our early lunch it was onto the Grand Ole Opry for a backstage tour. Rach had a blast and Bing got to try out the new camera. A good time had by all. Right next to G.O.O. is Opry Mills...an outlet mall...complete with a large movie theater. Excited to see the cheap ticket prices, Bing decided a movie would be an excellent mid-afternoon detour. Vantage Point was the pick of the day, and it turned out to be even better than we had anticipated. After the movie we were on a quest, a shoe quest to be exact...only, not what you might think...Bing needed new shoes and Rach was too tired to even take off her shoes to try on new shoes. After a few hours of unsuccessful shopping, Bing finally found not one, but two pairs of shoes. Rach found zero pairs of shoes. Wow.

After returning to our hotel to look over our spoils and relax a bit, it was time for some dinner. Neely's BBQ was on tap.

We had somewhat high expectations for Neely's, given their new fame on the Food Network ("Down Home with the Neely's"). We had also heard to try out some of the more uncommon items on the menu. Rach, who is a sucker for pasta, decided to try their one-of-a-kind BBQ Spaghetti, and Bing got their house specialty, a pork rib platter, ordered "wet". We also ordered some BBQ Nachos with pulled pork--another Neely creation. Our opinion: While Bing found the ribs to be rather uninteresting and bland (Rach liked them for their simplicity), we absolutely loved the BBQ Nachos--we would come back just for these. Rach also loved the spaghetti, which had pulled pork and a BBQ/tomato sauce mix instead of meat sauce.

Worst Ribs Ever

By the time Rach awoke Sunday morning, Bing was already busy at work on the laptop...buying the camera from last evening's Best Buy adventure. Circuit City accepts on-line orders in-store, so we were able to pick up the camera at a nearby C.C. before leaving town...if only it was that simple...the first camera we picked up had obviously been dropped and it was the last one in stock, so we were off to a nearby C.C. in "Hamburg" (which is not a town recognized by Garmin...sad). On the road to "Hamburg" however was an exciting site...FAZOLI'S!!! Well, of course we stopped, it was barely 11, but they were open and ready for our business. It. Was. Amazing. Why are there no Fazoli's in Northern Virginia?

After we picked up a new camera, it was off to Nashville. Upon our arrival, we checked into our sketchy hotel by Opryland only to find that the Internet in our room did not work...this is quite a predicament for the BBQ Tour, since the Internet is crucial for our researching...the hotel lobby had working Wi-Fi so we were all set to wander around Broadway for some exercise and to check out a couple of the BBQ joints that were closed Sundays but were on the list for Monday. We were happy to see that lots of the bars/restaurants are now smoke-free. We had been told to check out the Wildhorse Saloon where live music would be starting at 8 and "award winning BBQ" could be found. Sounded like a good plan to us, so that's where we were headed...not really knowing what to do with ourselves until then...we ended up re-grouping and getting an appetizer at Hard Rock (consequently the only Hard Rock Rach has ever been to, and now she's been there twice).

On to the Wildhorse. We were amused by the decor (lots of posed horses to take pictures) and we got there in time to hear the sound-check for the band that would be performing later that evening. Then it was time for dinner. "Award-winning BBQ" was quite disappointing, apparently they never mentioned what "award" they won. Bing ordered ribs. The worst ribs Bing ever ate. While the presentation was excellent, the tough outer layer peeled away to reveal nothing but fat underneath. The ribs just fell apart into a pile of mush. A very disappointing experience, especially since their bottled molasses BBQ sauce was so good.

On the plus side, our waiter at the Hard Rock Cafe highly recommended a lesser known BBQ joint about 30 miles outside of Nashville, called Carl's Perfect Pig, that seems very promising. We have revised our Nashville itinerary; Carl apparently raises his own hogs.

Wedding and Sonny's

Today's wedding was really nice...a great ceremony, beautiful bride, a bit of comic relief ("Do you, Josh, take Julia to be your wife?" "Heck yeah I do!"), and some funfetti cake! That's right, funfetti wedding cake...plus a candy table with Starburst jelly beans, M&M's, chocolate covered pretzels, and Twizzlers. A good time had by all. The Bings looked quite shnazzy:

After the ceremony, we decided to take it easy for a while, since we're the Bings, one thing lead to another and we ended up at Best Buy looking at new cameras. We got hungry (as usual) so we decided to try out Sonny's Real Pit BBQ. According to Wikipedia this is the largest BBQ chain in the US. Since there are none near us, we thought it deserved a proper Bing review. We got ribs and pulled pork. The ribs were a bit too dry, but had a visible smoke line and the meat pulled off the bone with ease. The pulled pork was good and moist, but was served undressed and relied on the addition of the sauces for flavor.

We were pleasantly surprised with our Nicholasville, KY find...even if it's not exclusive to Nicholasville, or KY.

Day One

After packing Thursday night/Friday morning until 1:30am, we got a little "nap" and hit the road at exactly 5:02am Friday morning.

Our sweet ride for the trip got us to Wild and WONDERFUL WV (Huntington, actually) 11:30am, perfect timing for some lunch with friends =) (This is us with the baby...too cute!)

After some lunch we hit the road again and were off to Kentucky! Bing's college roommate is getting married on Saturday and we had some wedding prep to take care of, plus some wedding party fun (and some good eats of course!) Bing is 1 of 21 people standing up for the couple, he gets to walk 2 ladies down the aisle, that's some serious stuff! Hopefully some of Rach's pictures will turn out (since Bing, the photographer for the Binghams, will be otherwise occupied...obviously) so you can see some of the festivities!

0 BBQ restaurants thus far...soon that will change friends, soon...

Route

Here's a map of our 2008 BBQ Tour!

We're really excited...obviously ;-)

Welcome to the Tour!

The 2008 BBQ Tour begins today! I thought this Rodney Atkins tune was quite appropriate =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwc4IBAp_IU

Welcome to the tour!