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.