The Opryland Hotel was an extraordinary experience. But the most TRULY extraordinary experience on our trip happened in the downtown area.
After setting up the booth, we took the shuttle downtown to look around, and had planned to eat in the area.
Using the Frommer's guidebook we had chosen a place just a little north of the downtown area, called The Mad Platter. It sounded like we would get a modern, healthier take on traditional Southern foods there. So using the map in the guidebook, we walked up 5th Avenue, and as we walked the signs of people started disappearing and the landscape changed to a less lived-in look. I wasn't overly worried, as I knew we were going past the area with their state government buildings, and it was after 5pm on a Friday, and so it shouldn't be surprising that it seemed like a post-apocalyptic, 90% of the population died kind of vibe. Hey, it happens in lower Manhattan every day, too!
But Kevin was getting worried, because on the map it looked like we should have reached the block before our destination, and there was still nothing but Centennial Park (not to be confused with Bicentennial Park, btw) and what looked like residential houses going on for a stretch. Of course there weren't any street signs to assure us. We saw a dog walker, and Kevin settled on the idea that we should ask that person as they went by; no luck, they turned well before reaching us. I was convinced we were going in the right direction, and wanted to "stay the course" (don't worry, we ended up faring better than the other guy who's known to use that phrase)--after all, we were at least halfway there! So we spotted a black couple at a picnic table, and Kevin agreed to ask them. I was a little dubious...what kind of people would be eating at a picnic table in the middle of an empty (though pretty) government park on a Friday well into the very late afternoon? Most likely some lower class people possibly in distress, more like the people I used to see in Far Rockaway where my mother lives. Well, they turned out to be very nice and knowledgable; they knew the place, and told us we were going the right direction, just keep walking maybe another 10 minutes (though they seemed shocked that we were on foot), but they didn't recommend that we walk back through the park when it got dark. OK. So if they were warning us, probably they weren't the kind to be warned about. :-)
So we kept walking, and soon enough we hit the houses we had seen in the distance, and some had been converted into restaurants. We stopped to take a picture of a purple house that was being converted into a bakery when a car stopped in front of us on the street.
Lawdamercy, it was the same couple, come to tell us they had called the restaurant and found out they were closed for a private event! These extraordinary people (who clearly were at least middle class, despite my assumption otherwise) had not only made the effort to call ahead, they had interrupted their dinner (or so it seemed, since they had been in the middle of eating maybe 10 minutes before) and gotten in their car to come intercept us with the news. [Totally aside, they were very impressed with how far we had gotten...I guess most Southerners move a bit slower....] They then proceded to give us a ride in their car to the place to doublecheck that they were right (they were...) and then dropped us off at a place a couple of blocks away that they thought was similar, good food; they even made sure from the valet parking guy that the restaurant was indeed open for dinner!
Maybe the only thing that shocks me more than this couple's extraordinary [did I use this word enough yet in this post?] generosity is the fact that we got into their car without any hesitation. [OK, really what happened was that Kevin was getting into their car without any hesitation, and my brief moment of "Stranger. Danger!" was completely overridden by the unwillingness to rudely question Kevin's judgment in front of these strangers even though there was a 50-50 chance that they were taking us on a ride to Our Final Destination rather than to the Germantown Cafe.]
Well, the Germantown Cafe (named for the area both restaurants were in...if I had known The Mad Platter was in Germantown, I never would have suggested eating there, as I had read in the guidebook that Germantown was a bit too far north of downtown to really be walkable...though I guess we proved that theory wrong) turned out to be fabulous. The food was very good (I LOVED the squash fritters!), the service was excellent, and the view of downtown was...extraordinary.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
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1 comment:
Funny how hard it is to believe that there are genuinely nice people out there who have concern for the welfare of strangers. I'm so glad that they helped y'all out.
Sounds like Nashville was a really interesting place. And I must hear more about the Cooter Museum. Ha!
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