Here is our Nashville dining experience:

Flew into Nashville and were hungry. Drove right out of Nashville international onto Donelson Pike a mile to the Bar-B-Cutie BBQ restaurant located at 501 Donelson Pike.
The BBQ was good, sure hit the spot.
http://www.bar-b-cutie.com/

Did the walking tour of downtown historic Nashville and for some reason we both were in the mood for oysters, great oysters in the middle of the US! So we stopped by Joe’s Crab Shack at 123 2nd Ave. I’m not a fan of places like Joe’s, but it was late afternoon before the evening rush so we had good service. I am a fan of oysters and these were very fresh and we were very impressed. So good that we had to have another dozen.

Went to see the Parthenon, Vanderbilt U and other west end sites. We love our deli and headed to Noshville New York Delicatessen located at 1918 Broadway. Noshville bills itself an NYC deli. Obviously nothing can compare to a true NYC deli, but Noshville does deli proud. My turkey reuben was huge and the wife’s corned beef and chopped chicken liver sandwich was so large she could only eat ½. Both were very good sandwiches. Pickles on the table were delicious. Only disappointment was the Matzo ball soup. The Matzo was very mushy and did not have the good flavor we were hoping for.
http://noshville.citysearch.com/1.html

Next morning we went to the Pancake Pantry located very close to Vanderbilt U at 1796 21st Ave S. I had fresh blueberry pancakes that were very tasty. Syrup is homemade and was a bit runny, but tasty. Wife’s omelet was good. Supposedly there are huge waits for the Pancake Pantry, but we got there at 6:45am on a Saturday and were easily seated.

We had decided to head south to do some antique shopping and see some of the old plantation homes south of Nashville near Franklin TN. Always in the mood for BBQ, we spotted Herbert’s BBQ as we got of the expressway near Franklin, located at 111 Royal Oaks Blvd. Herbert’s was terrific. Really enjoyed the dry spice ribs and links. Chicken was just OK.

The afternoon was so full of activity that we headed for a massage at Illusions Spa, located 5115 Harding Road 615.352.4464 http://www.illusionssalon.com/ Very good masseuses here, we were not disappointed.

We then headed over to the Opryland Hotel. While huge and somewhat impressive, I did not observe many people smiling as they were there. There was a feeling of mediocrity throughout.

By now it was late (8pm) and we really were not up for the effort to go dine at some of the restaurants we had researched. Our hotel was near the airport off of Donelson Pike so we dined at Darfons Restaurant located at 2810 Elm Hill Pike (just north of Nashville Int. Airport). Darfons is not the type of restaurant that we would normally search out, it has a typical American style menu w/some interesting potential, but rarely IMO, does the potential live up to what it could be. After the GREAT oysters at Joe’s we were again in the mood for some more so we ordered a dozen at Darfons. Again, we were very pleased at the quality and freshness. Two for two with oysters in Nashville, I would have never guessed. I ordered my Cobb salad w/the mustard soy dressing which was a topper of a delicious salad. My wife’s pancetta and shrimp pasta dish was outstanding as well. What dumb luck to stumble into this place! I looked up Darfons for reviews and some people gave it a thumbs down, those that gave it a thumbs up either ate salads or pasta, which is what we had, just an FYI.

We flew out at 6:30am the next morning so that is it for our Nashville dining experiences.


[This message has been edited by Sweet Willie (edited 12-16-2002).]