We decided to end our blues road trip in Nashville for two reasons: One of our favorite blues bars is here, and Ginger wanted to run the Music City Half Marathon on Saint Patrick’s day. As it turned out, our flight didn’t leave until 3:00, so she had plenty of time to run and shower before heading to the airport.
Where we stayed:
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown: I’ve reviewed this hotel before, and nothing has changed except for the bar area. Its still one of my favorite re-purposed hotels. We picked this location because of its proximity to Bourbon Street, which is the only place we knew for sure we would be visiting.
Where we ate/drank:
Acme Feed & Seed: We were pretty hungry by the time we drove up from Muscle Shoals and checked in. We were walking over to the park to pick up my race packet for the half marathon and wanted to eat somewhere along the route. From the outside, it looked busy, but we wandered up to the second floor for sushi and discovered there was plenty of room at the bar adjacent to the sushi bar. We sat down and ordered a flight of Acme whiskey and beer, then an appetizer and four sushi rolls. Everything was excellent, including the bartender. We would definitely visit here again.
Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant: We had been here for brunch a number of years ago. This time we just went in for drinks at the bar in the back because we were still too full from eating at Acme to eat anything here. The place hasn’t changed. It still smells amazing and its still always busy. I wanted to get another flight of whiskey, but my husband wisely talked me into just one.
O’Charley’s: It seemed only fitting that the last place we eat in Nashville on St. Patrick’s Day was at an Irish pub at the airport. By the time we made it there I was famished and ready to eat pretty much anything. I ended up having the tortilla soup, and when I asked for bread or crackers the bartender brought me three delicious rolls. I ate all three of them without hesitation.
What we did:
Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar: This was the last music venue we visited on our last blues road trip night, and, other than Red’s in Clarksdale, the best. When we first started our trip, we didn’t even know who was playing the night we were going to be there. Turns out we ran into friends of one of the band members (Big Shoes) in Muscle Shoals and he said to make sure to see them. Since I was running a half marathon the next morning I didn’t drink alcohol, but the waitstaff did an excellent job of bringing me club soda after club soda. I swear I was going to OD on the stuff. Thanks to them making it easy for me to decline the alcohol, I finished the race no problem.
Saint Patrick’s Day Music City Half Marathon: It wasn’t my best time, and I didn’t PR, but I got to see a part of Nashville that was new to me and listen to more of the book on Audible I’m currently working my way through. The course wasn’t the hardest I’ve ever done, but the partial cloud cover was nice when we were on the long stretches of levee. The course support crew did a good job of keeping us hydrated to the bitter end.
