ALL NEW
On our
recent trip to Nashville to visit my daughter we took it very slow and paced
ourselves. My daughter had to work one day so we were on our own anyway. It was very hot,
with temperatures approaching triple digits and our icy cold newly built
apartment was just so wonderful and we found ourselves lingering a bit enjoying
the frigid air….although we did overdo it one morning and had to go to a local
hospital to be treated for frost bite.
Obviously
that’s an exaggeration; we thawed out quickly in the heat.
I
actually got a run in at the Centennial Park one morning. I was out there at 7
am and already the day was sweltering, but I managed 4 laps around the course
before returning to the ice palace to recover.
But
seriously, the brand newness of our apartment and actually all of Nashville is
amazing. Our apartment was clean, efficient and very comfortable, but google map
the address of our place at 2507 Clifton Avenue and the street picture from
March 2016 shows it was still under construction. The satellite picture shows a
derelict building. Even my daughter’s apartment complex in Germantown is
literally a dirt lot in the satellite view.
All of
Nashville is like this. There is new construction everywhere and if it’s not
new construction it’s preservation as was our first stop this one day at the
Marathon Motor Works. According to our tour bus guide, this building, once a
cotton mill and then an automobile factory and located in what was once a very
dodgy, rough part of town, is the most popular stop on their “hop on, hop off”
tour.
SHOULD MOVE, DON’T
Now, the
title of this section of today’s entry is not a comment about my running
abilities, but about the automobile company that once flourished in Nashville. The Marathon automobile was produced in this
Athens of the South facility in the early 1900s. After a slow start, with one
of the company reports about their car famously stating, “should move, don’t”, the Marathon Motor Company eventually
produced a reliable and durable car and enjoyed great popularity and at one
point was producing 200 cars a month. But
company mismanagement caused the company to flounder just about the same time
as the Ford Model T was gaining popularity with America. Today, only a handful
of Marathons still exist and four of them are on display at the old factory
showroom for free.
Now on
the National Register of Historic Places, the Marathon Motor Works was
abandoned and decaying for years, surrounded by weeds and inhabited by drug
addicts. But an entrepreneur came in saw the potential and now the building
houses stores and artisans and businesses. The hallways are decorated with photographs
and industrial tools. Jack Daniels has a store here as well as the popular
History Channel show American Pickers. Their store is called Antique
Archaeology, and very appropriate for this historical building.
WHISKEY TRAIL
The
Marathon Motor Works also houses two distilleries. Our interest was piqued with
the Belle Meade Bourbon we had at Husk the night before and we wanted to sample
more Tennessee spirits. Our waiter from Husk was aglow that Belle Meade was
distilled and aged just down the road, but our first adult libation was at the
self-proclaimed “hand crafted small batch ultra-premium booze for badasses”,
Corsair Distillery.
There
is an actual official Whiskey Trail with approximately 30 distilleries across
the state ranging from small, boutique-style distilleries to giants like Jack
Daniels. The Tennessee Whiskey Trail website gives a history of the spirit
before during and after prohibition, offers an itinerary if you choose to be foolishly brave
enough to drive, or gives a listing of tour companies that will take you around
for tastings. Tennessee is broken up into west, mid and east sections.
Corsair
Distillery is at the far end of the Marathon Motor Works building where the
Yazoo brewery, a popular and ubiquitous brew in Nashville, once had their
operation. Corsair also brews beer, but we avoided the hemp concoctions and
such and bought a flight of three types of gins they produced in their little
bar area. Janet had recently gone to a gin tasting event in England and was
keen on this idea. I wasn’t particularly fond of their offerings though Janet
liked them, but when she wanted to move onto a flight of their whiskeys I
thought it would be better to pace ourselves…. It was just 11:30 after all.
Thankfully their distillery tour wasn’t until much later in the afternoon, so
we paid our 8 dollars and moved on.
ALL BOURBONS ARE WHISKIES
We
walked through the warren of corridors and peaked into a couple of shops, but
then eventually left the cool confines of the Marathon Motor Works to walk the
half block to Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery.
The history
of the company is lengthy and incredible. The short version has them producing
a lot of high quality whiskey in the 1800s. In 1908 Tennessee enacted its own
prohibition, ahead of the United States and whiskey distilling stopped and the
family swept it under a rug to forget the whole process. In 2011 two great-whatever-grandsons
discovered, via a historical roadside sign, that here stood a distillery that
bore their family name and upon further research they were able to find the
original recipes of this high quality whiskey and have since restarted the
distillery.
You
have to go through a lot of jaw dropping history to drink the whiskey at Nelson's Green Brier Distillery, but it
is well worth the $10. The guide explained the mixture of the sour mash had to
contain at least 51% corn according to Tennessee whiskey regulations and he
explained the charcoal filtration and aging process they used for the whiskey
and the bourbon they produce. I still can’t give you a definitive answer to
what’s the difference between the two types of liquor although they are
evidently very similar. I believe it has something to do with aging and the
type of barrel used….I think.
I know
that last bit will inflame purists and I’ll be labeled a mook, etc. I say. ‘whatever’,
the tour ended with four generous pours of their whiskey and bourbon. I wanted
to stay and research the matter further, but we were ready to get something to
eat.
TWO WHISKEYS TWO BOURBONS ONE HOT CHICKEN
Unlike Champagne
that can’t be called champagne unless it’s made in France, having a myriad
number of names like Cava or Asti Spumante when produced elsewhere, bourbon,
named for a Bourbon County in Kentucky can still be made anywhere, as long the
rules are followed. But, Nashville Hot Chicken is a local delicacy and very
popular with locals and tourists The popularity of Nashville-style Hot Chicken
is growing beyond the city limits though and KFC recently rolled out their version of
Hot Chicken.
It
basically is fried chicken but it’s the heat and the presentation that make it
so unique. At the midtown Hattie B’s where we ate they bread the chicken and
then dip it in a melted spice blend, fry it and serve it on a slice of white
bread with some pickles.Hattie B’s heat goes from Southern (no heat) to Shut
the Cluck Up! There are several
restaurants in town that offer Nashville-style hot chicken and all are
represented at the Hot Chicken Festival held around Independence Day in
Nashville's East Park. There’s a fire truck parade before this free event.
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