Nashville Festival - September 2017

Nashville Food and Wine Festival

After the success of FUCAT (F'ed up Childhood Appreciation Tour), we worked with John and JoAnna to come up with a new excuse to travel.  So we settled on another four-year program where we'd visit one festival a year, with each of us taking turns to select the festival.  JoAnna went first since she was the inaugural FUCAT tour, and she chose the Food and Wine Festival in Nashville.  While Keith had been there for work as well as personal travel 20+ years before, none of us had really visited for fun in the recent past.

The Stillery for Dinner

Since we live on the west coast now, we decided to fly out late on the Thursday and work from the hotel on the Friday.  And late it was - the 7pm direct to Nashville arrived at 12:30am so we were not asleep until 1:30am.  It did help to have the time zones in our favor.  Our hotel for the weekend was the Renaissance hotel downtown Nashville, which was only a block off Broadway.  Shawna worked in the room the whole day Friday while Keith worked at a table in the club room on the 24th floor.  We both had back-to-back calls so were jammed the whole day.  John and Jo's flight arrived late so we fortunately had time for an early-evening nap and shower before they arrived so we were bright eyed and bushy tailed for their arrival.

Jonathan Waxman

The first stop of the evening was the rooftop of the Stage on Broadway.  Broadway is a massive honky-tonk street - think Bourbon in New Orleans or Duvall in Key West - but with almost all country bars.  The streets were heaving with people, though once we got to the rooftop it was full but not jammed.  We squeezed in a couple of beers before deciding we were hungry.  The next stop was The Stillery for dinner (on 2nd street) where we had Mac 'n cheese with fried chicken, jalapeños, brussel sprouts, and cheese dip with pesto bread.  The waitress was really nice and the food was tasty and fast.  The final stop for the night was the Swinging Door, another rooftop bar that backs to the Hilton where we sat next to a bachelor party and listened to a live musician.  We called it a night at about 2am which made John and JoAnna proud.

Pig - Yum!

Saturday was the main event - the Nashville (Music City) Food and Wine Festival. It was raining when we got up and continued to rain as we walked to the festival site in Bicentennial Park. We had pre-purchased the tickets for the day and the gates opened at 11-4pm. We started our first tasting at 11:15 and had a fantastic day with a massive variety of wines, beer, and local restaurant tastings. There were also celebrity chef demonstrations - we caught the last 10 minutes of Tim Love - a Fort Worth Chef that Keith's brother knows. We also saw Jonahtham Waxman. There were so many booths - we were not able to taste everything but we surely get it the college try!

HOHO Bus Tour

By 4pm we had our fill (and more) of the food and wine, so headed back to the hotel.  We decided to have a nap, which lasted until 9pm at which time none of us were inspired to head out.  So, with a pretty full day behind us, we ordered room service, watched Pitch Perfect 2, and fell asleep again!

What? The Parthenon? In Nashville?

Sunday was our last day in Nashville so we decided we had to see a bit of the city.  We showered, packed, and checked out - and opted for lunch which we found at Skulls Rainbow Room on Printers Alley.  It was a really interesting old building that has been resurrected - with pretty good food (the lobster bisque was delicious).  We then decided that the best way to see the city was the GreyLine Hop-On Hop-Off bus.  The first leg of the tour was terrible, with the driver naming pretty much every restaurant and shop on every street - including his commentary on Hooters - which was kind of creepy.  We jumped off half way through the tour and got the next bus with a different "guide" - who was only good in comparison with the first.  We did not really get any history, so it was a bit of a disappointment.  At the conclusion of the bus tour we had a couple of hours to kill before needing to go to the airport, so we went to the rooftop of the Acme Feed and Seed restaurant which overlooks the river.  The upside there was that the music scene was more traditional - which was nice since we were a bit "country-ed out".  We Ubered to the airport - with Keith heading to Phoenix, Shawna to Hartford, and John and JoAnna back to Raleigh.  It will only be a short time until we see them again in Scottsdale!

Mexico City - Sept 2016

Rakesh, Simran, Shawna, Keith and Rakesh

Simran had sent us an email asking us if we wanted to join them for a long weekend over Labor Day in Mexico City.  Shawna was not interested as she had been there as a child and didn't have the fondest memories of the place.  Keith, however, wanted to go and convinced Shawna to give it another try - she was glad that he did as we had a great time and really enjoyed the city.  Rakesh Marwah also decided to go last minute with a friend of his from LA.  Simran was boasting that she had the idea to go before the New York Times published that it was the #1 place to visit this year - she is such a trend setter.

We love selfies!

Accommodations:
La Valise - Shawna had found this place which only has three rooms in a brownstone.  It is in a great location and the rooms are large and nicely decorated.  There is no restaurant on site but it's not needed since there are so many great restaurants in the city.  The only downside to this hotel is that the people working there were a little dizzy (to use Simran's word) - anytime you needed something, it took either a little coaxing or some follow up!

Activities:
We arrived very late on Thursday night - Simran and Rakesh had arrived earlier that day.  It was no problem catching a cab - we were advised to stick to the official taxis which we did.  We crashed once we arrived at our hotel around 1am.

On Friday, we slept in and then went to lunch at Contramar (which was awesome).  After lunch, we walked around a bit but given that we were planning on a late night, we went back to the hotel for a nap.  We met Juan (who went to business school with us and lives locally) for drinks at a cantina and caught up with him - it had been 17 years since we had last seen him at grad school.  After drinks, we all went to dinner at Pujol at 10pm (late night reservation) and were at dinner until about 1:30 AM.  There was 8 of us at dinner: Simran, Rakesh, Keith, Shawna, Marwah, Anil (Marwah's friend from LA), Toby (Anil's friend who lived locally) and Juan.  Dinner was very tasty but it was a bit tainted by Toby who seemed to want to pick a fight with Rakesh.

Contramar

On Saturday, we had breakfast in our room and then were picked up at 10:30 AM by our guide who took us on a food/market tour with Eat Mexico.  The tour was awesome.  We visited the San Juan market, saw all of the gourmet food and stopped at many places to taste different local foods - we were totally full at the end.  Our tastings included:

• seafood tostada at El K-Guamo - we tried the shrimp which was tasty
• crickets, jams, salsas, mole, cheese and coffee at Mercado San Juan - the local cheese and jams/salsas were amazing.  can't believe we all tried crickets (two kinds!)
• saw how tortillas were made and tasted fresh tortillas at Tortilleria - where they only make 2 pesos per kilo
• quesadillas at Tlacoyos - apparently in Mexico that service quesadillas without cheese!
• mole at Fonda Mi Lupita - at this point we were getting quite full so couldn't finish it
• pulque at Pulqueria Las Duelistas - this is an alcoholic beverage made out of fermented agave.  they add fruit flavoring to make it really sweet.  we had a few sips of various kinds.
• tacos at Taqueria Gonzalez - this stand was crazy busy - quite the popular place

Tortilla Machine

Making Quesadillas

Pulque

Tired from the night before, we went back to the hotel for a nap and then Juan picked us up at 7:30 to go to Coyoacan for dinner at Los Danzantes.  We walked around the square first where there are many restaurants - the neighborhood is very cute, colorful and lively.  Juan's cousin also joined us for dinner.  Juan knew the manager so we got a few things comped which was nice.  The restaurant was great - tasty food and fun atmosphere.  Since we were all still recovering from the night before (apparently we can't stay up as late as we used to), we went back to the hotel at a reasonable hour.

Shawna, Keith, Juan, Simran and Rakesh

On Sunday, we had to get up early as our guide (David) picked us up at 8:30 to begin our day of cultural city tours.  We booked the guide through Journeys Beyond the Surface and he was great!  We started out with a stop at his family's tamale place (Tamales Dona Emi) which was near our hotel - Simran and Shawna were both hesitant as neither of them liked tamales but these tamales were amazing.  We tried 4 different kinds (according to Rak, 4 is the perfect amount) - one stuffed with cheese and corn, one with mushrooms, one with spinach and one with cream cheese and cinnamon.  Very tasty.

Yummy Tamales

We then drove over to Coyoacan  - it was raining pretty heavily so we could not walk around much but we drove by some of the churches and saw the colorful homes.  We did go to the Frida Kahlo Museum which is the house where she grew up.

Frida Kahlo Museum

We stopped by the Coyoacan Market and tried the tostadas which were very good - pork, chicken and beef.  After this, we got a few churros - plain, chocolate filled and caramel filled.

Tostados in Coyoacán Market

With fully bellies, we then went to Centro Historico via metro and explored the Diego Rivera murals at the National Palace.  Our guide gave us the full explanation of the murals which captures 2000 years of Mexican history.

Diego Rivera

We then walked over to the Mexico City Cathedral which is sinking!  Apparently the city sits on what was once a lake so much of the downtown area is sinking - the Mexicans refer to this as Montezuma's Revenge as the gods are getting back at them for building over the ancient Aztec sites.  You could easily see areas where the buildings were lopsided and we even got quite dizzy inside the cathedral as the floors were leaning!  After this, we went to a rooftop cafe where we had another "shakiado" and got to see the site where they are excavating some of the ruins.  By this time, it was getting close to meeting up for our next tour so our guide took us over to a taco restaurant where we chowed down on some pork and cheese tacos.

Mexico City Cathedral

We met up with Marwah and Anil for the next tour with Urban Adventure which began at 5pm.  This was the tri-fecta tour where we went to a lucha libre wresting match and a cantina where we saw mariachi bands playing.  The wresting match was quite fascinating to watch - very similar to American wresting but with masks!  We even got our own masks to wear!  We got a kick out of watching the drama and of course the girls who were scantily clad as they danced while the wrestlers entered the arena.  Following the match, we went to a cantina downtown but we did not stay long as we were not as excited by the environment.  We paid for one song by a mariachi band and then we left and had drinks and snacks at Azul Historico.

Lucha Libre

On Monday, we slept in and then went for a walk around the neighborhoods (Roma and Condessa).  The area is very lush and has a similar feel to New Orleans.  We stopped along the way to grab some coffee and pastries and also popped into another place to get sandwiches for our lunch.  We then went back to the hotel to shower and pack and left for the airport around noon.  Our flight home was via Orange County and because we had a long layover, we didn't get home until 11pm.

Overall, we had a great time and would definitely return.

Restaurants:
Contramar - Went here for lunch as it is only open at lunchtime - apparently Mexicans only eat seafood during the day!  It was a great restaurant - very cute decor and the food was amazing.  We all shared a few dishes: tostadas, chips and guac, ceviche, grilled fish and cheesecake flan.  We also tried a "shakiado" which is a coffee drink shaken with cream and liquor

Pujol - Named one of the top 50 restaurants in the world.  We had a 10pm reservation which is crazy late but we were told it's worth it.  We had the tasting menu: street snacks, beef jerky tartare, rabbit and chorizo, lamb tacos, mole aged 1604 days and churros with fruit.  The food was prepared in interesting ways and was quite tasty but we all agreed we enjoyed Contramar more (which was much cheaper as well!).

Los Danzantes - Located in Coyoacan.  Went here for dinner.  Really tasty Oaxacan food.  We had the stuffed peppers with cream sauce (which is only available for a few weeks during the year when walnuts are in season), a yummy leaf and cheese dish, tostadas and a couple of entrees (one with two kinds of mole).

Azul Historico - Restaurant and rooftop bar located in Centro Historico.  We had drinks and snacks at the rooftop bar.  While the location was great, we were not impressed with the food or drinks.