this past week, Brendan and I headed down to Nashville for a daytrip. we visited once before when we first started dating and we had a blast but I’m gonna venture to say this trip was even better! we started our day at Biscuit Love which was super yummy and since it was a monday, we got a seat in about 20 minutes, which was nice compared to the two hour weekend waits I read about on yelp. I had shrimp and grits which has been a favorite breakfast dish of mine lately and it was excellent! after breakfast, we headed to the Opry Mills Outlet Mall to escape the heat and do some shopping. we got some seriously good deals so I didn’t feel too guilty we went to an ordinary mall instead of site-seeing. next, we went to Crema, which I can honestly say I’ve been looking forward to visiting since we left the last time. they have this amazing concoction called coffee soda which is basically exactly what it sounds like: carbonated coffee! Brendan got a condensed milk latte which he assures me was great (I don’t like condensed milk but I’ll trust him).
Biscuit Love
Crema
we still had some time to kill before dinner so we headed back to the opry area to check out the Grande Ole Opry theater, which was closed but we wandered around anyways. i read on a travel blog that the hotel next door, The Gaylord Opryland Resort, had an indoor garden so we thought we might as well check it out. it was free to go inside but the parking was pricy so we opted to park at the mall and walk instead. it was a little bit of a hike, especially in the burning heat but WOW was it worth it! the gardens were beautiful and massive and the air conditioning didn’t hurt either. it was truly a phenomenal hotel! finally it was time for dinner at Rolf and Daughter, which I’ve literally been waiting years to try! we didn’t have reservations so we sat outside in the 100° heat (at 10pm!!) but the ambiance was so nice outside and the food was so good, I didn’t mind it much. I had the squid ink linguine, a dish I first tried while living in Nice at a wonderful restaurant on the beach, and I am happy to say this dish was just as yummy! we didn’t order drinks or dessert, which I’m regretting now but at least we have another reason to go back now.
Opryland
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Rolf and Daughters
The Gaylord Opryland Resort: 10/10
while researching places to go in paris, ten belles came up again and again. everyone seemed to be raving about the adorable exterior, friendly service and most of all, the great coffee. the coffee truly was worth the hype. i still don’t think it was quite on pare with intellegensia and some of my other favorite los angeles joints but it was rich and delicious and just hit the spot after wandering around all day. the cafe is tiny inside but we were lucky enough to snag a seat upstairs to people watch and enjoy the environment. after our coffee break, we took advantage of the surrounding area and explored this hip, up and coming district. the people here were probably the most stylish i saw in all of paris! i will never forget the girl i saw wearing striped ankle socks with mens pants and tank top looking oh so stylish with a cropped parisian haircut or the guy who looked straight out of the 1900s with round glasses and a baguette under his arm. if i ever get the chance to live in paris, the tenth arrondissement is definitely where you’d find me.
coffee culture is probably my favorite place in york to hang out. the lack of internet and space make it a difficult place to do homework and the big windows and interesting customers make it impossible to attempt any kind of productivity at all but it is the perfect place to take friends, grab a coffee and chat. and one of my favorite friends to go on long coffee dates with is ingliv. she is one of my dearest friends this semester and we can chat for hours about everything from music to the bible to my fascination with norway (her homeland) and our mutual obsession with tattoos. we got to know each other because we were both placed on baking and hospitality at the church as our service this semester and the friendship has grown from there. rarely a day goes by that we don’t spend some sort of time together and i know she will be the person i miss most when i leave this place. love you, ingliv!
theres no getting around it: portola is the gold standard of coffee shops. i mean coffee is serious business there. the baristas wear lab coats and make coffee in beakers and they have a testing lab in the back room. it’s that intense. but the coffee here is gooooood. not normal good but “spend-all-my-extra-money-on-soy-lattes” good. the fact that they have a tea bar next door and an acai bowl place down the hall doesn’t help the amount of time and money i spend at the mix mart. its so bad the people who work there are starting to know me by name. birdy, the place with amazing acai bowls, also carries brown bear eats baked goods, which is my friend and her moms cookie company that has the best treats i’ve ever tasted. and the fact that most things they make are gluten-free or vegan makes it all the better.
so with all the said, i thought that the mix mart would be my perfect place to take my friend christina who is visiting from arrowhead because she is a fellow fine coffee, veggie packed salads and gluten-free vegan baked goods lover. we had lunch at the new green leaf (so yum but a little too hectic for my liking) then headed over to portola for a drink. everytime i hang out with christina, i’m reminded why we are best friends and how blessed i am to have met her half way across the world. we had so many laughs and reminisced about good times and talked about our plans for what’s next in our lives. we always have a great time together but it’s really great to hang out with her on this side of the world. so blessed to have such great friends! love you girlie
