Day 3

(Milk & Honey, Nashville Wings, Peg Leg Porker, Party Fowl, Pennington Distilling Co, 8th and Roast Coffee, Love Peace & Pho)

Day 3 in Nashville was the day we had set aside to explore and enjoy some popular Nashville barbecue eateries and local distilleries for a quieter drinking experience than the previous day on Broadway. It was going to be another hot and humid day of adventure, but it would be a little more low-key than the rest of our days because there were no time-restrictions due to scheduled events.

Originally we thought we might spend some time on Printers Alley, another famous alley in downtown Nashville and just one street away from Nashville. Printers Alley is a less busy bar hopping destination with a little more history as the city’s nightlife hub during prohibition. It has a quieter and more dive-bar feel from what we had read. However, nothing in particular stood out to us in this area, and although less busy than Broadway, it would still be a little more crowded with it being a Friday than we were in the mood for. Instead, a few of the restaurants on our must-visit list were in a trendy neighborhood of Nashville called “The Gulch”, so we decided to spend our day walking around this area instead.

Since we wanted to start our day with coffee (obviously), we decided to wait until we made our way into the area to try one of the prominent brunch places to get our coffee fix. We initially had set our sights on a place called Biscuit Love. During our research, this name came up often and was highly recommended by many other travelers. Since many of the food establishments cater to a classier crowd, they open a little later and focus on more of a sit down brunch as opposed to a grab and go breakfast.

This worked for us because it allowed us to have a later and easier start to our day after a full day of drinking and walking in high heat and humidity almost the entirety of the day before. By the time we called an Uber and made the quick trip over to The Gulch, it was about 10:00. We walked our way over to the Biscuit Love location, and discovered an absolutely enormous line of people who apparently shared the same idea we did. We stood and stared from across the street as we decided whether it would be worth it to stand and wait in line for an uncertain amount of time or find an alternate option and most likely forfeit our opportunity to personally discover the hype around this place during this particular trip.

We decided this delectable dining destination would have to wait for another time. We continued down the street to another location whose name had come up often while looking into places to stop in for coffee within The Gulch. This other coffee shop is called Milk & Honey. Upon approaching, we were once again taken aback to discover how bustling it was! All the brunch tables were filled, and there was a line that stretched around and took up much of the walkway as we walked in. However, there was a side for sitting down to order and eat, and a side that was specifically designated for grab and go coffee. We opted to pass on food here since we had many other filling food places on our list for the day, and we would just order some coffees to take with us on our walk instead.

Since it was still early and already heating up quickly, we both went for an iced option. They had some signature flavors, and we both decided to sample one. I got the iced lavender honey latte, and Luke got the iced burnt sugar latte. It was still a decent wait time, but we were glad we were still finding a way to enjoy an obviously lively and high-traffic spot without having to wait for over an hour just to order. With lattes in hand, we made our way back out onto the street to enjoy our first sips and had our spirits lifted as both the caffeine and wonderful flavors hit our taste buds and tummies!

While walking from Biscuit Love to Milk & Honey, we passed on Nashville’s most iconic photo destinations, the WhatLifts You Wings Mural. We knew we wanted to get our coffee first, but we also knew we had to come back to get the quintessential winged photo.

They had specific marking on the sidewalk for where to form the line so that people wouldn’t block the road out of a parking garage directly in front of the mural. There was a little line when we made our way back, but it was significantly shorter than the lines we had just encountered, so we were willing to wait for this one.

Everyone in the line was very friendly and helpful, and the people behind you in line would offer to take the photos for you and your group since we all had the same goal. It was a surprisingly nice and positive humanity moment. All were happy and smiling and just enjoying our little tourist moment as a short-lived little community.

After getting our lovely mural photo, we continued our walk over to our first official food destination of the day as we sucked up the last sips of our coffees. We arrived at Peg Leg Porker a few minutes before opening at 11:00, so we took a seat at one of the tables outside to wait patiently, along with a few other people that wanted to get in right away as well.

We didn’t have to sit around for very long, and they opened up right on time! We intended to hit up several different restaurants throughout the day, so we figured it would be best to sample at each stop instead of ordering to fill ourselves up. For Peg Leg Porker, we ordered the pulled pork platter which comes with 1/3 pound of pulled pork with two sides. For our sides, we got the BBQ beans and the mac and cheese. Since banana pudding was also our newest dessert obsession, we of course had to try theirs to see how it held up to Hattie B’s, but they also had another type of dessert that we just couldn’t pass up trying. On their menu, they have fried pies. Yes, you read that correctly. They take pie filling, pile it into a pie crust, which they then fold and fry! We went with peach ala mode.

As soon as carried the tray to our table, we were salivating at how delicious everything looked and smelled. However, taste is the most important part, so we were eager to dig in! Now, Peg Leg Porker already had some pretty big shoes to fill after the wonderful experience we’d had at Hattie B’s a few days earlier. While Hattie B’s is still high on our list of our favorite places we ate at during this trip, it has to concede the crown to Peg Leg Porker. If we could only recommend one food stop to someone wanting to visit Nashville, this would be it. Everything was absolute perfection. The pulled pork was juicy and tender. The BBQ beans were saucy and smoky. The mac and cheese had a sharp natural cheese taste instead of the super orange artificial stuff. The banana pudding was just as sweet and refreshing as we remembered. And the fried pie was “chef’s kiss”!

It would have been way too easy to call it a day after our first stop because how could it get any better than that, right? However, when it comes to traveling, we are not ones to let a day go to waste, so we carried on to our next spot. While Peg Leg Porker was now at the top of our list, we also didn’t want to miss out on any of the other amazing food stops Nashville had to offer because we hadn’t had a bad experience yet!

Next, we had about an 5 minute walk over to a sports bar called Party Fowl. It had a much different vibe than Peg Leg Porker. It was a much younger and more lively crowd. I’m not sure which came first, the name or the atmosphere, but it definitely felt like more of a party or social group stop, like you would expect to see in a sports bar.

One of their specialties that I had already decided I was going to order before even going inside because it was largely advertised on a banner outside was a boozy slushie. When in doubt, I always go blue, so I went with blue raspberry! Luke decided to try a locally brewed beer called “Dill With It”, a dill pickle kolsch. For food, we of course had to sample their hot chicken since we were eating our way through lots of different hot chicken of Nashville. There was one option that particularly appealed to me. They had a hot chicken and beignets combo on the menu, and I had never tried beignets before but definitely wanted to try them because any time I had seen them (animated or otherwise), they looked delicious.

The meal combo came with a large boneless chicken breast (we went with our classic mild heat level) served on texas toast, topped with dill pickles, and served with bourbon glazed beignets and coleslaw! The hot chicken was good, but it wasn’t particularly memorable or anything to write home about. The coleslaw was nice and refreshing. However, the beignets were definitely the highlight. If they were this tasty in somewhere that I wouldn’t consider a pastry town, I can’t even imagine how good they could be in somewhere that takes special pride in these puffy pastries!

Before leaving, they had a cute little rubber duck claw machine that I just had to try (the boozy slushie told me I had to). I lined it up, the claw slowly dropped down and clamped around the head of one of the ducks. It began to lift the duck and carry it over to me. There was a girl standing over in that area while waiting for her party to be seated that cheered for me. The duck then promptly fell out of the claw’s clutches back into the flock of comfortably settled ducks below. The girl gave a glum “oh”, and we looked at each other as we exchanged a quick little frown before giggling and going our separate ways.

We hadn’t quite decided what our next stopover would be. We had tentatively added visiting a distillery or two to our plans for the day, but we had no idea where to even start with choosing or finding one. Serendipitously, on our coasters at Party Fowl, was the name of a local distillery and a QR code you could scan to schedule a tour. It was settled then! We checked to make sure they had some openings for the day, and seemingly, all the times were available, so we booked a tour at Pennington Distilling Co.

Pennington was outside the neighborhood we were currently in, so we took a break from walking around and called an Uber to take us over. It ended up being more challenging than we, including our Uber driver, expected because several roads were blocked off because they were freshly paved, but we made it! They give tours every hour, and we didn’t leave Party Fowl until a little before 1:00, so we wouldn’t be able to make it over there in time for the 1:00 tour. We went ahead and booked the 2:00 tour instead and then arrived at the distillery at about 1:30, we had some time to kill.

When we first walked in, it was very quiet and empty, and we thought we might somehow be at the wrong place. However, the worker at the counter, who we later learned was named Jim, greeted us and confirmed that we were in the right place and that he would be the one leading us on the tour and tasting when it was time. We decided to go ahead and order one of their signature cocktails to sip on while we waited. Luke went with their Old Fashioned, made with their Davidson Reserve Whisky, orange, maraschino, and bitters. I decided to try their Elderflower Peach Spritz, made with their Pickers Original Vodka, lemon, peach, elderflower, and soda. Both of our drinks were delicious, but surprisingly strong. We, but especially me, were already buzzing before our tour had even started!

Since we were the only ones there and seemed to be the only ones coming, Jim decided to go ahead and start us on the tour a little early. We started by sitting in a couple of the big rocking chairs in their main area while he began with the history of Pennington Distillery. He was extremely knowledgeable and detailed with how Pennington came to be. We then continued the tour back in the area with the stills and all the moving parts that making the distilling possible. This area was busy and loud and hot, so Jim walked us through the explanation and steps simply and swiftly so that we could return to the air conditioned bar and shop area.

We opted for the tour that included the tasting. Jim walked us through the different tastings we had to choose from. He explained what each spirit was and any added backstory if it had one. Then we would have the chance to choose 3 to sample. However, since we were the only ones there, Jim said that he isn’t so good at math and especially loses track after a few sips, gave us a wink, and handed us each a bonus sample cup!

After hearing about all the products, we wanted to pick things we would both want to try and also include a large variety of the different choices. After each pick, Jim would give a generous pour into a sample cup, and then we would split it. In the end, our 8 choices were the blueberry vodka, the honey bourbon, the rye whisky, the solar eclipse whiskey (barreled and started distilling during the solar eclipse), the pineapple vodka, the pink lemon vodka, the mocha sipping cream, and the original sipping cream. I personally loved the fruitiness of the vodkas (Pickers is the name of their vodka brand). The pink lemon had an especially sharp flavor and subtle pucker. Nevertheless, the sipping creams had to be our favorite overall. We had never had anything quite like it, and Jim mentioned it could be mixed with coffee, and that had us sold!

Once our hour-long tour was over, we knew we would be shopping at the gift and bottle shop and taking some special spirits with us. We went with a 4-pack of the Spiked Coffee, which came with the sipping cream and coffee already mixed together. The other thing we snagged was a 4-pack of their Pickers Crafted Cocktails. They are flavored vodka spritzers that they are discontinuing because the market is so saturated, so we figured we better try them while we can! To top it all off, Luke picked out a hat he liked!

Then it was time to say goodbye to our wonderful new friend Jim and call an Uber to take our very drunk selves to our Airbnb. While we waited for our ride, we put a location pin into their visitor map, and we discovered we were their first guests from South Dakota! All of us were excited, and they even took our picture and posted it to their instagram story to share they had received their first South Dakota visitors, which is pretty cool!

Right as our Uber rounded the corner, a large party bus of some kind was also pulling up, and a whole slew of people trudged off, and we were glad we had gone through at the perfect time to have the tour all to ourselves instead of with this large group of party people.

It was close to 3:30 by the time we left Pennington. We had our Uber driver take us back to our Airbnb where we decided to relax, unwind, and sober up a bit before heading out for supper. We were both running low on energy, so we swung in for a a caffeine boost from the coffee shop right across from Zanies, and therefor within walking distance our our Airbnb, called 8th and Roast Coffee. It was around 5:30, and they closed at 6:00, so we sat and sipped for a little while but definitely didn’t linger.

We also didn’t feel like going far for food that night, so after coffee, we just walked a few doors down to a Vietnamese restaurant called Love, Peace, and Pho that we had seen in our Airbnb welcome packet as a nearby food spot. As soon as you walked in, it was obvious they served very authentic Vietnamese cuisine, and we were extremely excited to try it!

We started with some Bao Buns, which neither of us had ever tried but really wanted to. They absolutely lived up to any expectations we had. The dough is unbelievably light and airy with the perfect amount of sweetness. Then, for the main part of our meal, Luke ordered a summer salad, and I wanted to try some of what the eatery was named after, some good ol’ chicken pho. I was especially excited about some hot, steamy, and well-made broth. Both of our meals were absolutely incredible and might be the sole reason we would add Vietnam to our travel list! We were also some of the only people in there which made our dining experience quiet and peaceful and all the more enjoyable!

Finally, to close out our meal, we ordered a creme brûlée to share. Our waiter informed us their torch was on the fritz so it wasn’t as toasted as it could be, but we didn’t mind! It still looked spectacular and tasty. Because the crust wasn’t very charred, the crack wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been, but fortunately, the taste was exquisite, so that’s all that really matters!

To close our our third day in Nashville, we lounged around our Airbnb watching TV and sipping one of our alcoholic beverages before calling it a night and turning in for another full day tomorrow!