What do you believe represents Nahville’s biggest change? Elton John will make his appearance tonight. Plus, we give you the scoop about Nashville’s best suburb. All of this and today’s events on Nashville Daily.
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00:00 Hello everybody. This is the Nashville daily podcast. I'm Stuart Deming and I'm Erin Pennington and we are live from the factory in Franklin, Tennessee. What do you believe represents Nashville's biggest change? Elton John will make his appearance here tonight. Plus we'll give you the scoop about Nashville's best suburb, all of this and today's events on Nashville.
00:28 Traffic this weekend was terrible, just like it is this morning, so be careful on the roads. This last weekend we had four 40 closed part part of it and then also we had a lot of rain and so I think we're seeing the effects of traffic this morning from this weekend. As soon as you have a raindrop splash on the ground in Nashville, all hell breaks a little rain drop on Nashville. It breaks all hell. Who's it does it does that nobody knows what to do. It's like when it snows, nobody just knows what to do, which I really hope it does snow this year. Because we have a video that we've had planned for a long time. For you guys that needs to come out. Yes, it does. How much longer of this 70 degree weather do you think we'll have? I don't know. I think another week or two another week.
01:21 You think that's it? That's all we've got last week. The weather channel made the mistake of putting a snowflake on for Halloween. This is Halloween week? Yeah. What do you mean put a snowflake or like, you know how like on the weather channel and talks about like rain or like snow, right? Yeah. A snowflake for Halloween cause it's supposed to drop down below like 31 and it's supposed to be raining. So they're like, Oh we're going to get snow on Elouine and some people did get snow already. Yeah. Which is fantastic. Good for you Montana. I wish we can get some snow. Yes. So while you've got a few got a few weeks of 70 degree weather left. We've got an event starting at 8:00 PM tonight and that is whiskey jam. I can't imagine whiskey jam is going to go on for too much longer this season.
02:09 I think it goes on and even in the winter it doesn't really. Yeah, I think so man. Well they should just nail it into winter jam, which is actually already used. So they'll run into some copyright infringement on that. So that's at winner's bar, facebook.com forward slash whiskey jam for that. And then tonight at the Ryman you have the music of Randy Travis a at 7:30 PM somebody else's actually singing in the place of Randy Travis cause he's no longer with us. Yes. So the music of Randy Travis is going to be more of a kind of a attribute to his music. It's going to be with the original Randy Travis band, but featuring guest vocalist James do pre, that's going to be at seven 30 at the Ryman. Downtown's going to be busy though because we do have our dear friend Elton John coming to Bridgestone arena at 8:00 PM and this is part of his farewell tours.
02:59 So this is the last store he's ever doing. Yeah. As I was typing up the name farewell yellow brick road tour, I wondered if he titled it like farewell to the yellow brick road. That way. He doesn't have to say if it's directly his farewell tour. Yeah. You never know. Never know artists like until they're dead, it's probably not going to be there. Didn't he have a album back in like the 80s called the yellow road? Maybe? I think so. I don't know the good news on that much. The good news about all of these late night downtown events is before you go to these events, you can go now to rise and grab a meal before you go to these events because they are now open until 9:00 PM so rise is found on fifth Avenue directly in the five Oh five building in like the basement of the five Oh five building and it's up the street from the Ryman auditorium.
03:51 It ha it also from Bridgestone arena. And they have chicken biscuits that are incredible. They have a great coffee selection. And what's your favorite thing to get at rise Aron? Well, they just came out with a new menu because of their changed hours. So there's a few things to experiment with. When I was there last, I got the Southern chicken biscuit. It was, it had pimento cheese on it. That's fantastic. I had bacon on it. Oh, that sounds so good. It was fantastic. So are the prices still the same or how does price has gone up because of their hours extending? Nope. to my knowledge, no real pricing change. Okay. Which is great cause you can get the whole meal there for like $7. They do have a Mac and cheese biscuit, which I, I'm wanting to try at some point. It's a Bisco Mac and cheese.
04:40 That is correct. I am taking Amanda there immediately after this show. Yeah. So that's a, that's something to do if you are looking for food before any of these events. We also have ongoing until next. No, we have two more weekends of this as the Hermitage goes tours Wednesdays through Saturdays through November night seven and 9:00 PM. Make sure to buy your tickets beforehand online. Don't do it like us and just assume that they're going to have tickets left over on a Wednesday at 9:00 PM. Whoops. Yeah, we've had that experience. So in a local Nashville coffee shop, is she celebrating 10 year birthday and for the whole month they're giving away some of their proceeds to adoption awareness. Are they given more importantly, are they giving away coffee? I don't know if this is found on Fox 17. Okay. and it says, okay, so it's only happening. They will be offering menu samples, a waffle eating contest, coffee demos and giveaways. 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM. And that already happened. Yeah, I already have. Well, dang, I missed that. I did to just love turned 10
05:58 Years old. Happy birthday. Just lovely. Happy birthday. Just love. You can find their closest location. The downtown Nashville off of [inaudible]. They also have their roasting facility down in Murfreesboro and they have a few other satellite campuses. Sounds like church work, a satellite location. Are they an Apple store? Yeah. So over on the Nashville business journal, we found this survey. What is this survey about Aaron?
06:26 These surveys by the Nashville business journal are always, this one's a little bit better than the last one. We took the last one had some interesting answers on it, but this survey is about nationals past and about National's future. So we have two questions posed. The first one is which of the following represents the biggest change since the 19th of Nashville since the 1970s. And the second question poses looking decades ahead. What Nashville change are you most hopeful for? And, and they're actually pretty challenging to do just because their answers and their choices are all very relevant and it's really hard to choose between these. So I'm gonna start with the first question. Which of the following represents the biggest change in Nashville since the 1970s are options where population growth, traffic congestion, career opportunities, you come in a major league, sports town, skyline, national recognition, downtown activity, restaurant scene, ease in recruiting workers to Nashville in cities, politics and look at the number for cities. Yeah. So I will say the lowest choices on these are cities, politics and the restaurant represent restaurant scene. Is that right?
07:34 It's definitely, it's definitely has changed tremendously since the 1970s
07:38 Becoming a major league sports town. I thought this will be higher. That's only at 3%. Skyline is only at 5%. But a downtown activity, ease of recruiting workers to Nashville is 3%. Our most popular answers according to the survey population growth has just under a third of the votes. Traffic congestion has about a fourth of the votes and national recognition, which is what I voted for, has about 16% of the vote. Stuart, which one do you think you would have picked as the biggest change that represents Nashville since the 1970s?
08:22 Honestly, I probably would have said downtown activity. Because in the 1970s, downtown Nashville was awful. I mean really go there except for daytime. For the business. Yeah, daytime for business, but it was full of strip clubs and like brothel type places. And then like, I've heard stories from the 70s in downtown Nashville, like it's, it was pretty bad. So out of that list I would've chose towns, downtown activity because now we're finally getting residential buildings in downtown Nashville. We're finally, I think if it wasn't for downtown activity, all of these other options wouldn't be a thing. So that's why I would've chosen downtown activity.
09:05 Yeah, that's definitely a good one. National recognition was my choice because Nashville was probably on like maybe zero lists 10 years ago.
09:19 Probably still on your list for best country music experience with the Ryman. And yeah, it was probably the only thing that Nashville was known for. But now we're known for events. We're known for food, we're known for job growth. We're known for unemployment, like lowest unemployment.
09:36 Just about every scene here in Nashville has national recognitions. Yeah. I believe earlier this year, Nashville was recognized as one of the best art scenes in the world. Oh, wow. Yeah. And
09:51 And then just down the road in Franklin, Tennessee where we are currently recording this podcast Franklin, Tennessee has been voted the best small town in the USA for like two or three years in a row. Yes. By travel and leisure and all these other publications. So Clarksville, Oh yeah. Clarksville right up the road from Nashville by money magazine voted the number one city in the United States to live.
10:16 That's actually a big deal. National real estate prices are climbing at some of the highest rates in the United States.
10:22 Highest hotel rates per night per capita in the United [inaudible].
10:26 Yes, we are definitely number one for that. We're high on the list for yup. Property, apartment rents, all of that stuff. It's an alcohol tax that's high too in downtown. Yep, absolutely. So you know, just about everything in Nashville now is making the lists Nashville trying to do everything well, the things that we are not on the list for public education, transit police P pay. Yes. Police pay.
10:59 [Inaudible] Sorry. Yeah. So this goes into the next question. Looking decades ahead. What Nashville change are you most hopeful for? So it starts off of this, a more livable downtown new high end paying jobs, arrival of more major companies, more flights at BNA, which is coming. And that's coming aggressively before you guys even know it. Development on the East bank that's coming with river North. We've talked about that extensively by their education system. John Cooper is going to do his best that he can a major realtors entering the market retailers, retail retailers entering the market, solving our transit riddle, more family entertainment options, better diverse and inclusion.
11:43 I'm actually okay, so just to get the outliers out of the way. Development of the East bank pulled up 0% more flights at BNA pulled at 3% new high paying job pulled at 5% a more livable downtown. Surprisingly actually pulled it 5%. More retailers entering the market polled at 0%. And that's not surprising. Yeah. more family entertainment options pulled it only 8%.
12:13 I thought that one had been in a little bit higher. I thought that would have been as well because Nashville is rubble, family friendly destination with offering family friendly. Why you need to come on the Franklin Tennessee subway is not your family friendly option. Lady with the stroller taking her kid on Broadway at 10:00 PM on Friday evening. Come to frame. I'm like, you haven't seen it. Everybody's seen it come to main street on Franklin. You can do that, but they all close at like 8:00 PM
12:41 Closes early, a better diversity and inclusion pulled at 8%. Number one answer was solving hour
12:48 Transit riddle. That's one of those, it's like, okay, that's almost too obvious, but it's, that's very true bait switch type question. What's one of those
12:57 Things where it's like, which one is more important? Okay. Obviously the transit now that we've moved past and say what's actually more important beyond that. So Charles Salvino transit riddled pole number one, if 50% better education system polled number two at 13% in the arrival of more major companies polled at 8%. So solving our transit riddle I think is, is going to also be the most challenging out of these. All out of all of these possibilities. Stuart, what would you have picked out of this list? [inaudible]
13:30 This is gonna throw you guys for a loop. So, if you guys have listened to this podcast, you guys know I am a capitalist through and through so I actually would've said new high paying jobs because I believe we're to the point now in the city, transit needs to be public or privatized. And I think with new high paying jobs that would come with the decades because like these high paying jobs, they're going to do work from home situations or Skype situations and they're also going to make sure that funds are available to offer public transit.
14:09 Well. And I think I would like to make an amendment to new high paying jobs. I would like to see that transition from just normal jobs to arrive at current Nashville of what wages should be in Nashville. Oh yeah, absolutely. So with Nashville's really rapid growth, I don't think the jobs and the, the payouts to their employees for, I mean obviously not everybody, but for a large amount of people have not really equated to the cost of living. Oh yeah. And so I would like to see in the future that catch up really rapidly so that people forced to move out of the city because they've had the same job and they're not seeing a pay raise, getting paid enough to even live at the same place they've been living at for 10 years. So that I'm not one I think should be a stretched into that category just a little bit more.
15:07 My choice actually was a more livable downtown. And these surveys have actually, you know, I've always kind of favored these things and the reason that I chose more livable downtown is because I'm, when you compare Nashville with another city, one of the things that, that other city has that Nashville doesn't is a more walkable downtown. Yes, absolutely. I think that makes a big difference in how a city operates. I think that would be, that would help with our transit as well, is having a more walkable, livable downtown region. And so I think that kind of that option and I think a more livable downtown helps flow into a lot of these other categories.
15:50 Well, yeah, I think, I think I'm, at the end of the day, all of these categories are interrelated. So the more high paying jobs you have is more direct flights will come from BNA, the more family friendly activities will come because more families are going to want to live downtown closer to where they're working. So it's, all of these things in this survey are interconnected and with more families coming with higher paying jobs, education has to improve. And so it's just, it's all interconnected I think.
16:18 Absolutely. So speaking of living downtown, today's explores Nashville tip of the day is to do the opposite. We want you to
16:27 Get outside, we want you to get outside guys,
16:30 Get outside of Nashville. If you have the day off, go hike at South Cumberland state park, one of our favorite state parks in Tennessee, one of the largest state
16:39 [Inaudible] real quick. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So the self, Cumberland state park, I think it's around 34,000 acres, 34 to 40,000 acres, give or take. And it's about an hour half away. You have to pass Manchester as down past Manchester. And it's a beautiful, beautiful park that they have this they have numerous waterfalls. They also have, what is that thing called? That big open door? Old stone doors. That's the ones the worst. That's what it's called. I always get that confused with old stone for it. Like I literally confused that in my mind every single time. But stone door is like this overlook and you get to see the use. Like I would say they're mountains at that point. You're at probably, I'll take it. Yeah, you're probably at 1800 elevation, 1800 feet elevation at that point. And so it's this big like rock face and you walk through it. It's absolutely incredible. One of my favorite waterfalls is their greeter falls. You have Laurel falls and then you have back mountain climbing, back mountain hiking. Rock climbing. Yeah. You have it. Yeah. Board tree falls there. I think there's like 18 falls on property.
17:48 It's crazy. So
17:50 Go hike South Cumberland state park. Go hikes a stone dork. Go see the waterfalls, enjoy the fall colors while we still have them. Any storm can knock away these leaves in two seconds. So you know, take advantage of this time. And then if you are into coffee there's a roaster in Manchester called black rifle coffee and they are a veteran, not originally from Manchester, but they have one of their roaster roasteries in Manchester. You can take tours there. Call them. Apparently I'd tried to find their Manchester location on their website. It's not easily available, but there are numbers on there you can call them and find out about their tours. They make fantastic coffee. So go to South Cumberland state park and go try some black rifle coffee, take some tours. And there's also the really weird Dunkin donuts in Manchester, the one that has like the conference rooms and the Tesla charging has like what, like five or six Tesla chargers that it's [inaudible]. Yeah, it's really been weird. Dunkin donuts,
18:54 It's probably w w we joked that's where like the Bonnaroo board room, the board has the [inaudible].
18:58 Yeah, it's in that sense. That's probably exactly what happened because they can't come up to Nashville cause it's too far away. Yup. I bet that is what happens every single day. We like to talk about where we ate locally, if we've had the chance to eat locally. Oh, we have, Oh yeah. Last Friday we drove throughout middle Tennessee installing GoPro cameras or something like that at cross point churches, if you're real nerdy, they're marshals.
19:28 They're a great, great quality GOPer alternative for broadcast use. Yeah.
19:33 And so but we drove through all middle Tennessee and then we stopped at one of my favorite places in Franklin and it's called B B's barbecue. This is off of highway 96. It says a little barbecue shack. It's typically a one man operation. This time there was two. So I was actually surprised by that. So the speed was along, the speed was fast, so it was like we ordered and then we pulled up and we had our food immediately, which was fantastic. But I, I got my original, my or my usual the smoked Turkey sandwich with the white Alabama sauce and a cheddar cream Mac and cheese. And I was that Mac and cheese. It was good. It's not the best Mac and cheese. It's not honey Fyre Mac and cheese. Okay. It has a weird taste and it's hard to describe, but overall like I get it every time. So it's good enough. But the sandwich was huge and the Mac and cheese was a good portion and I paid $7 and 12 cents, which was fantastic.
20:33 Not bad at all. All right. So while we were doing these camera installing adventures, I ventured out to Dixon donuts and in Tennessee, in Dickson, Tennessee.
20:48 Yeah. This is not in Nashville. Kind of surprised they haven't put something out in Nashville because it's that good. But Dixon donuts is a very cheap and good place. The prices are really good and the food is really good. I think I've got a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit there for a dollar 89. And you got a donut for 90 cents. Yeah. Donut for 90 million. Go with your total was like five 20 or something. Yeah. So I will hit the credit card minimum of $3 there and it was a fantastic breakfast. So a Dixon donuts kind of a staple favorite on that side of the, that side of the, the Nashville area. But yeah, those are both really good places. Bibi's barbecue BB barbecue in Dixon donuts. There's a lot of illiterate. We ate at only alliteration places. Yeah. This episode of Nashville daily is brought to you by screen to threads.
21:40 Screen threads is a Nashville Curie shop located in the historic marathon village. Use code Nashville daily to get 10% off your next online order. Their website is screened to threads.com mentioned this ad in store and get 10% off as well. Starting November 1st we can't mention this enough. Christmas will be in full effect as screen threads. I'm talking Christmas trees, Christmas ornaments, Christmas candles, Christmas tea, towels. You mean you don't have to wait in line like black Friday after Thanksgiving? Absolutely not. And they're also releasing a Christmas tee shirt. It's a three quarter lengths to leave like a baseball t-shirt. It looks incredible. So if you're looking to get your car and they have Christmas puzzles that I mentioned that no, I didn't because they have so many different Christmas things that are being released on November 1st all right, that's very cool. So if you're a puzzle, a lover, and you're a Christmas lover, go ahead and, and they'll have Christmas music on too, so you can just, you could dance to some Christmas music and buy some Christmas goods.
22:40 There you go. Screen to threads.com. Thank you. Screened threads. All right, so while we are here in Franklin, Tennessee, we're here at the factory. I talk about the [inaudible] talk about the historical context in a second. Yeah, we're good. We're going to give you guys a little bit of overview of where we are, what this area is all about and why it's won some of the awards that it has and some of the things to do down here in this area of Franklin. But before we get into the current day Stuart, give us a little bit of historical context as to where we are and how Franklin relates into the history of the United States. So basically you were in Franklin, Tennessee. Downtown Franklin is 17 miles away from downtown Nashville and I would consider this to be the best suburb in middle Tennessee. The reason for that is because of the historical context of this town. And then also the things they do, the eateries and the beauty of Franklin. Right. And when we say, because of the historical
23:46 Context, we're not talking about kind of because of what happened, we're just talking about, because Franklin is so rich in its history, there's a lot of things to do here, a lot of things to learn about the United States and everything. And so why don't you get into some of those historical events that have happened here in Franklin?
24:05 Yeah. So Franklin, Tennessee was discovered or found it in 1799. So three years after they state Tennessee became the 16th state, which we've talked about a number a number of times on the podcast. Franklin, Tennessee is named after Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Franklin never visited this area. It was just named after Benjamin Franklin. And in the early 18 hundreds, he didn't really have much activity happening here. Okay. You had a couple plantations. You had the Carnton plantation then you have a few other plantations that don't exist in this area. Okay. And then the major historical thing that happened here was the battle of Franklin, which happened in 1864 on November 29th. And we're actually going to be bringing on a historian to talk about the battle of Franklin for that episode that's happening on black Friday. And this talent at that time, I believe, was only a town of maybe 500 people.
25:04 And you had this huge battle between the federal army and the Confederates. And historians say that nearly 10,000 men either went missing in action or their lives were lost in this battle. And we're gonna talk about that on November 29th, we're going dive D that one of the bloodiest battles. It's one of the bloodiest battles in American history. And so this battle primarily happened in two areas. Here in Franklin, you have the Carter house, which is found off of highway 31 Columbia Avenue. And then you have the Carnton plantation. The Carter house is where the primary hand-to-hand battle happened. And then the Carnton plantation was a field hospital for the Confederates. And we'll talk both about, about both of those in context more when we have the historian on to visit both of those facilities, it's about $18 a piece to $25. So they have extended tours throughout the weekends. They have a self guided tours, so you can learn about both of those at the Carter house and Carnton plantation.
26:09 So a really interesting thing about Franklin and cause a lot of people, you know, might want to say that, you know, okay, Franklin is a Southern city. They probably got their wealth because of all of the plantations. Well, it took 120 years for this county's economy to reach pre-war levels. Wow. So after the war took 120 years for the economy to reach where it was, where are you finding that
26:44 Information? So this is at Franklin T N. Dot. Gov. Wow. New, a lot of information about Franklin history today. Franklin is one of the wealthiest cities in one of the wealthiest counties in America. The United States city's population now is at 70, just over 71,000 in the seventh largest city in Tennessee, one of the fastest growing in Tennessee. So that's pretty interesting to see a place that was basically economically craphole after the war turned into one of the wealthiest places, places in the United States, which is amazing. And especially what happened during the, the nineties, the early two thousands with the downtown core being renovated, like rejuvenated. So that main street back in, in like the 19 hundreds was very active. 1920S was very active. The place that we're doing this podcast episode is, it's called the factory in Franklin. This is off of highway 31.
27:48 I still, I think, I think I believe so. Or Franklin pike and this factory in Franklin was an old oven, oven manufacturing plant and it built three different models of ovens from 1929 to I believe 1939 give or take. They're still building ovens here during the great depression and it's, they sat empty for a while, this huge factory. And now this factory in Franklin, I would say this is the premier space in Franklin. It has absolutely restaurants. It has a barber shop. It has a fricking black Smith. Yeah. It has events, three different events, spaces. It has shopping, it has eat or bakery. Bakery has ice cream as a Franklin juice company. Like this place is hopping and they have a theater to watch plays and they do some absolutely amazing plays here at the factory. They absolutely to this place and it's, it has a very open area where you can hang out and relax in the middle of it all.
28:55 It's smells great in here to smells like food. There's a lot of places like coffee and donuts. There's a lot of places where you can make pot like make art, pottery. There's places that sell art here. There's a guitar shop here, there's a butcher, there's right, there's block house. If you're looking to get a good haircut as a guy from a barber block house, they have Saturday morning farmer's markets here, which is amazing. And then outside of it you have mafiosos, which is a pizza restaurant based from Nashville down here. And then you have a, is it mojos tacos mojo host tacos, tacos, which is great. They have a hot chicken taco. And the thing I like about MoHos is they have like natural sodas. So it's not like it's right. Yeah. It's not like that. [inaudible] As well. They have a million flowers.
29:46 If you've seen that flower truck that goes around Nashville, they have honest, honest coffee roasters or honest roast or coffee. I think it's honest. Coffee roasters. Yes, I think so. Yes. Which is a great local coffee shop here in Franklin. I believe. They're also opening an L L market, I think. Or I can't, I'm confusing that. Maybe with eighth and roast, but a, I had a nice coffee. Yes, they do have paper straws to pretty worn you guys. So if you're a one of those people that gets frustrated with paper straws, make sure to bring your own metal straw. They have a dark horse Institute. If anybody in the audio world might recognize this, it's an audio engineering and music business school. And that's down here. They have galleries several photographers have cohort spaces here. And then they have, yeah, it's coworking space.
30:36 Like this thing is that really regularly. They literally have everything at this place. They have events and it's just incredible. You can find more@factoryatfranklin.com that we'll talk about all of the events, all the different foods and all the different shops. They have a brand new session, a segment in the like factory that Aaron just showed me. And it looks like it's all old horse stables that are at the converting to storefronts, which looks incredible that, yeah, they they made that place look really, really cool. So that's the factory at Franklin and you can go to, I believe, factory@franklin.com in order to find that we've got that in our show notes. Okay. So now let's talk about downtown Franklin. Yes. Downtown Franklin is something that I wish I would have seen 20 years ago because I bet it was a completely different story of what it, like.
31:30 I've heard stories from Michael Johnson, the guy we had on, he talked about the nudist colony. Yeah. He said he lived in, he's been in Franklin for 20, 25 years or so in downtown Franklin when he moved here. Was like a Bandon and empty. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like even like, I think the the theater at Franklin and downtown, I think that was even abandoned and empty at that time. Really? Yeah. Wow. yeah. Now downtown Franklin has a many boutique stores that I can not afford. Any restaurants I cannot afford and many shops that I just, you know, like to walk around it and then walk right back out. Yeah. So they have Aaron is right on point. He, he's hitting the nail on the head with that one. And so one of my favorite stores in downtown Franklin is White's mercantile. Yes. just an incredible like local artists and made good a store. They have great smelling candles. They also have like a little food area at White's mercantile where they can get like a Loveless biscuits. You can get like different bacon jams and like all these different hot sauces. So it's just a really cool store. But a, in downtown Franklin
32:40 You have couple of my favorite restaurants that I take a lot of people too. So you have grays on main, which is an old pharmacy basically across the street on main street and across the street from White's mercantile. And it's farm to table. It's, it's good. It's just, I've, I've been to graze on Maine probably over 50 times. You want to come to Franklin for a date night? That's where you guys, and then you go to the Franklin theater afterwards, especially during the Christmas season because they just show like elephant home alone and it's like $5 tickets. It's just nice. Great date night. That's really cool. And graze on main is hands down one of my favorite restaurants in Franklin. To the point where, as I said, I've eaten there probably over 50 times since I've been here in Nashville. They also have pockets, which this one's an interesting location because I think Scott mentioned that on his episode when we did the interview with the owner of screen threats.
33:39 He said he likes taking the people that this puck gets because you buy a seat for the night and you get the table for four now, four hours or so or three hours and it's live music and you cover the Southern food. I think you buy the table at this one. Oh yeah. The table. I'll be like, you rent the table for that. Makes sense. That's your cover. Gotcha. Mercury's Irish pub and eatery. Have you here? Yes, I have a story about this place. Okay. So I first moved here, I went to this Irish pub and they have Irish egg rolls and it's like filled with like cabbage and like Irish Irish sausage. And I took a bite of this egg roll and the grease bounced into my eyelid and burnt the inside of my eyelids. Like the egg roll tasted incredible, but I literally literally conflicted at this point.
34:24 Yeah. I let out a little like, like, like ah, and everyone looked at me and then, so I just Chuck my Guinness and I walked out where you get, where are you on your own at somebody. I can't remember who I was with, but yeah, I was like, and they saw the grease, like literally bounced out of the eye girl. So that's my story. Some I checked, my goodness paid my check in 11. So like, gosh, there's Ruby sunshine here, which I've heard is an amazing place to get some morning feed meals. I have not eaten there yet. There's 55 South, which has been featured on diners, drive ins and Jura, that food network television show. It's just a great Southern Americana food place. You have the grilled Cheesery near downtown, which is phenomenal. You have frothy monkey, which is a very, very awesome downtown or not downtown, just that Nashville very centric coffee shop. Yeah. And the thing about downtown Franklin that I love is they have incredible annual events. So one of their biggest events is called main street festival, which typically happens the last full weekend in April. And they shut down both main street and all these little side streets, and it's craft vendors, live music, local food, artisan made goods. It's just an incredible festival that happens in Franklin every year. But I would say their best attraction that happens every year is Dickens Christmas. And that typically happens either the second or third weekend in downtown Franklin.
35:54 So this one this is their 35th year that's doing Dickens. Christmas. It's going to be December 14th and 15th. This is run by the heritage foundation of Williamson County. Dickens of Christmas is a middle Tennessee's largest outdoor Christmas festival. The festival will recreate the time of Charles Dickens using historical downtown Franklins Victorian architecture as the backdrop to hundred musicians, dancers, characters will fill the streets, including several from Charles Dickens story. I'm reading straight off their website right now. If you had a game that by now expect to see and interact with the nefarious ghost of Christmas past, like the ghost. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Tiny Tim is going to be there. Oh, tiny Tim with his parents and of course a Victorian father and mother Christmas with treats for children.
36:49 It's fantastic. It's an amazing free event. And they sit, I think of the last time I looked at the numbers for Dickens Christmas, they estimate anywhere from 50 to a hundred thousand upwards, maybe till even 150,000 people come to this festival. Interesting.
37:04 Also been to a festival, I'm surprised that I haven't seen this on their website. There's a cars and coffee festival that happens every year in Franklin is in just right downtown in the main street. No, this one is actually a little bit closer to cool Springs and that Chick-Filet thing. But yeah, that's a pretty big festival that they have here. Probably not as big as all of these in the downtown area. But I'm sure there's a lot of just one off festivals that they have in various locations of Franklin.
37:34 Speaking of cool Springs, that is an area of Franklin. That's your primary shopping area. That's going to be your big box stores. Walmart, you have the mall there, you have another Chick-fil-A there. I think you have a movie theater there, so cool Springs. Everyone knows if you're living here in middle Tennessee know cool Springs is, we don't really have to explain the details behind that. There is one restaurant, I do want the chocolate but actually two restaurants I want to talk about in cool Springs. Bishop's meeting three which is incredible. It's right next to the Chick-fil-A in cool Springs. It's an incredible meeting. Three and bishops meet in three was the inspiration to start heavy B's hot chicken. Yeah. The B is Hattie Bishop, which is named either after the grandmother and the daughter of the current owners of Hattie B's and they started at Bishop's meat and three and then they got Hattie B's.
38:24 So if you're looking for hot chicken but you don't want to wait in Nashville lines drive down the Franklin literally drive the 15 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes to Franklin, go the bishops and you can get it almost immediately instead of waiting in line at heavy B's. That's an insider's tip. That one is for free for you guys. And then another one I want to talk about, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this correctly, yets Yates yachts, but it's a Cajun restaurant that's found in cool Springs and talk about gumbo. They have the best gumbo here in the city of Nashville. Aaron, you would love this place. I'm surprised I haven't seen it yet. Yeah, it's tucked away and like this little shopping districts. Okay. It's near like a Panera bread and cool Springs. It's kind of close to the mall, but like it's a great new Orleans style restaurant. You would love it.
39:13 Awesome. So if somebody has not been to Franklin yet and with you know, a lot of people moving to Nashville within the past, you know, few years, maybe the opportunity hasn't been presented to go down to Franklin and hang out. How would you suggest somebody get the feel of Franklin? What are a few things that they can do in order to experience this city?
39:37 First of all, if you need to experience the Natchez trace Parkway, that needs to be your first priority when you're visiting Franklin. And guess what? We have an entire episode, last Friday's episode about Natchez trace in the fall. So go over there and listen to that and learn about that. But if you want to experience Franklin and you need to experience in Natchez trace and then you do the Natchez trace and then you drive up highway 96 and you see that farm land, you see those big farmhouses, you see those ranches and then you understand that you are in Franklinton. I see. My favorite, my, one of my other favorite roads in Franklin, it's called old Hillsboro road. It's as amazing back road with a country drive, huge houses and it's just this amazing overview of what Franklin really is. And so then I would, I would start the Natchez trace Parkway drive highway down 96 park for free in one of the parking garages in downtown Franklin and walk around, walk inside the shops and then grab lunch at Grey's on main and there Brussels sprouts are the best Brussels sprouts in this city.
40:43 So definitely get their Brussels sprouts. They have an amazing burger. They have just really good food at grays. And then after that, after you've spent your time on main street, you need to come over here to the factory. This is the gem of Franklin especially in near downtown Franklin. Okay. If you're into history, definitely do the civil war stuff. If you're not into history, just drive on the properties and then go away because like they get into the history deep. But the factory here in Franklin is one of my favorite things. I'm, every time I come to Franklin, I have to stop at the factory. It was actually,
41:21 We were we were earlier our, our last trip to Franklin, we visited the Carter house and they actually have a really nice selection of books inside of the Carter house. Learn more about Franklin.
41:34 Oh yeah. So they have a huge book, the battle of Franklin five books called the battle of Franklin there. Yeah. Usually you have to, there's this particular one, I think it's written by David and so, and so that's the best one from what I've heard from everybody. So we will make sure to talk about those books when we bring on the historian for the battle of Franklin. And what, what would you show somebody here in Franklin if you had a guest visiting? So I think just walking around, yeah,
42:03 Downtown is a really good way to, if, if you're from a city and you'd never experienced small town America you know, park and walk around downtown eh, drive around Franklin for a minute and then park and walk downtown.
42:18 Go deeper here to meet the friendliest people you'll ever meet in this entire way.
42:21 People will want to talk to you. And also there's, I, I forgot there's a mellow mushroom downtown you, after you're looking for a pizza, you can stop by and get some pizza if you wish. But that's kind of a, if it's a nice day outside, just go and walk around throughout their downtown. Eat local. Yeah. Eat some, some local food, do some local shopping. Now small town America is usually not as tour centric and shopping centric as Franklin is. Franklin is definitely on the heavy side for that. But you know, that's what comes out of one of the wealthiest cities in the wealthiest counties in the United States. But it's a pretty cool mix to see that kind of economic development with the small town American field. Absolutely. And so I would do that and you know, definitely 100% go and visit these places where the civil war battles have taken place to understand the historical context of Franklin, these, these kinds of tours. They do two things. They help you understand the context of the land that you're standing on as well as you get the, the history of a town. In a nutshell. Pretty quickly.
43:32 Yes. In 90 minutes. 60 minutes tours. Yep.
43:34 Yeah. And, and so, you know, I think the more you can understand the place where you are you know, kind of walking around, the better you're going to understand even things that may be downtown. You might see old historical plaques, monumental thing houses that are still there from pre civil war times or right after civil war times. And you'll be able to understand the context of, you know, who owned that house and see some pretty cool stuff along the way. So a walking downtown would be my number one recommendation and then going to see these historical sites in Franklin I think would be number two. [inaudible]
44:09 If you are walking downtown, make sure to be wearing some comfortable clothes cause they can get hot in the summertime here in Franklin. I've made that mistake once or twice wearing complete dress clothes and walking, doing a walking tour in downtown Franklin. And it was right. It's all concrete. Oh yeah. It was rough. Yeah. So make sure to go tweet us at X PLR. Underscore Nash. What is your favorite thing about Franklin? We want your tweets. We'll, we'll share them. Instagram, us. We Instagrams at the instance of Graham's X PLR dot. Me the socials. Yeah, we do the socials at the social things. And we're also on Facebook X plr.net and we're on YouTube X PLR dot. Nash seem to be take soccer. I don't know. Especially, I don't know if that China breach. I don't understand. I don't know. We'll figure that out. Any closing thoughts for today?
45:04 No. let us know if you check out Franklin let us know what you like about Franklin via Twitter
45:11 And go to definitely make a opportunity to go to Dickens Christmas.
45:14 Yeah, absolutely. All right guys. We hope you have a, had a great day so far. Hope you're rested. You have, your day is better and we will see you again tomorrow.