In my post on East Nashville a couple of days ago, I described the various waves of immigrants moving into Nashville as resulting in it becoming sort of a "mixed salad of a city" where the differing nationalities have, rather than developing their own separate neighborhoods, wound up integrating into the general population, both assimilating into the groups already there, and at the same time managing to hold onto many of the traditions and customs of their native lands resulting in an incredible diversity of peoples in a very small area. One of the parts of town where I think this diversity is most easily seen is actually the area that I live in, the area known variously as Woodbine, Flatrock, and Berry Hill. (Ok, true natives will correctly point out that each of these actually originally designated separate areas, but for today's purpose just go with me.)
Now some wags have dismissively characterized this area as "Little Mexico" because the first real wave of immigrants to move in were Hispanic, but to do so truly dismisses and overlooks the truly diverse neighborhood this area has become. Within an area of just a few square miles you have peoples descended from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Mexico, various African countries, various Asian countries, and many many others. Truly this area has become the "melting pot" that all of America is supposed to be. And, as I noted on Monday, it hasn't always been easy, incorporating peoples from all of these diverse backgrounds, figuring out ways to live together and respect both our sameness as people and our differences, but for the most part I have to say that the process seems to have happened with a minimum of real incident. Now for those of you living in places like New York, this type of integration may not seem all that remarkable, but what you have to keep in mind is that we're talking about a southern town that less than fifty years ago decided to close (and in some cases fill with concrete) its city pools rather than be forced to allow blacks to swim with the white folk.
Anyway, one of the results of all of this immigration and integration is the diversity of restaurants and markets that have not only opened up, but seem to thrive in this area. After all, if there is anything that a person moving to a new place can bring with them to help themselves feel more at home it is the food of their native land. And at the same time, if they have to rely purely on their fellow immigrants to stay in business, then they are going to have a hard time of it. That's why for today's post I decided to take just a small area of Nashville, the area I've been talking about, and take a look at all the different eateries, restaurants, markets and even a few bars that can be found within just a few miles of each other.
Ok, so here's the basic set-up: I decided to use as my starting point the intersection at the bottom of this hill:
Locals, I'm sure, will recognize this as the intersection of Nolensville Rd and Thompson Lane. I chose this intersection partly because it's a good central point in the area radiating out pretty much in a basic north-south east-west pattern and partly because it allowed me to set some pretty basic endpoint demarcations for my travels. From there I decided to head in each direction and just see what culinary prospects awaited, taking pictures all along the way. Fairly arbitrarily I decided to set myself a limit of three miles in any given direction, and actually except for heading south on Nolensville, it really was two or less. Now for the most part I skipped the McDonald's/Burger King/Hardees type fast food places, (though I did include some of the larger chain eateries such as Logan's and Papa John's because after all they, too, are part of the food landscape) simply because they are everywhere and including them all would have meant expanding this even further.
So what did I find? Well, let's just say that I wound up with so many pictures that, as noted in the title, this actually became part one of two. What you'll see below (and in part two, which I'll post in a day or two) are not all of the pictures that I took, but I think they'll give you a pretty good idea of both the culinary and cultural diversity that has brought so much to this city that I grew up in and that I continue to love. And maybe they'll help those who think of nothing more than country music and rednecks when they think of Nashville to realize that we have become so much more.
Ok, on with the pictures. I'm not going to do much narration with these because I think they pretty well speak for themselves. Enjoy!
(Oh, and just click on any picture to embiggen it!)
Update: click here for part two.
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