36 Hours in Nashville

Friday

1) Check in to the Hutton Hotel

The Hutton Hotel hallways smells like toilet. It’s unmistakable.  But still, this is the place to stay, Nashville’s newest green hotel. It has a boutique feel, with overly friendly staff, French soaps, super comfy beds, free wi-fi, a rain shower, and warm cookies and milk waiting for you in the room. It’s the kind of place where they treat you like a real dandy, but in a good way. The restaurant is great — friendly, affordable. The bar closes at 2 a.m., but if you need more time to close your deal, $40 will keep it open until 4.

2) Fucking Check Yourself

Um, you’re in the South. Nashville is host to places like Belle Meade, a private country club that in its 107-year history has only had one black member.  But for real, it ain’t that different than most other small cities around the country. Just saying. The other thing to keep in mind is that although you’ll be inundated with terrible pop-country music and suicide-inducing adult contemporary, the best music, like everywhere else in the world, lies just beneath the surface.

3) Visit the Frist

(No, not Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist—you know, the dick who wanted to keep Terri Schiavo alive—but his brother Thomas.) This is the art museum in Nashville. You can walk here from the hotel. I guess it’s hit or miss since they don’t have a permanent collection, but what I saw was great. The building, a renovated post office, is awesome, pristinely renovated art deco. There is also, supposedly, an abandoned firing range in the basement.

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