Passing thru

As I said in the previous posting we are "on the road" or "in the air" for four weekends. The first trip was to LA and this past weekend was a driving trip to Nashville, TN. Briefly here is a report.
The first night in Nashville we ate at "Macke's" 4009 Hillsboro Pike". The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor of a building in a shopping center. Decor is a mix of outdoor Southern, plants and white chairs, and old fashioned high end, dark wood and subdued lighting. In my opinion it doesn't mix. The food was satisfactory, a split iceberg wedge salad, which was quite small, and a seafood Paella with little rice and a pleasant mixture of seafood. The outstanding attribute, to me, was the fact that there is no bartender, measuring out drink, the wait staff does it all, and by the middle of the second Bombay I was feeling "no pain".
The next day we took in the Chihuly exhibit at "Cheekwood", the English Manor house built by the Cheek family in the early 1930's, from stone brought from England. The Cheek family was in the coffee business and their brand was "Maxwell House". Lunch at the gift shop restaurant, "The Pineapple Grill' was excellent. My "Fried Green Tomato salad" had 3 large tomato slices on a bed of greens with both coated pecans and goat cheese tossed in. The dressing was a light citrus vinaigrette with a beautiful strong fresh citrus flavor.
Dinner before the Nashville Symphony Orch. concert was at "Bricktop" West End Ave. An attractive Bar and Booth set up. The table shared an order of devil eggs and sweet grilled bacon slabs, seasoned with either a brown sugar rub or maple syrup, and done perfectly, crisp but still chewy. My dinner, two sizable, back fin lump crab cakes, with little filler, and buttered steamed spinach couldn't have been lighter or nicer.
On the drive back to Cincinnati, the next day, breakfast was at "The Waffle House", not light, a pecan waffle and hash browns, crispy and greasy, with button mushrooms and sauteed onions. We had been told the "Cracker Barrel" had chicken pot pie and so stopped, only to find that it is only a special on Wednesday. Not to waste the late lunch hour I had a fried catfish sandwich, with good cole slaw and Marilyn a BLT, also with the slaw.
Saturday night after wine and spreads, at a friends house, 6 of us went to "Grand Finale" 2 East Sharon Road, Cincinnati( Glendale) OH 513-771-5925. The place was full and so was I, from what had been ingested all day. The table, as the evening before, shared a plate of 3 halved deviled eggs, not as good and twice the cost, of Bricktops". I ordered a friend oyster appetizer with cocktail sauce and was served 5 oysters on a bed of heavy, clinging, tarter sauce. The BLT wedge was satisfactory but probably do to my days activities I was less than enthusiastic.
Last night was better. After two, bartender made Bombay's, much less alcohol than the two at "Macke's" and a table splitting order of fried Calamari, which I topped with fresh lemon juice, I was served, professionally. a prime rib sandwich( 8 oz) medium rare and a large stack of thin french fries done crispy, as requested.
This recap will probably be it until we return from Asheville, NC.