Friday, July 20, 2007

Excellent service at Eastland Cafe


Before the Levon Helm concert the other day, my parents, my wife and I had happy hour drinks, appetizers and dinner at the Eastland Cafe (97 Chapel Ave, 615.627.1088) and once again I was reminded how much I love this place and the food is only part of the reason.

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I am not a restaurant critic, though I love to eat and I do know what's what in the kitchen. The reason I'm writing this is to let everyone know that I have yet to have anything but a superb experience there. I am a stickler for customer service. One thing about Eastland Cafe is that everytime I've gone, every server, everyone who took the order, everyone who mixed the drinks and every chef who cooked the food has been extremely friendly and seemingly pleased that I chose to go there. I have to stop and remember if I know some of these people because they treat me like they've known me forever. That's a place I want to spend my money at. It doesn't take that much effort.

Our server the first time we ate there was (and excuse me if I spell this incorrectly) Darreth. She was really patient and helpful when we were tring to decide on what wine to drink. We aren't connoisseurs so we're a little slow at it. We just described the kind of taste we wanted and she suggested the exact wine. It was awesome. We sat outside in the back patio, it was a little early so we had the place to ourselves...but instead of disappearing as servers can, Darreth was always there when or before we needed her. The items she suggested were out of this world.

I have not had any less of an experience since and so far, and the food is heavenly. The happy hour is a great time to go because they have drinks for $5 and appetizers for $5. We went one time as a group of five, got one of everything on the appetizer menu and had so much fun trying the different items. When we got the bill it was no more than going out to some regular old eatery, but we tasted the time and effort that they put into their menu. So there you go...it's a great place to spend your money.

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Pig-Lee or Pig-i-lee???

So how do YOU pronounce it?

A few weeks ago, I pronounced the Piggly Wiggly on Gallatin Rd D.O.A. It stunk like rotten meat, it was dirty and there was no rhyme or reason or harmony to the array of cut rate food choices they peddled. There name had gone from the PIG to IGA but now...

The Piggly is Wigglin back to us. Hit it to read more....

Imagine my suprise when I walked in on Monday, July 16th to grab some burrito fixins (yup...I went to Piggly and said fixins) and immediately upon entering, I was not hit in the nose with the smell of a rotten cow carcass shoved in the blowhole of a rotted whale. Instead, the best smell of all greeted me...the kind of smell you want when you enter a grocery store...NO SMELL at all.

The aisles were CLEAN! The food choices on the shelves were lined up in a military uniformity and there was a GREAT NEW GARDEN SECTION. Now, we aren't talking Whole Foods here, but c'mon...this Piggly went to market.

And another thing...the young cashier was FAST and very courteous...THAT was very refreshing.

So "Oink and Huzzah" to the Piggly Wiggly on Gallatin Rd, next to Cat's Music. You did an about face...or snout...that will bring me back again when I need to make a quick stop on the way home.

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Welcome to the first post of the rest of your money....

Welcome to Hoodspenders, the East Nashville/Inglewood space to talk about all the places you can spend your money in East Nashville and Inglewood. Be it a small, locally owned trinket cart, to the big chain store (hello, Home Depot), this is our place to rant, rave, warn, praise, bitch, snitch, leak, and peak at the places in town that residents of town and visitors can spend their hard-earned, and getting harder to hold onto dollar bills, y'all.

If you had an excellent experience at, say, "I Dream of Weenie" or you had a horrible customer service experience at Kroger (go figure) of East Nashville or Inglewood, write in, let us know, and your story will appear right here, letting the rest of us know that it's safe or not to drop some cash there. We can keep your name anonymous if you so desire

Also, we will be doing reviews and profiles of places you can spend your money in East Nashville and Inglewood. New businesses, old established places, you name it, we blog it. We welcome any of those that someone wants to mail in too.

This is the initial post, so the look may change but the idea is there. We ask that if you have taken any photos of the area, let us know, we can use them...any other ideas you may have, let us know. It's wide-open right now, babies.

So please subscribe to the feed and write in at your leisure and keep an eye out for new posts. Write HERE and let us know what you think or just leave a comment.

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