Kimberly Beaman

I managed to write this blog post after three hours of sleep.  My darling baby girl was up almost every hour crying.  In retrospect, I should have taken a nap instead of writing a blog post mid morning.  Yet, I felt drawn to writing and could not resist the urge.

In a previous blog post regarding Nashville, I asked myself and readers, “What is a “boutique” restaurant?”  All along I conjured up thoughts of a restaurant that offered designer clothing, trendy jewelry in glass cases and lovely scarves.  I imagined myself dining in Nashville, smelling good ole’ country cooking while gazing at the items for sale.  Well, as it turns out, I found out yesterday from a fellow blogger, Natasha, that “boutique” is simply a fancy word for a non chain restaurant.  It was sort of funny and sad at the same time when I read this email.  In Maitland, Florida my current home town, we are surrounded by small chain restaurants and larger chain restaurants.  I began to wonder, where are the boutique restaurants?  Then I realized we do have a select few.  My favorites in the Central Florida area are White Wolf Cafe,  Dandelion Cafe and Infusion Tea Shop.   It dawned on me that my perception of a “boutique” restaurant  with food and trendy items for sale is a reality.  Infusion tea shop located in College Park, Florida has teas, delicious lunch items and a shop that benefits local artists.  Dandelion is a showstopper, well at least in my bohemian dream it is.  Dandelion offers all vegan and vegetarian food options.  Even the average carnivore enjoys their food.  So in conclusion, I am glad to know that Nashville has a growing trend of  boutique restaurants.

Okay back to the search on mysteries of Nashville.  Today I reviewed a few more blogs looking for clues to unlock the mysteries of what Nashville has to offer.  I came across a blog called “Live What You Love” from Jess.  This unique, hippy loving lady detailed her decision to move back to Nashville.  She ended up accepting a job in her favorite coffee shop “Crema”.  I can tell by reading her blog post that Crema is one of a kind and has quite the reputation.  So the mystery of where to go for the best coffee is probably solved.

Sometime I wonder what it would be like to shop for antiques and possibly one day furnish our home with antiques.  So it was with great enthusiasm that I ran across a blog post which highlights the Antique Mall Shopping experience called “Aubergine Moon”.  It appears to be one of the top antique stores.  Mystery solved there.

And last, but not least I came across a blogger named Jen from her site called “Happily Ever After”  Jen expressed great enthusiasm about a new restaurant which opens up this weekend in Nashville called “Etch”.  Lucky girl got a sneak preview of the gourmet food on August 29th.  A cool tidbit about this restaurant is it serves something called “Semifreddo” (pronounced [semiˈfredːo], Italian: half cold).  It is a class of semi-frozen desserts typically ice-cream cakes, semi-frozen custards, and certain fruit tarts. YUM!

I am beginning to realize, that Nashville has so much to offer.  It is not just a music city.  I can definitely spend a day, a week, a month, a year enjoying semifreddo, sipping a latte from “Crema”, antique shopping and dining at boutique restaurant(s).  One can only dream.

Quote of the day: Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”