Living Our Dream

Nashville Part III: Greek Architecture and Tennessee Barbecue

Ashland City, TN - Events of Tuesday, July 24, 2012

When we were finished touring Fontanel Mansion, we headed about 20 miles south of Nashville to Nolansville, TN for a late lunch at Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint, which was featured on Triple D. On the way, we made a short side trip to visit the Parthenon. No, we didn't put pontoons on our car and sail to Greece. Nashville has a full-size replica of the Parthenon located in Centennial Park. The replica was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.

Because one of Nashville's nicknames is Athens of the South (presumably because it has so many colleges and universities and is a city of learning like Athens in ancient Greece), many buildings of the exposition were based on buildings of ancient Greece. However, the Parthenon is the only one that was a full-size replica, so it was the only one that was not torn down after the exposition. In case you're wondering, Nashville's other nickname is Music City.

Nashville's Parthenon

Nashville's Parthenon was not intended to be permanent, so it was originally built of wood, plaster and brick. It was kept in place after the centennial exposition because of its immense popularity. After about 20 years, the Parthenon had suffered serious deterioration from the weather, so it was demolished and rebuilt starting in 1920 from concrete on the original foundations. The exterior was completed in 1925, and the interior was completed in 1931.

Today, the Parthenon functions as an art museum with a collection of 63 paintings from the 1800s and 1900s on permanent display and with various traveling art exhibits. Also on display are reproductions and castings of several ancient Greek sculptures. It was getting late and we were very hungry, so we decided not to pay the $6 admission fee ($4 for seniors) to go inside. Instead we were content to look at the reproductions of the sculptures on the outside.

Detail of exterior sculptures

As we said, our real destination was Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint in Nolansville. Martin's is another barbecue restaurant that does whole hog barbecue. Unlike Scott's where we went recently near Jackson, TN that only had pulled pork, Martin's also has ribs, brisket, chicken and turkey.

Martin's Bar-B-Que

Inside Martin's Bar-B-Que

Margery had a half rack of ribs served dry with sauce on the side ($12). She also had hand-cut fries and slaw. Paul decided on a pulled pork plate with potato salad and slaw ($10). Sandwiches range in price from $4 to $6.

Ribs and pulled pork

The ribs were tender enough, but not quite fall-off-the-bone tender. The dry rub was a little heavy on rosemary for our taste, but ribs were nice and smoky and meaty. The sauce was very good - tart and sweet at the same time. The pork was smoky, tender and moist; but Paul thought the portion was a little skimpy for the $10 price.

That evening back at the motor home, we decided we needed to go for a walk to burn off some of our big barbecue lunch. We ended up down by the river again at the boat launch. The level of the water was down a about a foot from where it was a few nights before when we were there, and a little more of the boat ramp was exposed. Unfortunately, the part that was exposed was wet and slippery. Guess who got to close to the slippery part and ended up getting wet.

Margery got too close to the wet, slippery part of the boat ramp

Paul rushed to Margery's aid. Well, he didn't actually rush because he took time for a photo as soon as he was sure she wasn't hurt and wasn't going to slip deeper into the water. He also didn't want to rush too fast for fear of falling himself. Fortunately, Margery wasn't seriously hurt. The expression on her face in the above photo is one of disgust at getting wet rather than an expression of pain. She had a few scrapes on her knee, a wet butt, and a couple of bruises - one to her knee and one to her dignity.

We took the following couple of days to relax around the motor home, then departed for our next destination on Friday. We'll tell you where that was in our next post.

Memphis, TN 2009

We stopped in Memphis just about this time last year. We liked Memphis and we heard the BBQ calling us, so we decided to stop again this year on our way south and east. We stayed at the same campground - Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park located in West Memphis, AR, across the Mississippi River from Memphis, TN. Tom Sawyer's RV is located right on the river and has full hookup sites with 50-amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The roads are gravel, all the sites are pull-throughs, and most of the pads are paved. The photo below shows this year's site at Tom Sawyer's RV Park. Last year, we had the site to the immediate right.

As you can see, there were puddles along the road. The Memphis area, along with much of the South, has had a lot of rain this year. Maybe that's the reason the campground has lost a lot of the grass that used to be between the sites. There were many bare, muddy areas, especially along the edges of the pads and around the utilities. That made it hard to hook up the utilities, to get into the outside storage bays, and to find a place for our dog Molly to go when we took her out.

It rained heavily the night before we arrived, and the rear of our pad was covered with mud that had washed onto the concrete. We got out our hose and washed off as much mud as we could to make it easier to unhook the car. It rained every day we were there but one. We got some standing water on our pad from all the subsequent rain, but no more mud.

One of the reasons we like Memphis is there are a lot of things to see and do. Last year, we spent 9 days in the area, and we were out sightseeing almost every day. We saw botanic gardens, rode the trolley around the city, (Click HERE to read post) saw 5 or 6 museums (Click HERE to read post) and ate out three times. This year, however, with our ambitious summer travel schedule that took us all the way to the Pacific Northwest and with mostly cloudy weather with a chance of rain every day, we decided to spend much of our time in the Memphis area relaxing.

While we relaxed, we watched the barges go up and down the river. We had again reserved an extra-cost, front-row site at the campground so we could see the barges from our front window.

And what better way is there to help us relax than to eat out and not have to cook? We both like barbecue, and we found several good barbecue joints in Memphis last year. Click here to read the post. Although we stayed in Memphis only four days this time, we ate out two of those days.

Our first stop was for a late lunch at The Bar B Q Shop located at 1782 Madison Ave. in Memphis, a Diners, Drive Ins and Dives feature.

We both had chopped pork sandwich platters with fries and slaw. The pork was nice and moist with a smoky flavor, and it was piled so high on the buns we couldn't pick our sandwiches up. The barbecue sauce is thick, rich, tangy, and not too sweet. We both like slaw on our barbecue sandwiches, and the slaw at the Bar B Q Shop provides a nice crunch and a sweet contrast to the somewhat tart barbecue sauce. In the next photo, Paul is getting ready to dive in to his meal.

The service at the Bar B Q Shop is prompt and friendly. The next photo shows our server Carl, who was the same server we had when we were there last year. You can tell by his smile he is just a real pleasant guy.

The next day, we went to Leonard's Pit Barbecue for lunch. Leonard's has a lunch and dinner buffet every day, but they only have ribs on the lunch buffet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since we both wanted ribs, we went on Thursday. Leonard's Pit Barbecue is shown in the photo below.

In addition to pulled pork and wet and dry-rub ribs, Leonard's had fried catfish, chicken, and roast beef on their buffet. They also have assorted sides like green beans, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, ranch fries, hush puppies, as well as assorted desserts like red velvet cake, chocolate cake, and Key lime pie. In the next photo, Paul is loading up his plate with dry-rub ribs.

Leonard's barbecue sauce is dark, thick, rich, and a little sweeter than the sauce at the Bar B Q Shop. Paul was a little disappointed in the ribs this year. He thought they weren't as flavorful and smoky as he remembered them being last year. The catfish and roast beef, however, were outstanding.

While in the Memphis area, we made time for a Walmart run. Well, we actually had to make three stops at Walmart because we kept forgetting things. We spent the rest of our time in the Memphis area chilling out. From Memphis, we continued our way east and south. We'll let you know where we land in our next post.

Memphis Part III: More Museums and Barbecue

The rain from the remnants of hurricane Gustav had abated, but it was still a dreary day...a good day for another museum. We  headed out to the Fire Museum of Memphis, which is located in the historic Engine House No. 1 in downtown Memphis.

There is a collaborative effort between the Memphis Fire Department and the museum to educate the public on fire safety, to commemorate the sacrifice and contribution of firefighters, and to preserve the rich history of firefighting.

There is a sculpture in the courtyard before entering the museum. The caption over the sculpture reads "The Bell Rang, and We Answered." Beside the sculpture are the names of Memphis firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The first thing Paul saw when we entered the museum was the display of old fire helmets. Being a retiree of MSA (which now also owns Cairns), he immediately scanned the display for examples of MSA and Cairns helmets.

 

The helmets on display are older and are not made anymore because standards have changed to provide improved protection. Today, MSA/Cairns Fire Helmets provide the best in up-to-date protection for all types of firefighting.

There were quite a few helmets in the group that were made by either MSA or Cairns, but Paul wasn't familiar with most of those in the display made by Cairns because they were made long before MSA bought Cairns. The MSA Topgard, however, was still in production when Paul started working for MSA in 1977, and he worked on this product back in the day. In this closer view, #6, #7, #9 (partially visible), and #20 are MSA Topgard Fire Helmets; #8 and #21 are Cairns helmets; and #19 and #22 are Cairns aluminum helmets.

 

The Fire Museum also has quite a few pieces of old firefighting equipment. Water Tower No. 1 was purchased new by the Memphis Fire Department in 1897. The tower, which is on the trailer, raises to 60 feet and has a "crow's nest" and hose nozzles mounted at the top. The original tower was horse-drawn. The rig was updated several times, and the 1934 Pirsch tractor shown in the photo below replaced the previous tractor in 1956.

 

Another example of an early type of fire equipment at the museum is a 1910 Crump Steamer. A fire under the boiler creates steam, which in turn, drives a pump that draws water from a source such as a pond or cistern and delivers it to the fire hose.

 

There were also a number of old fire trucks that you could climb into and around. In the photo below, Paul is clowning around with a toy fire helmet in the driver's seat of a fire truck.

They also had some interactive displays about fire safety, smoke alarms, and an escape maze for kids to practice crawling out of various rooms.

After the Fire Museum, we stopped at the National Ornamental Metal Museum. The Metal Museum, which opened in 1979, is dedicated to the art and craft of fine metalwork. The museum has a permanent collection, a sculpture garden, special exhibits, and a metal-working shop. They not only display ornamental metal, but they create it and restore it as well.

Throughout the museum and grounds, there are examples decorative wrought iron such as the panel shown in the photo below.

Outside, there were several fences made up of sections with varying designs.

 

Check out this ornamental stairway to nowhere. The balusters all have different designs. There is a metal cow skull at the top.

The ironwork for the pavilion shown in the photo below was salvaged and restored from a building from the mid 1800s from historic Beale Street in Memphis.

 

Here is another view from the pavilion looking out over the Mississippi.

 

One of the sculptures in the garden was this truck complete with a barbecue grill on the back and a picnic table.

 

Finally, on the way out of the Ornamental Museum, we stopped to admire the gate. Metal artists from all over the world were invited to send ornamental rosettes to add to the huge wrought iron gates.

Memphis is another one of those special places that is known for barbecue. Memphis is probably best known for its dry-rub ribs, but they also have excellent ribs with wet sauce and pulled or chopped pork, too.

The dry rubs vary from cook to cook, but they generally contain paprika, garlic, onions, cumin, and other spices. As with barbecue everywhere, the best cooks have at least one "secret" ingredient. The dry spice mix is rubbed on the ribs, then the ribs are slow-smoked resulting in ribs that are deliciously tender inside with a crunchy crust outside. Dry rub ribs are typically served with sauce on the side.

Memphis barbecue sauce is made from tomatoes, vinegar, and spices. It usually isn't too thick and isn't as sweet as Kansas City sauce. The sauce is used on wet ribs, on pulled pork, and served along side dry ribs.

Memphis has hundreds of barbecue joints. We could have easily had barbecue twice a day every day we were there, but our budget and waist-lines couldn't take it. Therefore, we researched barbecue reviews on Google and picked three that were consistently reviewed by diners at 5 stars.

The first barbecue restaurant we tried was the Bar B Q Shop Restaurant. The link will take you to the web site for their barbecue sauce and dry rub which are marketed under the Dancing Pigs name, but the restaurant itself is located at 1782 Madison Avenue just to the east of downtown.

The restaurant is much bigger than it looks from the outside. Service is friendly and prices were reasonable. We both opted for a chopped pork sandwich with fries and cole slaw. The sandwiches were served with cole slaw on top and just about the right amount of sauce (although there is a bottle on the table if you want more). The sauce was tart with just a hint of sweetness. It wasn't too thin, which means it didn't have a tendency to run off the sandwich. The meat had a smoky flavor. The fries were nice and crunchy and the cole slaw on the side was also good.

For our second barbecue stop, we went to Leonard's Pit Barbecue. Leonard's was featured on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. In 1922, founder Leonard Heuberger traded a Model T for a 7-stool lunch stand in South Memphis. In 1932, he moved to Bellvue Avenue; and, over the years, he enlarged the restaurant several times. In the '40s and '50s, Leonard's was the world's largest drive-in barbecue restaurant with 20 carhops serving the patrons who parked under canopies.

Today, they have a sit-down restaurant at a new location. Gone are the canopies and carhops.

Leonard's serves a lunch buffet from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM daily at a price of $9.75, except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when they have ribs on the buffet and the price is $12.00. We went on a Tuesday because Margery was hungry for ribs.

The buffet was delicious and included wet and dry ribs, pulled pork, barbecued chicken, fried catfish, several types of potatoes, cole slaw, beans (green and barbecued), rolls, cornbread, and desserts. When we go for a big lunch like that, we usually go later and make it supper as well (or "lupper" as we sometimes call it).

This was the first time either of us had tried dry rub ribs, and we loved them. They aren't as messy to eat as wet ribs, even if you add sauce, and they are crunchy. The sauce was darker red than the Bar B Q Shop, but it was still somewhat tart and not too sweet. The catfish was light with a crunchy breaded crust. All the sides were also great, as was the chocolate cake and warm peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert.

For our third barbecue, we went to Tom's Bar B Q and Deli, which was also featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Paul liked the fact that it looked like a barbecue joint and you could smell smoke outside.

 

Tom's serves deli sandwiches in addition to barbecue and ribs, but we were after barbecue. We both had pork barbecue sandwiches, fries, and sweet tea. Unlike the Bar B Q Shop and Leonard's which are sit-down restaurants, Tom's is served more like fast food. You order at the counter, get your meal in a bag, pay at the register, and then find a table.

The pork was very tender, but not quite as smoky as what we had at the Bar B Q Shop. We both like plenty of sauce on our barbecue, but Paul thought there was a little too much at Tom's, which made the sandwiches very sloppy to eat. But that's the way barbecue is sometimes, and there are plenty of napkins available. The sauce was dark red, tart, thick, and a little sweeter than both the Bar B Q Shop and Leonard's; but it certainly wasn't too sweet. The fries, which are prepared ahead of time and kept under a warming light, weren't real hot; but they were still nice and crisp. In the South, sweet tea is just that - real sweet, and Tom's sweet tea certainly lived up to its name.

Afterward, we tried to decide which restaurant we liked best; but we couldn't pick one that was best because we thought they were all great. There were differences, but in our opinion, you wouldn't go wrong with any of them.

We had a final day in West Memphis with nothing major planned before heading to our next destination. As usual, we did some chores and relaxed. The sun finally broke through later in the day and we spent a little time sitting and watching the boats on the river. Next stop is the Tiffin Plant in Red Bay, AL, to have some work done on the motor home.