“Bastion is still just as good”
We had raved about Bastion, a tiny restaurant in Nashville, to Denny and Anne several times. They were attending a carwash convention there this week, and suggested we join them for dinner. I made the reservation exactly one month in advance, as necessary to get in, and we have been looking forward to revisiting for a while now. More on that experience shortly.
The latest car wash in the Ogan empire opened Monday in Gentilly. Then Denny and Anne flew to Nashville to celebrate. They had been concerned that city approvals were going to cause delays and impact our trip. Here’s a local councilman reading a grand opening proclamation.
Hotels were exorbitantly expensive this week, and so I booked a “Nashville Riverfront Loft”. This worked out very well, with lots of extra space and a great location – half a block of Broadway.
Interestingly, there is a unique Taco Bell across the street – apparently has a special food and drink menu. Didn’t have a chance to check it out.
After check-in, we met up with Denny and Anne for a tapas lunch and to sample some music at the honky-tonk bars on Broadway.
The Ogans were busy on Tuesday night with carwash stuff, and so Diana and I had dinner at an old favourite – the Butcher and Bee in East Nashville. The whipped feta with honey is so delicious. Not sure if Diana thought her champagne was more delicious? We couldn’t resist the strawberry pavlova – a pretty faithful rendition with a creative twist.
After dinner, the carwash festivities were still underway at the Wild Horse Saloon (conveniently right next to our loft), and so we joined Denny and Anne for some shuffleboard games and were able to meet the carwash partners.
After some work on Wednesday morning, McD and I went for a walk across the bridge over the Cumberland river to check out the football stadium. It was certainly starting to warm up as we took in the sites and enjoyed the riverside stroll.
It really is impressive to have the football stadium right next to downtown, and easily accessible with the pedestrian bridge.
I even learned a little history of Nashville on the walk.
While we were walking, the Ogans were touring the Glen Campbell museum – Anne really enjoyed it, with Denny commenting on having to read every little sign. They shared pictures of Campbell’s Scottish outfit.
We enjoyed a casual Taco Deli lunch and discussed what to do next. Denny found the Nashville Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), right under where we were enjoying lunch. This was an outstanding museum – one of the best that I can remember visiting. The use of technology, the variety of exhibits, and the interactive opportunities were all excellent. We were issued wrist bands on entry that were used to record many of our activities. An email later shared all the songs you had listened to, beats you had created and more.
Here are some more of the interesting things in the museum – including a Louis Armstrong trumpet, and pictures of the first brass bands:
And here’s one of the most interesting sights I saw, Diana and Anne following along to dance moves through the years:
After the museum, we visited a rooftop bar and then freshened up and changed for dinner.
Anne had been given the action item to find the secret code to gain entry to the “Red Phone Booth” speakeasy bar. She completed that with the concierge at the hotel with the rooftop. So we needed to make that stop before dinner.
I think the code was a complete ruse, as there was no dialtone on the phone – suspect they just look on the camera and decide if they want to let you in. It is clever how the backside of the phone booth opens for entry. The place was lovely inside – lots of wood, comfy leather sofas, and a great cigar and drink selection.
Now it was finally time for the main reason for the trip. Dinner at Bastion.
Here’s the menu for the evening:
Six courses with wine pairings – although several courses had multiple items involved – I think it was really thirteen separate dishes. The first course was four appetizers – all great, and I think the group consensus was with the oyster.
So many things to love about this restaurant – wonderful food, creative presentation, the pride which accompanies the description of the food as the chefs deliver it, and the detailed explanations of the wonderful wine pairings.
The raw course was a delight – everyone raving about the scallops.
The pasta dish in the veggie course was Denny’s favourite. It was an explosion of flavours in your mouth.
The salmon was beautifully cooked, with a yummy pumpkin seed sauce.
The duck might have been my favourite – perfectly cooked with another great sauce.
Dessert and the excellent wine pairing were a terrific end to a wonderful meal.
Chef was playing one of our favourite albums as we finished, and so we retired to the little bar to listen some more.
Whew – that was a busy day!
We had a relaxing, long lunch at Etch on Thursday as we killed time before our flight home. Another very good Nashville restaurant.
Back home the magnolias are blooming nicely. Can you see my red bird friend in the middle. I whistle his song to him every morning.
I followed Finn to Tony’s car detail place on Saturday morning. Tony is going to finish up protective coating that Will wants on the paint – ran out of time to finish before the car was shipped here. We enjoyed a nice coffee in downtown Plano after drop off.
We had an early walk on Sunday morning – our later start on Saturday was a bit too hot for both of us. After the walk I enjoyed a swim and picked up some new books from the library for my travels next week.
Some other interesting things from the week – Ollie earned his therapy dog certificate:
And my job made it into the puzzle as “data head”:
I had a good day on the puzzle yesterday, breaking five minutes, but lost to D by 5 seconds today.
My book this week was “Memphis” by Tara M. Stringfellow. I enjoyed the last part of the jacket biography:
“Poet, former attorney, and Northwestern University MFA graduate Tara M. Stringfellow has written for… After having lived in Okinawa, Ghana, Chicago, Cuba, Spain, Italy, and Washington, DC, she moved back home to Memphis, where she sits on her porch swing every evening with her hound, Huckleberry, listening to records and chatting with neighbors.”
Here’s a summary of the book – there’s a lot going on in every chapter, bouncing through generations and incorporating reactions to historical events like the MLK assassination and September 11th:
“Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.
Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.”
An example of some of the descriptive narrative, capturing Memphis and the South:
“The beginning of fall in the South was something to behold. The summer heat – a slow moving tornado – had finally left the area. Nights were a pleasant cool. We could sit on the front porch unbothered because there were fewer bees, fewer birds, fewer cats even. Magnolias in Memphis, including the big one in the backyard, had blossomed their last flowers. The plum tree alongside the house had dropped its last fruit some time ago, but the area around the tree base was still stained indigo. The dogwoods and maples and cherry trees lining Poplar Avenue had a slight touch of corn husk yellow as if God had placed dabs of butter on each leaf, so that when a breeze caught, the trees ignited in soft flame. Fall in the South meant Midas came down and touched everything. The trees seemed to be made of gold itself. Leaves became copper coins catching in the wind.”
A key theme of the novel, is Joan’s love of art and her desire to do only that as a career. Here she receives support from her Aunt August:
“”I can sing,” she said, exhaling a plume of cigarette smoke, then taking another puff. “You’ve heard me before. Don’t do it that often. Folk pass out. Once, years back, at your mama’s wedding, man fainted in a back pew. Had to be carried out. Hadn’t even noticed. Just went on singing Aretha in a way I do doubt Aretha could do it. But I never did anything with it. My voice. Not sure I wanted to, how folk went on and on whenever I let out a note. Any well, I knew Who gave me this voice. But I did love piano. Wanted to play jazz. Loved Gershwin.”
She sat smoking in silence for a few moments before she continued.
“I will help you, niece. And I’ll work on your mama. Win her over. Guess I must. Because you have a gift. I think it’s high time somebody in this damn family with a gift use it.””
A very good read overall.
I read an old article by Chris Rose (ex-husband of Kelly) that I think sums up New Orleans and why it’s so wonderful, in a perfect way:
Chris Rose on New Orleans Culture: “Life-Changing, Spirit-Avenging”
I heard this at Bastion and really enjoyed the mix of jazz, rock, and funk:
Here’s a deeper cut from Elvis Costello, showcasing the wonderful piano of Steve Nieve:
Stay safe, compassionate, and kind to everyone!
excited when it reopened. The beauty of going there with a large group is that you get to sample so many of the dishes – lamb meatballs and mushroom risotto were the standouts for me. It was our CFO’s birthday and I got him a special mug and a “Buck Buck Moose” cookbook – he loves cooking exotic meats.
We had a nice long walk on Saturday, with a break for a coffee and snack along the way. We ran into a “Shakespeare in the Park” festival at Adriatica – apparently an all day event with four plays performed. There were lots of booths set up, including a petting zoo with a llama. Such an entertaining animal. It took Diana way back to the Dr. Doolittle move with the two headed “push me pull me” llama.
I tried a new recipe on Saturday night. Our CFO had given me some homemade Thai green curry paste a while ago, and I used that to make a Thai chicken curry for dinner. Thanks to D for shopping for all the unusual ingredients. I think it turned out really well – my first experiment with cooking in a wok.
We tried to get Diana her preferred dessert after C.T.’s – a chocolate dipped cone at Dairy Queen. The line was way too long, so we dropped Finn off and then tried Sonic – nothing on the menu there that worked. Third time’s a charm – a waffle cone from Braum’s.
I got my D back on Tuesday – picked her up at the airport just before 9pm on Tuesday. She seemed happy with my house cleaning and her welcome home flowers.
On a long walk earlier in the week, I saw Wishbone Ash advertised on the sign at the Guitar Sanctuary in Adriatica. This is a band that I first enjoyed in University, 40 years ago. I still play their Argus album on a regular basis. Could they really be playing within walking distance of our home? Some research indicated they were indeed – on Friday, and tickets were still available. Done!
We walked to the concert, and enjoyed chatting with the folks in line – the majority of whom had seen the band many times – they have a very loyal following. The couple next to us were from Motherwell, Scotland and have lived in Austin for 30 years – it was nice to hear a Scottish accent in McKinney. Bo and Jim from the local radio morning show introduced the band. It’s been a while since I heard radio personalities introducing a band – used to happen pretty regularly. Those two have been doing the same morning show, with all the crazy characters, since before I moved to Dallas in 1986.
Andy Powell and the band served up a treat – the first part of the show was Argus from start to finish, a celebration of the album turning fifty years old the day before. Here are my three favourites:
The first was “Pops” be Michael Chabon, one of my very favourite authors. This is a collection of short stories, published in various magazines, and all on the topic of raising his children. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick read.
My second read was “Let me tell you what I mean” by Joan Didion, another big favourite of mine. This is a collection of twelve essays from 1968 to 2000, that showcase her unique reporting style.
And my last book is quite a bit different. “Whereabouts” by Jhumpa Lahiri was originally written in Italian and translated to English by the author. Here’s an online summary:
The weather was mostly very nice, and we were able to get out for some walks on Gypsy Hill. Somebody has entirely too much energy on those walks:
Easter Sunday dinner was quite the feast – lobsters from Adamo’s recent diving expedition, and our gorgonzola lamb chop lollipops – been way too long since we made those.
I dropped the VW Atlas off at Discount Tire to get the wheels balanced on Thursday, and Finn picked me up there and took me to lunch at Mexican Cactus – those tacos are so good. The tire guys called me at lunch to say they couldn’t find the wheel nut locking adapter anywhere. Nothing’s easy. I ended up having to pick up a new one at the dealership – must not have replaced it when they powder coated the wheel rims. The wheels did get balanced ultimately on Friday, and I found an interesting sub-woofer mounted on top of the spare tire when replacing the tool. I had no idea it was in there.
My first book was “Whiteout” by Ken Follett. I don’t remember reading Follett before, other than the “On Wings of Eagles” EDS Iran hostage rescue story, and really enjoyed this tale. Set in a castle in northern Scotland that has been converted into a medical research facility, the story revolves around a plot to steal a deadly virus from the lab during a blizzard.
My next book was “Mother, May I” by Joshilyn Jackson. Here’s the online summary:
I enjoyed seeing Thanksgiving Tower nearby – this is where I worked when I first started with EDS in 1989. That was back in the days when I had to wear a dark suit, white shirt, tie, and wingtip shoes to work every day. Things have changed so much in the almost 35 years since those days.
We checked into the Indigo hotel, a few hundred yards from the Majestic, and met up with Kenny and Kara. I suggested walking over to Deep Ellum, a funky neighbourhood of bars, restaurants, and shops just on the other side of Interstate 75. We walked over and enjoyed a drink on the lovely patio at the Twilite lounge, and a light dinner at Postino. I highly recommend Postino for a quick and tasty bite in the Deep Ellum area.
We walked back to the Majestic to watch Hayes Carll open the Friday night show for Lyle Lovett. He came on right on the nose of 7:30pm and gave us an excellent opening set – all quiet and thoughtful songs – none of the usual rockers that we are used to from his livestream shows. Here’s my favourite – “Beaumont”:
We arrived early to check out the 100th anniversary exhibit. The most interesting thing I read was that the owner of the theater contributed $5 million to help Walt Disney get started, when nobody else would give him any funding.
I loved my book this week – “The Storyteller” by Dave Grohl. He was the drummer with Nirvana when they changed music forever with the “Nevermind” album, and then went on to found the Foo Fighters band. This a wonderful collection of varied stories from Grohl’s youth discovering music, almost to the present day. It’s sad to hear him write about the depth of his friendship with Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters drummer who passed away in the last few weeks, causing them to cancel their tour, including a New Orleans jazzfest appearance.
We made it to The Franklin on Tuesday evening for dinner – you’ll remember that we canceled last week with the inclement weather. The duck liver mousse appetizer was just excellent – satsuma marmalade on the bottom and herbs and nuts on top , with excellent bread – each bite was a treat. I followed that with the burger and Diana enjoyed some wagyu beef. Well worth the drive across town to the Bywater area. Then there was a little langiappe, as so often happens in New Orleans – the local middle school band was practicing close to where we parked.
Thom had missed our Happy Hour at Monkey Hill last week, and so we had a reprise on Wednesday evening – the majority of the krewe made it out.
My book this week was “The Magnolia Palace” by Fiona Davis. This is another of the books that Diana picked up at Octavia books in New Orleans. Here’s the Amazon plot summary:
Stela of Nakhi, “Servant in the Place of Truth”, Offering to Osiris and Anubis. New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty (c. 1300 BCE)
The group stopped at Café Degas for a nice French snack before returning Diana and Anne to the condo. Then Denny picked us up for dinner at N7 in the Bywater area. This wonderful French restaurant is hidden away behind a fence with just a small stencil to indicate the location (as seen in this Denny does Hitchcock picture.) We had chosen to sit in the covered patio area rather than the garden or inside – great choice – the setting was beautiful. I think this was my favourite meal in New Orleans so far. The tarte flambee with caramelized onions and lardons was a wonderful appetizer, and the steak au poivre was so perfect and flavourful. Bon Appetit magazine calls this the most romantic French restaurant in the world.
Almost forgot dessert – I’m always wary of pavlova – expecting it to be nowhere near as good as the ones that Mum and Diana make. The N7 version was yummy.
Kara suggested the Booker Sessions at the Maple Leaf Bar for our Thursday evening entertainment. A nice early show at 6pm featuring John Paxson playing piano in the back bar in the style of James Booker. I was able to sit close enough to watch his fingers fly across the keyboard – a real treat. That’s a Frenchy painting of Booker atop the piano.
We enjoyed a slice of alligator cheesecake and a drink at Jacque-imo’s before the show. I love that cheesecake! And as a special langiappe, the wristbands for the Booker show were penguins.
We collected Alicia at the airport on Friday and made our way to meet the krewe for Happy Hour at Monkey Hill. Alicia had asked for as much live music as possible – and it started with Johnny Sansone playing outside Monkey Hill.
I almost forgot – Diana got a love letter when she parked the car in the neighborhood on Friday morning. She’s making friends with the locals. It was written on the back of a fax confirmation sheet – so at least one person still uses a fax machine.
The music started with the Young Fellaz Brass Band – music that always makes me smile. That was followed by Sunpie, Preservation Brass, and Sweet Crude.
Alicia seemed to enjoy all the music as well.
Diana and Alicia walked to the Chloe for Sunday brunch, and enjoyed even more live music – this time from Andrew Duhon. I think he has a really good voice – reminds me of Anderson East.
Greg and Colleen hosted a crawfish boil on Sunday afternoon. I had never peeled a crawfish before, but do love the taste. I had a lesson and gave it a shot. It was great to see a few folks I hadn’t run into in a few years – Chris Pete and Randy Bush – along with the rest of the krewe. Greg did a great job remodeling (pretty much completely rebuilding) their new house on State street.
I read another one of Diana’s books this week – “The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley. This was not the light, airy tour around Paris that I was expecting, rather a very dark mystery where every member of a bad family had a different and dark secret. It passed the time, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it unless you enjoy dark mysteries.
The much awaited Dads Steak Night was on Wednesday evening. We all convened on Kenny’s porch for cocktail hour – it was very sweet to see Denny and Greg chatting away on the porch swing. To minimize the number of vehicles going to Charlie’s, several of the guys decided to pile into the bed of Denny’s truck. Not something that you would get away with anywhere else. There was no way I was getting in there with all the potholes in the roads here.
Charlie’s is a very old school, neighborhood steak house. There are no menus, the waiter tells you to start with onion rings, followed by a wedge salad, and then describes the different steaks available. Mason was quite happy with his T-bone and I enjoyed my filet – large enough to have left overs for two brunch omelets.
The Moms had to have their night out as well. They tried to go for oyster Happy Hour at Pascal’s Manale but they had a sign on the door saying that they had temporarily suspended the oysters due to supply chain issues. Plan B was Superior Seafood, which had plenty of oysters and a very nice brasserie type set up. They followed that with some snacks at the lovely Chloe restaurant. Seems like they had a very nice evening.
On Thursday, we walked down to Tracey’s in the Irish Channel area to see what Saint Patrick’s day looks like in New Orleans. As expected it was quite the party, with a block party between Tracey’s and Parasols bars.
Saturday began with the usual walk/run in Audubon park. Then we enjoyed another porch concert. This one on Laurel street next to Patois restaurant – one of the first places we ate in New Orleans. The folks on Laurel have put together a whole organization that regularly hosts musicians on their porches – a way to keep things going for struggling musicians during the pandemic. It was quite a professional operation and we had a lovely afternoon. Sporty’s Brass Band (Sporty is on the trombone) kicked things off and were very good.
“Pogeutry” provided our music on Wednesday at Tipitinas. This is a band made up of the Lost Bayou Ramblers with Spider Stacy and Cait O’Riordan of the original Pogues from the 1980s. I loved this show – so much energy and a good lead in to St. Patrick’s celebrations. Here’s “Dirty Old Town.” Kenny and Kara were able to join us and both enjoyed the show very much.
Saturday brought…another parade! This time the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s parade. Not nearly as crowded as the Mardi Gras parades, but just as much fun. I wasn’t expecting cabbages, leeks, and carrots to be typical throws from the floats – you really needed to pay attention. We all had fun collecting “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” stuff for Anne’s dad, Grandpa Jack.
Sunday was a mostly lazy day and then we joined Denny and Anne for dinner at Jamila’s. This is a Tunisian restaurant with excellent lamb tagine. I had been talking to my mum about the place, and she encouraged me to get the tagine and report back about it. It was thoroughly delicious – so tender and so much flavour. The place is run by a husband and wife – he manages the front and she runs the kitchen. So welcoming and funny – we will be back for sure.
My first book this week was “The Violin Conspiracy” by Brendan Slocumb. The plot revolves around a Stradivarius violin that is stolen from a black violinist. It turns out it was given to his great great grandfather by his slave owner. The story of the violin theft is interesting, but less so than the story of Ray and his journey through racism to become runner up at the Tchaikovsky competition. I found the first 70 or 80 pages a bit superficial, but really got sucked in when the story flipped back in time to Ray initially being obsessed with playing.
Having run out of books on hand – time for a visit to Octavia books down the street – I read one of Diana’s stack. “One Italian Summer” was a very quick and easy read. Pretty girly but set in Positano with pleasant descriptions of the food and the area.
Kenny and Kara joined us and we waited for a long time – but no Indians or bands. Calling it a bust, we went back to the condo to get ready for our bike ride down to the French Quarter and the Marigny to checkout all the crazy outfits.
Debra manages Jacques-Imo’s restaurant (first meal Diana and I had together in New Orleans was there) and had secured reservations for us on Wednesday night – a last meal for Campbell and Molly. Denny, Anne and Jack joined us for an excellent meal. Debra had arranged a lovely bottle of French champagne for Diana, and loaded the table up with complementary appetizers. She is so sweet and kind. This place was quite the opposite of Commander’s Palace – very casual and loud. The southern food was amazing and the portions so generous that we were eating left overs for two days. Molly was talking about her fried chicken on the flight home.
Honey was happy to have her parents back home on Thursday, and quickly destroyed her treat from the parades. How could you be angry with that face?
In the evening, we picked up Denny and Anne and drove to Faubourg Brewing in East New Orleans. It used to be called Dixie Brewing, but has changed like so many other businesses as the Dixie statues and monuments have been removed. Sun Pie and Gal Holiday were both performing outside on the expansive lawn. Gal sat down at the table with us and rapidly consumed a bunch of crawfish before her set – she had some great peeling and eating skills.
In the afternoon we attended another porch concert. This was hosted by one of Anne’s tennis ladies who was celebrating her birthday. These started as a way for musicians to make money during early COVID and I hope they continue. Just a great way to pass a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.
There was an interesting moment when one of the guitar players amplifier broke down. No worries – the man of the house quickly nipped inside and emerged with a replacement. “The beauty of playing at a musician’s house”, said the singer. I did chuckle at the guys in their “Laissez Boy” recliners, fresh from the parades.
I finally finished “The Great Wide Open” by Douglas Kennedy. Almost 600 pages long and pretty dense, but a really good read.