JUNE ON
2017
LINWOOD REGENSBURG JESSI ZAZU
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Model: @claudianeeley Lens: @dredrea
W W W. S C O U T S BA R B E R S H O P. C O M
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LUNCH SPECIALS
Have your event catered with Nashville's best Puerto Rican food. Call the number below for details!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS JUNE 2017
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58 24
38 THE GOODS 48
19 Beer from Here 20 Cocktail of the Month 24 Master Platers 77 You Oughta Know 81 Animal of the Month
FEATURES 28 Little Octopus 38 Creature Comfort 48 Jessi Zazu 58 The New Respects 68 Hemingway’s Bar & Hideaway
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COFFEE BREAKFAST LUNCH OPEN DAILY 7AM-4PM
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president, founder:
publisher, founder:
ANGELIQUE PITTMAN JON PITTMAN
creative director:
MACKENZIE MOORE
editor in chief:
CHARLIE HICKERSON DARCIE CLEMEN
art director:
COURTNEY SPENCER
operations manager:
JOE CLEMONS
copy editor:
community
representative: production:
KELSEY FERGUSON
GUSTI ESCALANTE
writers: photographers:
5 1 1 1 M A RY L A N D WAY B R E N T WO O D , T N 615-373-0030
Na s h v i l l e Pe r i o . c o m
JONAH ELLER-ISAACS LUKE WIGET CHARLIE HICKERSON CHRIS PARTON NATHAN DILLER COOPER BREEDEN ANGELINA MELODY DANIELLE ATKINS EMILY DORIO CHRIS DANIELS SARAH B. GILLIAM AUSTIN LORD NICK BUMGARDNER
founding team: founder, brand director:
DAVE PITTMAN
founder:
CAYLA MACKEY
for all inquiries:
2 0 0 0 2 1 S T AV E S NASHVILLE, TN 615-385-3334
MACKENZIE MOORE JOSHUA SIRCHIO TAYLOR RABOIN
HELLO@NATIVE.IS
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New
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Riverside # N AT IVE N ASH VI LLEVilliage - 1400 McGavock Pike - dosenashville.com
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JASPER’S RUM PUNCH by Ben Clemons of No. 308 ph o t o by A n g e l i n a M el o dy
It’s summer now, and that means we’re all wishing we were on a beach (not that we aren’t wishing that the rest of the year!). For those of us landlocked and working, here’s a classic tiki recipe for a quick getaway in a glass.
THE GOODS 2 oz Wray & Nephew Jamaican Rum
(Also very nice with an aged rum such as Brugal 1888. Avoid light rum for this drink!)
2 oz Jasper’s Mix* 3–5 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
F Combine the rum and Jasper’s Mix and shake, then pour over crushed ice in your favorite glass. F Add the Peychaud’s to your liking. Garnish with a generous mint sprig and a lime wheel.
*Jasper’s Mix
Mix 4 cups fresh lime juice, 4 cups sugar, 1 oz Angostura bitters, and 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg. Cook until the suga r is dissolved. Fine strain and allow to cool before using.
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REVOLUTIONIZING THE MALE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
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MASTER PLATERS
RAS EL HANOUT
FUNNEL CAKE B Y C A I T LY N J A R V I S , P A S T R Y C H E F A T H E N R I E T TA R E D
PHO TOS BY DAN IELLE AT KIN S
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THE GOODS
DIRECTIONS
INGREDIENTS FOR FUNNEL CAKE:
METHOD FOR THE FUNNEL CAKE:
oil for frying (peanut, canola, etc.)
FIn a large pot, heat 3 inches of frying oil to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, salt, and ras el hanout. Whisk to blend. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until it comes together as a batter.
1 cup flour 1 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp brown sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp ras el hanout (this spice blend can be found at Whole Foods or World Market) 3/4 cup milk 1 egg 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1/2 tsp vanilla INGREDIENTS FOR PEANUT SUGAR: 1/2 cup toasted peanuts 1 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp salt
FPlace the batter in a squeeze bottle or piping bag with a large tip. Squeeze the batter into the hot oil in a circular motion 6 to 7 times. (It helps to have a pancake ring on hand to keep the shape of the funnel cake.) Fry for about 2 minutes. Flip the dough and fry for another 2 minutes. Remove the funnel cake and drain on a paper towel. Serve immediately dusted with Peanut Sugar. METHOD FOR THE PEANUT SUGAR: FPlace the peanuts in a blender and grind until they are a fine powder. Make sure not to grind them too much or they will turn into peanut butter. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the peanuts, powdered sugar, sugar, and salt. Sprinkle on top of hot funnel cakes.
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Model’s wardrobe this page courtesy of Black Shag Vintage
FIRST AN EASTSIDE POP-UP, NOW IN THE GULCH, CHEF DANIEL HERGET’S LITTLE OCTOPUS OFFERS A CARIBBEAN ESCAPE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY BY JONAH ELLER-ISAACS | PHOTOS BY EMILY DORIO | STYLING BY SAMANTHA CHADWICK | MODEL: KATIE SCHECTER
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WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD, did you trav- that food brought people together in the Caribel with your parents? Maybe it was a long road bean and Latin cultures that were all around him. trip, before electronic devices were portable and He also found himself even closer to the islands ubiquitous. Trapped in the back seat, entertain- and deeper into his exploration of island cuisine. ing yourself by looking for exotic license plates. “It was a lot of fun to go down the rabbit hole and Maybe you went on a cruise, which David Foster chase those flavors and really try to understand Wallace so astutely identified as “A Supposedly what made them work and why I liked them so Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” Regardless of much . . . I think it really comes down to the vithe mode of transport or the final destination, brancy of it. Really acid-forward, fresh ingrediI’ll hazard a guess: you didn’t have very much fun. ents, minimally treated.” Nashville’s food scene has a lot going for it: Perhaps you blamed the location. If only your James Beard finalists are spread east and west, parents had taken you to the Caribbean! smoke rises from the pits of BBQ masters, and I imagined the same. That aquamarine dream hot chicken is even at KFC now (ugh). But what is on my mind today as I sit down with Daniel Herget offers with Little Octopus is rare in town, Herget, chef of Little Octopus, a restaurant with Calypso Cafe notwithstanding. His clean, bright strong island influences and a recent addition cuisine takes you straight to the beach. to the marvelous food scene in The Gulch. I’m Longing for that coastal freshness is ultimately surprised when he recalls his many childhood what drove Herget and co-owners Sarah and Brad trips to the Caribbean and laughs. “It’s funny, beGavigan to open Little Octopus in the first place. cause as a kid, I kind of was over it, because my The Gavigans’ POP space on Gallatin had already parents—that’s all they ever wanted to do. They spawned a winner in Otaku, where Herget overwere big on family vacations, and the only place saw the ramen-focused kitchen after meeting the we ever traveled was in the Caribbean. But as Gavigans through connections at Sun Noodle, a kid, all I ever wanted to do was go to Europe the purveyor of Otaku’s fresh noodles. When or Asia.” We should all be unlucky like Herget, Otaku transitioned from pop-up to brick and right? He shakes his head at his ungrateful young mortar, the team discussed their options for POP. self. “Now, looking back on it, I realize what a goof I was being for not fully appreciating it . . . Sarah, a Nashville native who spent twenty-plus by the time I was fourteen or fifteen, I’d been to years in Southern California, missed the cuisine offered out west. And though Herget’s tastes denearly every island in the Caribbean.” Herget is no longer a goof, and he recognizes veloped three thousand miles away, he was pinhis family trips as the catalyst for his obsession ing for something similar: “There’s this style of with Caribbean cuisine. He spent much of his food that isn’t necessarily item for item the same, young life exploring the flavors and food tradi- but the spirit is the same. Very fresh, very vibrant, tions of the islands, and now he’s using Little pretty clean. And we were kind of struggling to Octopus to share that love with the diners of find that in Nashville . . . We were kind of like, ‘If nobody else is doin’ it, and we want it all the time, Nashville. Throughout his childhood in Gainesville, Flor- we’re just gonna have to do it.’” Instead of POP going dark at Otaku’s deparida, Herget noticed the connections between ture, the Gavigans gave Herget the space, and food and family. His best friend’s parents were with it the opportunity to introduce Nashvillians restaurateurs. “We kind of grew up in the back to his sun-drenched island cuisine. The immediof the restaurant, and I always felt comfortable ate success of Little Octopus—perpetual crowds, there,” he tells me. Closer to home, his mother’s rave reviews—showed the team that the city and family regularly gathered for shared meals, and its diners were ready to fall in love with Herget’s Herget began to understand: “The dinner table was this space that brought everybody together.” spirited and creative menu. I ask Sarah to explain When Herget moved to Miami to attend culi- what she thinks of its success, and she writes via nary school, he started to see the correlation be- email: “Nashville is coming into its own right tween his family’s communal meals and the ways now as a city that stretches creative boundaries.
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We feel damn lucky to be a part of that movement. I nev- Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the bowels. er imagined I would open two restaurants, but when you He spent about a week and a half in a hospital bed and find yourself two hundred yards in front of the wave, you went home with piles of pills. But when the medicine start paddling. I think Little Octopus works because it is wasn’t effective, a friend of his mother pulled him aside. still very humble and honest food. We created the vibe “She told me, ‘You’re not sick. I know you have these peoaround the food, trying to be true to the idea of simple ple telling you you’re sick. You’re not sick. You just need to start treating yourself with a little more respect and beauty.” What does that mean, humble and honest food, true to understand what it is that you actually need. Stop listenthe idea of simple beauty? I ask Herget to make it more ing to other people and start listening to your body.’” The message was a revelation, and through diet changconcrete. “Food that’s not messed around with too much. It’s not gussied up. It is what it is, you know what I mean? es and exercise, Herget was eventually able to discontinRarely do we have more than five ingredients on the plate. ue all of his medications. The experience changed how he That’s really important to me, because all ingredients are thought about food. “Every sort of person needs a differbeautiful. I don’t like to cover things up, I don’t like to ent diet in order to really make the most of the food that mask things. I just like to let ‘em be themselves.” Cook- they put in their body. So making it easy for people from ing like this demands ripeness, freshness, and high qual- all walks of life—with any kind of dietary restrictions or lifestyle choices—to navigate our menu was super impority, especially for a menu that heavily features seafood. What’s it like, trying to secure that level of freshness tant to me.” This is not an attitude I’ve heard many chefs express. here in Nashville? “It’s difficult,” he says. “It was a challenge, and I will say it was very frustrating the first few And Herget isn’t done. “We really want everybody to months to try and find the right purveyors. Luckily we feel like they’re not bothering us by having those dietary found some great fishmongers and great fish purveyors. restrictions or those choices. There’s this connotation And we’ve got some pretty great relationships with local about chefs . . . that we’re sort of grumbling in the back, like, ‘How dare you?’ We really wanted to lift that veil and farms.” After his sweltering Florida childhood, Herget still make people realize that the only reason we’re here is for marvels at the breadth of produce that can grow in a you. It’s for the guests and to be hospitable. So we don’t slightly more temperate climate, and how much is grown want anybody to feel like they can’t come dine with us just an hour or two from Nashville. “I’ve talked to a lot for any reason.” Herget’s respectful hospitality starts in the kitchen of chefs who have come to Tennessee from other regions, and I think everybody’s in agreement: probably other and emanates throughout the restaurant; it helped me than San Francisco and Santa Barbara, there are very few fall in love with his cooking when Little Octopus was places that have so many farms in such close proximity. in the POP space on the East side. But to be honest, I was worried that one of our favorite spots moving to the It’s amazing.” Still, even with the area’s many farms, making Ca- more rarified streets of The Gulch would mean exponenribbean cuisine here is not without its challenges, and tially increased prices, or that somehow the bold combisometimes Herget just can’t get the exact ingredients nations that filled the menu would be replaced with borhe wants. In those cases, he’s learned to be creative and ing, risk-averse dishes. Of course I was wrong. The new space glitters, with flexible. “There’s some things that we kind of have to just find our own way on, or utilize other ingredients that are bright gold accents shimmering at the edges of long close. There’s a dish in the Caribbean that we’re gonna be white walls. There are splashes of a pastel I call coral, bringing on for the summer, and typically it uses a green though my wife says it’s now called millennial pink. It’s called callaloo. It doesn’t grow really well here, but [it’s] tré Miami, a strong rebuff to the reclaimed wood and very, very similar in flavor to turnip greens—which obvi- metal found in so many local dining rooms. The menu has changed, but it’s adjusted for the season, not for the ously are abundant around these parts.” The Little Octopus menu is full of abbreviations. Af- neighborhood. The new Little Octopus opened in January, and Herter the ingredients, letters note when dishes are GF for gluten-free, V for vegan, DF for dairy-free, and more. I get tells me about the response since their move. “The ask Herget about the many classifications, and he grows Gulch has been great, even though we are still extremely serious. When he was twenty-two, he was diagnosed with thankful for the support that we had on the East side.
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And it has been incredible to see our guests from the East side following us over to The Gulch. That was a big concern of ours. We didn’t want to ostracize the neighborhood that helped us get where we are.” He adds, “The Gulch is doing some amazing things right now. I think within a couple of years, it probably will be the dining neighborhood in Nashville.” Later that week, Herget invites my wife and me to join him at the chef ’s counter for dinner. Our meal begins with sips from their rum tasting menu and raw oysters served with a garnish of pickled onions and a dusting of allspice. The oysters taste of Christmas—if you spent the holiday in Key West. Herget tells us that the eighteen-year-old rum from the island of Dominica makes a fantastic whiskey replacement in cocktails, especially in a Manhattan. The meal continues in similar fashion. From the raw section comes expertly sliced hamachi floating amidst pineapple, avocado, and fresh bay; it’s gone in a flash. The ceviche is mixed with hearts of palm and accompanied by a bloodred hot sauce made of hibiscus and fresno chiles. Just when we’re starting to feel full, a line cook named Graydon says we can’t miss the side salad that accompanies the steak. Though he has countless other orders, he takes a moment to prepare the salad of puffed rice, fried garlic, shallots, parsley, and cilantro. As we marvel at the creation and its generous delivery, some of the dishes we neglected to order pass by on their way to other tables. Every plate looks inviting. I mention to Herget that one of our favorite dishes was his watermelon salad, and he tells me it’s coming back to the menu as soon as watermelons are ripe. When the season turns, you can find me at Little Octopus, anxious to see what fresh new surprises Daniel Herget has up his tattooed sleeve.
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Live&INTERACTIVE ScreenPrinting
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AFTER WINNING THIS YEAR’S ROAD TO ROO, INDIE ROCK BAND CREATURE COMFORT WILL RETURN TO THEIR CHILDHOOD STOMPING GROUNDS TO PLAY THEIR BIGGEST SHOW YET BY LUKE WIGET PHOTOS BY CHRIS DANIELS STYLING, WARDROBE, & PRODUCTION BY ELISABETH DONALDSON PROPS BY ART DOGS PROPS # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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“MY DAD PUT AN ELECTRIC BASS IN MY HANDS ON MY THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY, and from that point nothing else made sense,” says Cole Bearden, the bass player in Creature Comfort, a four-piece indie rock band that sounds a bit like Modest Mouse if you subtract some of the sadness. “And the ball has just kept rollin’,” Bearden says of his band’s momentum after winning this year’s Road to Roo, a contest that places the winner on the same four-day bill as artists like Crystal Castles, Chance the Rapper, and Lorde. Bearden and his bandmates slide into honest drawls when telling stories about their folks and growing up together in Tullahoma, Tennessee. There’s the one about drummer Taylor Cole’s father, a tall and distinguished doctor who over the years has taken to cleaning lead singer Jessey Clark’s grandmother’s pool. “My dad would stop on his way to the office in the morning,” Cole says. “I found out last Bonnaroo—we were getting ready to camp together for the first time. [Jessey’s] parents,” he slows his speech some, adding that twang, “they were like, ‘You know your daddy’s Nana’s pool boy, right? Yeah, he’s been going by there the past two years, cleanin’ out the pool.’ I just imagine him out there—for Nana!” “For Nana!” Clark yells out, and all four guys laugh, imagining the well-dressed doctor skimming Nana’s pool for leaves. We’re sitting around a cooler on the back porch of the Creature Comfort headquarters, where the band’s studio, rehearsal space, and hang spot are built into a two-story house that lead guitarist Nick Rose rents with a few other Nashville musicians. As the sun sets behind the trees on a hill overlooking Sylvan Park, we try to identify how it is these four friends made it here—how this month, after growing up just miles from the Woodstock of the South and recently winning the four-round, sixteen-band contest, they’ll play one of the stages they’ve been looking up to since they were kids. “I’ve been ten times, they’ve been however many times,” Bearden says, leaning back in one of the dining room chairs Rose dragged out for the interview. “It’s huge because we grew up right next to it.” A liquor store employee by day, Bearden is a kind of Southern sage who heats up as the conversation loosens. “You know, you keep waiting for it to stop rolling, but it doesn’t. You keep following it . . . it’s just fate. It’s just fate,” repeats the self-proclaimed Raphael of the group, with his quiet-to-loud passion about the band. And that’s Raphael as in Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He offers an explanation of how each member represents one of the heroes in a half shell. Jessey Clark, lead vocals, rhythm guitar, retail pharma-
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cist by day: “He’s Leonardo because he’s the leader, and he likes swords,” Bearden says, and the band piles on, outing Clark’s affection for Renaissance festivals. The band has gone so far as to accommodate by booking tour dates around Ren festivals. Taylor Cole, drums, booking agent at The East Room: “He’s Michelangelo because he’s redheaded by nature and he’s silly and likes pizza.” Nick Rose, lead guitar, audio engineer, amp technician, music teacher: “He’s Donatello because he is good with machines. He’s the whiz kid, the science boy of the group.” “And I’m Raphael, because I’m an asshole,” Bearden says flatly, anticipating the laugh we give him. “We are looking to fill one Splinter spot,” he says, suggesting that they could use help with some of the regional booking, especially after playing Bonnaroo. “So what’s it mean, you know, playing the festival after so many years of attending?” I ask. “What’s cool about this year is all of our families are going to be there,” Cole says. “Our friends we grew up with, our teachers, our principals.” “I’d never been to a live concert that wasn’t in a bar and grill before Bonnaroo,” Clark says. “I was seventeen, just graduated high school, my parents wouldn’t let me go before I graduated.” “Why not?” I ask. “Drugs, sex, rock ‘n’ roll,” Bearden jumps in. And it’s true—all four rattle off hyperbolic rumors about the Manchester festival that has since become a kind of backyard get-together for the three members who grew up fifteen miles away. It’s difficult wrangling anything linear from the guys as they try to recreate those years in real time. It’s just too much. Too much magic to go around. You can see that those first Bonnaroo experiences, the epic and bleary days and nights, are too much to pin down. But they try. Bonnaroo 2008. MGMT. Battles. Vampire Weekend. “Thursday night was the shit!” Clark calls out as the group recreates a working lineup of that year. “I’ll never forget,” he continues. “I was there alone and [MGMT] played ‘Electric Feel’ . . . I don’t know what it was about it. Or My Morning Jacket played really late and it was raining.” Clark also remembers in 2010 when Thomas Mars of Phoenix—whose voice Clark’s resembles in terms of his ease and a certain boyish, raspy quality—scaled the scaffolding and shared his mic with the crowd as the chorus hit. “It was mind blowing. That’s when I was like, Fuck, I want to be up there . . . It’s when I first got that spark, that ember, you know?”
Now, about a decade after those transformative shows, Creature Comfort has earned their way onto one of the Bonnaroo stages, which, for a number of bands who are upand-coming, can be a turning point. The contest was stressful and forced the band to step away from recording their second full-length, but they had a great time—though it’s hard imagining these guys not enjoying getting out and playing together. “Music’s not a competition usually,” Rose says of the contest. “It’s a weird thing to [make it into], and we refused to treat it as a competition. We actually got made fun of for making friends with the other bands,” he continues, explaining how they mingled with bands before shows when it could have been contentious. They’ve maintained those Road to Roo relationships since and plan to play with some of the bands they competed against. “The Nashville final was the biggest show I’ve ever played,” Clark says. “It was packed,” Rose chimes in. “Which makes it a billion times more fun.” For the Road to Roo city and state finals, they enlisted a lighting crew consisting of Eric Doran and Ryan Wells—one of Cole’s trusted teams that he uses at The East Room. And then there were flowers. “Instead of receiving flowers, we wanted to give them to people,” Bearden says, describing a chorus of singing audience members climbing the stage and tossing flowers into the crowd. Local florist Rachel Wayne (owner of the The Daily Bloom) provided the flowers that made those final rounds so special. “We have amazing people around us, and we’re really thankful to have them,” Cole says. “If you listen to our music, it’s friend-heavy,” Bearden says. “It’s often about the power of community and friendship in general. Those shows really exhibited that.” “That’s funny,” Clark says, having never considered that so much of the lyrical content accompanying the energetic indie songs—which have a kind of Death Cab for Cutie sound without so much of the scarves, caps, sweaters, and gray weather—is about friendship. “But I have the best friends,” Clark says laughing, defending songs like “Friend of a Friend” and “All My Friends” from their 2013 album Fox Tales. As evidenced by their years of making music together in high school, college, and since, to their regular Dungeons and Dragons sessions, friendship is the foundation of Creature Comfort. Speaking to their escalating, all-in approach to the contest and the way they’ve lined up their lives around the band, Bearden says, “You only get one shot at doing anything . . . I’d hate to piss it all away on something I don’t care about.” “Yeah, at least for me, I don’t want to be old and have a
“YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT AT DOING ANYTHING . . . I’D HATE TO PISS IT ALL AWAY ON SOMETHING I DON’T CARE ABOUT.”
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New name, same great people and services!
We are thrilled to announce that we are merging with our sister skincare experts at Ona Belle Meade and changing our name to Ona Skincare East Nashville. We look forward to the year ahead and continuing to serve your skincare needs!
East Nashville:
1013 Fatherland St.
Belle Meade:
6592 Highway 100 Suite 1
MEN. WOMEN. HOME. GIFT.
regret that I didn’t try,” Clark says. He explains that because of the expectation of his parents, who didn’t finish college, he attended and graduated. “If I didn’t do that, I would have been a disappointment, but I didn’t do it just for them, I did it for me. My dad, he used to give me shit”—he dips into his father’s drawl— “‘Well, son, I used to want to be a quarterback, but you know I had to realize it ain’t all a dream.’ But I graduated, and I’m still doing the band . . . ” “I figured out how to do both,” Rose completes Clark’s thought. All four of the guys have graduated from college and are working and doing the band full time. Beyond Bonnaroo, Creature Comfort is eager to continue working on their new record and is releasing a song, “Common John (Southern Shame),” this month. The panoramic, self-produced track gets at the heart of who and where Creature Comfort is—stuck between Tullahoma and the city. In the first lines Clark sings, “It’s been decided by the priest I’m just a Common John / Diggin’ holes in the dirt just to pass the time.” The song questions where a person finds his place. Is it somewhere between the “dirt” and the glassy heights of the New Nashville skyline, which Clark describes in the second verse as “busy bees” building hives? The ’80sinfluenced track, with its shimmering guitars, driving bass, opened-up drums, and Clark’s mellow-to-howl tenor, is the perfect backdrop for this cautionary tale about what happens when you let others decide your fate. These four friends and bandmates seem to believe in the same things, and unlike the speaker in “Common John,” they see the future with a certain clarity. It just keeps rolling, as Bearden says. Their path, the dream, this road to Roo and beyond, it’s all out there in front of them. It makes me recall Kerouac’s road: “There [is] nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.” Creature Comfort plays Bonnaroo Saturday, June 10 at 2:45 p.m. at the New Music On Tap Lounge.
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AT THE HILL
SATURDAY JULY 8 2pm-10pm • $7 • all proceeds directly support these musicians
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MUSIC ///////////////////////////// T. Hardy Morris • The Nude Party • Parker Gispert • Western Medication • Ornament • Ian Ferguson Erin Rae & The Meanwhiles • Coco Reilly • Billy Bennett's Middle Tennessee Post-Modern Experimental Pop BanD Joey Kneiser and The Living Flames • Chrome Pony • Nadir Bliss • Liz Cooper & the Stampede • The Minks + DJ SETS FROM: Jem Cohen (Fond Object) • Dollar Bin Boys • Hungry Hearts ART / THREAD VENDORS
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Electric Thread • Live chain stitch by Ranger Stitch • Grand Palace • Gun Street Goods Oil + Lumber • Emily Quirk • Television Lights • Yanira Vissepo • Earthwhile Collective
Emily Miller • Heather Allen • Luke Graves • Matthew Sharer • Olivia Throckmorton • More TBA
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THOSE DARLINS’ LINWOOD REGENSBURG INTERVIEWS HIS FORMER B A N D M AT E J E S S I ZAZU AHEAD OF HER UPCOMING ART EXHIBIT IN WEDGEWOODHOUSTON
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IN 2014 Those Darlins appeared on the cover of NATIVE’s two-year anniversary issue. It was following the release of their new (and arguably best) album, Blur the Line, a record that saw Jessi Zazu, Nikki Kvarnes, and Linwood Regensburg taking a somber, sophisticated approach to their trademark brand of jokey noise-country. While there were still traces of the band that had once swilled beer at Murfreesboro house shows (an 8th Avenue billboard bearing Blur the Line’s cover, which featured Those Darlins spooning naked, caused mild Internet outrage), this was a new direction for the Darlins. The humor of past tracks like “DUI or Die” or “Be Your Bro” gave way to a newfound sense of urgency and uncertainty. “There’s a tumor growing on my body,” Zazu sang on the album’s thumping closer, “Ain’t Afraid.” “And I don’t know what lays in store.” The lines were prophetic. In 2015 Those Darlins announced an “indefinite hiatus,” and a week after returning home from their farewell tour, Zazu was diagnosed with stage two cervical cancer. By November 2016, she learned that the cancer had metastasized and spread to her lymphatic system. To quote her 2016 statement on her illness: “This is typically what they would call a ‘no cure scenario.’” But Zazu is not typical. In the time since her diagnosis, friends, family, and fans have donated more than $50,000 to help with her treatment, and Zazu has vowed to keep making music and art—to remain unafraid. Her latest effort is UNDEFEATED, an upcoming art exhibit at Julia Martin Gallery that will feature pieces inspired by Zazu’s diagnosis and treatment. Zazu’s mother, Kathy Wariner, will be showing alongside her, and all proceeds will go toward covering the family’s ever-increasing medical bills. In honor of the show, we had Zazu’s friend, former bandmate, and current collaborator Linwood Regensburg interview her about UNDEFEATED, life post-diagnosis, and the healing power of creativity. Their interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. *** Regensburg: Well, let’s get started. Do you remember that time we were in the Beatles? That was pretty cool. Zazu: [laughs] That’s great. Regensburg: So stupid. Okay, I’m just trying to break the ice here between us. You’ve got a big show coming up. It’s interesting because this show features not only the work that you’ve done but also some paintings by your mom.
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Zazu: Yeah, I’m really excited. My mom and I have never done a show together. She’s probably like my greatest artistic influence. You know, it’s really cool to be able to do this together. Regensburg: When she’s around you guys are always painting and sketching and stuff together, which I’m sure you’ve done off and on for pretty much the whole twenty-seven years of your life. Zazu: Yeah, I mean, she taught me how to draw. My dad’s an artist, too, and I learned a lot from him, but my mom was really adamant about specifically teaching me to do art. Throughout our life, that’s what we’ve done, and she’s always been creating. You know, we go through our phases where we’re not as productive as others, but yeah, I guess ever since we found out I had cancer, we both were kind of just like, “What are we going to do?” And the only thing we knew to do was, “Well, I guess we’ll just do some art.” I don’t know, that’s what we do. Regensburg: Yeah, painting and making art has always been a big facet of your life. I wanted to say, maybe you should explain, too, what the story behind the paintings was in the first place? Zazu: Back in the summer, when I first found out I had cancer, I had like six weeks of daily radiation. But at the end, I had these five sessions called brachytherapy . . . There’s a room in which I would get the brachytherapy radiation. It’s a small, lead-lined room, with a little machine in it that has a bunch of buttons and lights on it, and I would go in there and get it. While I was doing all this daily radiation and everything before I started brachytherapy, I was always taking photos and drawing and always brought my sketchbook with me, because I was wanting to capture as much as I could. I wanted to make a show out of my experience—at least that was sort of like my rough idea of a plan. I wanted to make something out of it, you know? My doctor—named Dr. Peacock, who is awesome— noticed that I was doing this, and she asked me if I would be interested in making some artwork for the brachytherapy room, because it needed an update. I was just immediately, totally in, because I felt a very personal connection to completing or to updating that room in a way, because I had drawn everything in that room. I knew what was in there, I knew it needed an update, and I also knew just how I felt when I was in there. Basically I was thinking, Wouldn’t it be great if I had something to distract me from that a little bit? Something to kind of exercise my brain and maybe, I don’t know,
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make me think a little. That’s where I was coming from. That’s why I was so excited to be a part of that. It’s like it would be different if you asked an artist who hadn’t done it, but it’s like I knew exactly. I just did it, I knew exactly what it would be like for that person. The message was kind of what I was imagining I would’ve needed at that moment. Regensburg: It’s almost that the paintings are sort of like trophies, in a way. Zazu: Yeah. Regensburg: You’re getting treatment at Vanderbilt, and I don’t know how many days you’ve been there over the last year, but I would say you’ve been there sixty percent of the time? You’re always going back and forth. Have you become close with any people there? Zazu: Yes. There are so many people that I’ve become close with, and it’s funny because some people I don’t even know their name, but I see them almost every week, you know? Regensburg: Sure. When you’re doing chemo, you just have to sit there for about six hours. I imagine you’d develop something with the people administering it.
“I WAS FREAKING OUT ON THE INSIDE, BUT I WAS JUST REFUSING TO LET IT CONTROL ME THAT DAY.”
like, “Nope, I’m not going to go there.” I was really scared though. I remember one day in particular— my mom wasn’t there with me, I think maybe my brother was there with me—and I was just crying. I couldn’t stop crying . . . It turned out what I really ended up needing was a blood infusion because I was low on red blood cells. I just felt terrible, and they couldn’t really figure out why at first. My body felt so, so bad. I remember Kris just came in and gave me the biggest hug and was like, “You can do this.” My mom wasn’t there—she was out of town—and Kris was in her place. She stepped in and had that motherly feeling to me, and I was so grateful, and literally, that got me through, you know? I needed that so badly at that moment. Regensburg: Have you had any fellow cancer fighters or survivors reach out to you via Facebook or whatever, just to connect?
Zazu: Yeah, and I’ve had a lot of aweZazu: There’s definitely some nurses in some, really great, powerful success stothe injection clinic that I’ve really had ries. Even when we were at the Women’s a strong bond with. One in particular March, this guy stopped me and let me is named Kris and she—I’m borderline know that he was a cancer survivor. He starting to feel like I’m going to cry, had been following my story, and he was even just like thinking of her, because really inspired by it. He believed in me she’s been such an encouraging person and just wanted me to know that he was to me through this whole thing. I think thinking of me and that it was possible she was there on my first day. I remem- to beat it and everything. I really, really appreciated all of those ber she told my mom, “I can already tell she’s going to do well with this, because people reaching out to me. It meant a most people are usually freaking out at whole lot to me. Because I just felt like, this point.” I was freaking out on the in- “Okay, this isn’t just me.” Like, there’s a side, but I was just refusing to let it con- lot of people who have done this, peotrol me that day, you know? I was just ple who said, “I did it, I’m in remission
and I’m living my life.” That was really important to me. It made me go, “Okay, I’m not going to just totally say, ‘Well, this is it and I have no chance or whatever.’” Regensburg: Do you have any advice for people that may be in a similar situation? Or maybe someone with a family member who is sick and they want to get involved, but maybe they’re dragging their feet on what to do?
Zazu: Don’t think of it so much as like there’s this big elephant in the room. Just think of them as who they are. Have the same relationship with them as you might have once had, or if you’re not that close, maybe you could get a little closer. If you were already close to them, and you’ve known them since your high school days or something, just treat them like you would if you saw them regularly, you know? That’s my main piece of advice. Regensburg: You don’t have to come in and save somebody’s life. You know, maybe bring some flowers over and that’s enough to maybe tip the scales for a second. Zazu: Right . . . Because it’s not like you just say it once and then you just have that feeling forever, you know? Setbacks happen every single day. You know this—you’ve been a big cheerleader for me. Like, you know that I get into those modes where I’m just like, “I can’t do this.” All I need is someone to just be like, you can and remind me of that. Even just that little bit is helpful, I would say. Regensburg: Let’s change gears for a second here. I hear you’ve been working on some new stuff, on some new songs
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and whatnot. I’ve been a part of it too— that’s how I heard about it [laughs]. Do you know what the record is going to be called? Zazu: We don’t know what we’re doing, we’re just doing it. Just trying to make some good grooves. Maybe I should ask you, what are we doing? What’s going on with the new album? Regensburg: I recorded some yesterday, actually. Yeah, I did some more stuff. We’re kind of close to being done in some capacity, depending on how much more we do. It’s weird, people ask me what’s going on with it, and to me, I don’t know where the end of it is, necessarily. Zazu: Yeah, me neither. Regensburg: And we don’t know who’s going to put it out, but I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I don’t even give a shit if it comes out or not, to a certain extent. Zazu: Me too. Regensburg: I’ve seen you do some pretty incredible things—like coming to the studio on a day when you can barely breathe because you’re coughing so much. In one hand, you’ve got your oxygen tank. Then in your other hand, you’ve got your bag with your books in it or whatever the song lyrics are in. It seems like you can barely function, and then you pull off a song—pretty incredible. Anyone who says to me, “I’m not feeling good, I can’t make it,” I don’t feel for you, okay? There are no excuses anymore. Zazu: I mean, it’s just what I like to do. It’s like, “Ugh, why would I stop doing the things I really love to do?” Because that’s what makes me happy. To stop doing that, it’s like I’ve lost my life, you know? I’m alive right now still, so why would I want to just be alive but not be really living? UNDEFEATED opens June 17 at Julia Martin Gallery.
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STEVE EVERETT w/ MATT STELL AND NATE FREDRICK - THE HIGH WATT LITTLE HURRICANE - THE HIGH WATT W H I T N E Y H O U S TO N V S . M A R I A H C A R E Y T R I B U T E f t . FA N C Y & M O R E - M E R C Y L O U N G E
POKEY LaFARGE w/ LILLIE MAE - MERCY LOUNGE BARNS COURTNEY w/ FOXTRAX - THE HIGH WATT DANIEL ROMANO - MERCY LOUNGE THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - THE HIGH WATT ROONEY w/ THAT’S MY KID - THE HIGH WATT KOLARS w/ FERRIS AND THE WHEELS - MERCY LOUNGE SWEAR AND SHAKE - THE HIGH WATT STEELISM - MERCY LOUNGE SIDEWALK CHALK & DYNAMO - MERCY LOUNGE HARDCASTLE w/ DBMK AND SLEEPTALKRE - THE HIGH WATT C.W. C. STONEKING - THE HIGH WATT DAVID COOK - MERCY LOUNGE KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - CANNERY BALLROOM RON POPE w/ AGES & AGES - CANNERY BALLROOM AGAINST ME! w/ BLEACHED AND THE DIRTY NIL - CANNERY BALLROOM # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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THE NEW RESPECTS AIM TO MAKE T H E I R A U D I E N C E S A P A R T O F T H E F A M I LY BY CHRIS PARTON | PHOTOS BY AUSTIN LORD
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SINCE THE BEGINNING, rock ‘n’ roll has been a bridge between cultures. In 2017 the bridge gets a fresh coat of paint courtesy of The New Respects. A family four piece who grew up in Nashville, their brand of rock features a demographic-busting mix of pop, gospel, and soul— all with a stated mission of bringing diverse listeners together. Still in their early twenties, the band is just beginning what looks like a promising journey. Their debut EP, Here Comes Trouble, was only released in March, but they’ve already been chosen as one of Rolling Stone’s “10 New Artists You Need to Know,” featured by NPR Music, and played on ESPN, FOX Sports, and TNT. The single “Trouble” has been streamed more than one million times on Spotify, and they just finished a spring tour with Robert Randolph & the Family Band, playing to the same kind of all-inclusive crowds they hope to attract. “Being four black kids whose experience was very different from the rest of the world, we want to speak about that,” bassist Alexis (Lexi) Fitzgerald explains. “Like, ‘Hey, we look like you and we know what you’re going through,’ and ‘Hey, we don’t look like you—but you’ve been a part of our whole lives.’” The band’s experience was different by most standards. Lexi and her guitar-shredding twin sister, Alexandria (Zandy), beat-laying brother, Darius, and cousin, lead singer Jasmine Mullen, were all homeschooled and heavily involved in the church, and Jasmine’s mother is the contemporary Christian singer Nicole C. Mullen.
Their world was one of love, faith, and musical colorblindness, and they bring those ideals to The New Respects, where they rock with the authority of Led Zeppelin, craft catchy melodies that recall The Jackson 5, and stir souls like Aretha Franklin. Even after a seven-hour drive from a gig in Lima, Ohio, the band is all smiles and kindness at Pinewood Social, joking and laughing as evening rush hour tightens its grip around the city outside. That insulation from negativity has been a recurring theme throughout their lives— right down to the music they were exposed to and the atmosphere they inhabited. When they weren’t at home listening to gospel and Motown or worshiping as part of a vibrant, racially inclusive congregation, the cousins could often be found on the road, tagging along with Mullen’s mom. She performed her own blend of contemporary gospel and soul music, but she also sang backup for Michael W. Smith and worked as a dancer/ choreographer for Amy Grant— two groundbreaking Christian artists whose sound skewed more toward mainstream pop. The New Respects learned to live comfortably in both worlds, and when they started exploring music on their own, they didn’t feel obligated to focus on one or the other. “It gave us a good foundation to make music,” Zandy says, citing HAIM, Alabama Shakes, John Mayer, and Gary Clark Jr. as current influences. “We grew up in a weird space where our world was super diverse, and everybody loved each other whether they looked like you or not,” Darius explains. “There were no boundaries for
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what kind of music we could like, so early on her bass-playing skills were a the thought of having to go into one bit . . . limited. “Honestly it was like area just because we’re black never the Lord said, ‘And this goes here,’ then all of a sudden we were in Rollcrossed our minds.” The first iteration of The New Re- ing Stone.” She’s downplaying their hard work, spects was a roots-folk outfit called The John Hancock band. Formed but the timeline is about right. After when Mullen and the Fitzgeralds were six months of rehearsing ten hours sixteen and seventeen (shortly after a day, three days a week, the band they stumbled across Mumford & was offered their first label contract. Sons), early gigs featured banjo, accor- They’re now signed to UMG’s Credendion, mandolin, and a different bass tial Recordings. Here Comes Trouble was produced player and singer. They laugh that any proof of the band’s folkier days has by Jeremy Lutito (Jars of Clay, Colony House) and spans a mix of sounds been scrubbed from the Internet. “It was an experiment for sure,” associated with both white and black Zandy says with a shake of her head. audiences. Pounding drums, raging “But we didn’t have an understanding guitars, and anthemic choruses stand of that being weird. We were just like, shoulder to shoulder with deeply ‘Music!’ We landed on what we loved. pocketed grooves, soulful lead vocals, Everything we play, we play for pas- and gospel harmonies. “People ask us a lot, but we never sion and for truth, and that’s kind of made a conscious decision like, ‘We’re the point.” When the now-former members gonna do rock ‘n’ roll,’” Lexi explains. of the band left, the family got some “I love pop, Jasmine loves soul, and sage advice from a member of their Zandy and Darius love rock. It’s just everything we love thrown into a pot.” church—The Vespers’ Taylor Jones. Each of the five songs on the EP “He came in one day and we were telling him, ‘We might have to hire were written collectively, with strong out for a bass player because nobody themes of inclusiveness and rising above hardship. The gritty “Money” plays,’” says Zandy. “Which is such a Nashville thing to is all about finding happiness without paying for it, “Frightening Lightning” think,” Darius says with a chuckle. Jones suggested moving Lexi to is a funky play on higher power, and bass and making Jasmine the featured “Come As You Are” offers a safe place singer, mostly so they could split gig to land for fans of Stax soul. Meanwhile, “Shoes” puts a hotfoot beat money four ways instead of six. “I remember playing the first song in underneath lyrics about walking anthe new lineup,” says Zandy. “It was other man’s path, and the ferocious actually ‘Money,’ which is one of the “Trouble” is willing to fight for a better singles off the EP, and it just worked. It future. “As believers, we feel called to unify wasn’t even like Lexi was all over the people,” Jasmine explains. “And also neck.” “The way [the lineup] formed was because of the state of the world, I reout of necessity,” Lexi says, joking that ally feel like we’re called to be a bridge
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. . . I think we feel a responsibility to help people love each other and hear each other when they don’t really know what the other person is trying to say.” When they play live—especially in majority white areas like Lima, Ohio— the band says it’s almost as if they can see people’s perceptions about race and music change with the deafening, distorted opening notes. “I’ll take you through what it’s like for people who don’t know us at all, it’s really funny,” says Zandy. “We walk onstage and they go, ‘Three girls and a guy, weird.’ We put on guitars and Darius gets behind a drum set, and they say, ‘They all play, weird.’ Then they say, ‘Oh, they’re all black and have big hair, interesting.’ We start with ‘Trouble’ normally, and then they’re like, ‘We don’t know what’s happening.’” A full-length debut is currently in the works, but for right now the family band is focused on touring and spreading The New Respects gospel—that music should bring people together. They just played a beachside set at Hangout Music Festival and dropped into East Texas for Rock the Ranch. In June they’ll play a few dates with ZZ Ward, and in early September they’ll share the stage at Bumbershoot in Seattle with a wildly diverse group of acts like Lorde, Big Sean, Weezer, and The Roots. “Big picture for me, I would love for our shows to feel like how we grew up,” says Darius. “People from all different walks of life who look different from each other, but they’re all coming together and having a good time. That was how we saw the world for the first twelve years of our lives, but as we got older we saw, ‘Oh, it’s really nice that we have this—but not everybody does.’ Our music is an extension of like, ‘Let’s get everyone in on this.’” “Someone recently said, ‘When I think of heaven, I think of rock ‘n’ roll,’” Zandy sums up. “That’s what we want our show to look like—heaven. Everybody looking different but getting along, and rock ‘n’ roll being the anthem.”
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The New Respects are playing The East Room on June 14, and Here Comes Trouble is out now.
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ERNEST HEMINGWAY WAS A WORLDLY MAN, and his travels are well documented. He found inspiration on the move, from Pamplona, Spain, where he watched and wrote about bullfights, to Ketchum, Idaho, where he put the finishing touches on For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1939. The changing scenery provided fodder for his writing, but Hemingway often returned to the places he loved the most. He kept a now-famous home base in Key West, Florida, and later lived in a Cuban farmhouse overlooking the hills of Havana, where he stayed for more than two decades. For the owners of new WedgewoodHouston restaurant Hemingway’s Bar & Hideaway, opening their own place feels like coming home, though both Chris Weber and Paul Cercone have an appetite for adventure. “I have a tendency to jump out of airplanes,” Weber says, laughing. He’s sitting at the enormous wooden bar, wearing a Tshirt that reads “Bourbon for President.” He drove cross-country to Seattle when he was twenty-five and lived there for a few months before traveling the world, spending time in Venezuela and rock climbing his way through China, all the while working in restaurants. He moved back to Nashville from San Francisco in 2013, eager to put down roots in his hometown.
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“Now I’m thirty-five years old and I’m back in Nashville where I grew up and can give something back from all that, because none of that would’ve happened had I not grown up here,” he says. “I attribute a lot of who I am and where I am to my folks and how they raised me here.” Weber started looking for a restaurant space and found their current 3,200-square-foot location in 2014. Having studied literature and English in college, he liked the idea of a bistro-style restaurant and bar with literary flair. He brought the idea to SILO cofounder Paul Cercone, whom Weber met when he was bar manager at the Germantown restaurant. Like Weber, Cercone spent years traveling. He met his wife in Japan, where he lived for three years, and proposed in a Tibetan village in the Himalayas on Christmas Eve. Originally from Buffalo, New York, he moved to Nashville fifteen years ago, then took a detour to Charleston, South Carolina, where he opened an artisan bakery. He moved back to Nashville in 2011, but after years in the infamously brutal restaurant industry, he craved a little levity at someplace more laid-back. “I was at the bar one night and [Chris] was working, and there was a woman at the bar thanking him for being so kind, and his reply was, ‘Well I don’t know how to be any other way,’” says Cercone, who
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is wearing a T-shirt and jeans. “In this business it can get rough and tough and people have a lot of expectations these days, but I think we want to have some fun.” Hemingway’s is a week away from opening, and the space is abuzz. Members of the construction crew work outside, deliveries arrive, and someone plays music intermittently to test out the speaker system through which guests will hear playlists and the occasional Hemingway audio book. The building—complete with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors—used to house a hosiery mill in the 1800s. Weber and Cercone updated the space with the architecture and design team at Earl Swensson Associates. They added glass chandeliers and custom wooden tables made from the original floor joists, giving Hemingway’s a timeless feel. “It’s like if a library and a factory had a baby,” says Weber. But even with years of experience working in restaurants between them, the guys found the process challenging, especially with so much interest in Music City from out-of-town investors. “I’d have to say, for two local guys to be pulling something off in Nashville now, it’s really hard,” says Cercone. Weber wrote the business plan, something he’d never done before, and recalls researching legal jargon on his phone outside his lawyer’s office before meetings. Then there were random unforeseen obstacles, like when custom-made glass arrived shattered in its packaging. They persevered though, celebrating small victories as they went, like the day they got speakers installed in the bathrooms. “It’s just things like that that get you through to the next big thing,” says Cercone, laughing. “Like, ‘Oh, we have music in the toilets. Okay, I’m ready to fight again.’” They also had to get approval to use
Hemingway’s name, and they established a rapport with the team at Papa’s Pilar rum, which is named after the writer’s fishing boat and was developed with the permission of his estate. They plan to use the rum in a number of cocktails, including the Hemingway Daiquiri, a mixed drink with grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur. It’s inspired (but not authored) by the man himself, and they’ll have it on tap at the bar. The cocktail menu will read less like a list and more like a collection of short character sketches. Instead of listing the ingredients, they decided to describe each drink in a sentence or two while only identifying the base spirit. They want people to look through and decide which drink sounds most like them. “I just thought it was a little more fun,” says Weber. “You’re walking into a place called Hemingway’s. We need you to read just a little bit.” They’ll also have a selection of beers, wines, and other specialty drinks at varying price points, in an effort to stay true to the unpretentious, something-for-everyone vibe that Weber loves about Nashville. “In here, things are just a little bit slower and you hold the door open for somebody, you know?” says Weber. “You see somebody that needs a jump in the parking lot and you go, ‘Oh, man, you got some cables?’ . . . There’s a Nashville mindset that is still hanging on just a little bit, and we’re really trying to make sure that stays.” Former SILO executive chef Larry Carlile will head up the kitchen, which will serve lunch, dinner, and some special late-night bar snacks. When it came time to choose the items on the menu, they drew inspiration from Hemingway’s travels. The result is an eclectic but carefully curated mix of hearty dishes like grilled pork tenderloin with sweet corn and bacon pierogi and Korean fried chicken with a cornmeal scallion pancake, napa cabbage slaw, and gochujang honey. The tough part was narrowing down the options. “Basically, we’ve just got a grab bag of things that are delicious,” says Carlile. “We weren’t forced to limit ourselves to French or Southern or anything
“IN THIS BUSINESS IT CAN GET ROUGH AND TOUGH AND PEOPLE HAVE A LOT OF EXPECTATIONS THESE DAYS, BUT I THINK WE WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN.”
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like that. We were just able to take whatever we wanted. So, writing this menu was really hard and also really easy.” However, there was one dish Weber had to have on the menu. “I was adamant about a Reuben, because growing up, my grandmother used to take me to The Sutler to get a Reuben—the best Reuben in the city,” he says. When the original restaurant closed down, he had a hard time finding a Reuben he liked that much, so he asked Carlile to dream one up for Hemingway’s. “I was like, ‘Larry, we’re going to have the best damn Reuben in the city,’ and he was like, ‘I got you.’” After so many treks and trials, there is a certain serendipity to the way Weber and Cercone came together when they did. For his part, Weber jokes that he was reared to stand behind a bar. “I always tell my mom and dad, when I ended up being a bartender for a long time, I was like, ‘You guys showed me Cocktail and Top Gun growing up. I was either going to join the Navy and try to fly jets or bartend, and you guys wouldn’t let me sign up for the Navy, so it’s your fault.’” Cercone had been interested in opening a new place for a while when Weber approached him. “It was kind of like both meeting at the same time, having a similar idea, and going, ‘Yeah, let’s give it a try,’” he says. The guys seem at ease in the space, as if they’re right where they’re supposed to be. While we’re talking, Weber’s parents walk in. He greets them with a big wave before crossing the room to show them the latest tweaks to the place. And while the guys have their escape plan ready— “We’ve got the grease trap in the kitchen with big manhole covers, and we’re like, ‘If it gets bad, we’re going,’” says Cercone, laughing—they’re ready for another adventure. “Part of this business is luck and timing and right place, right time,” says Cercone. “But you’ve got to risk. If you don’t risk, you never get anywhere, you know?” Hemingway’s Bar & Hideaway is now open at 438 Houston Street.
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Fuzz is a beautiful thing: it helped Hendrix transition from R&B guitarist to rock god; it defined Ron Asheton’s avantgarage playing with The Stooges (thus defining punk rock); and it made The Pixies’ loud-quiet dynamic possible (and by extension, Nirvana’s loud-quiet dynamic possible). Following in that fuzz tradition is Sad Baxter, a local duo (and former couple) that plays self-described “music 2 kill ur soul.” Sonically, Weirdy, singer-guitarist Deezy Youngdahl and drummer Alex Mojaverian’s debut full-length, brings to mind grunge linchpins like The Muffs and Hole. Lyrically, Youngdahl verges on Rivers Cuomo levels of angst and wit, which makes sense considering Sad Baxter’s harmonies wouldn’t be out of place on The Blue Album. Read what they had to say about sitcoms above, and catch them June 17 at Fond Object.
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ANIMAL OF THE MONTH
I consider myself a friend of all animals, but I’ll be honest and admit that some are a little harder to warm up to than others. Frankly, though, that’s probably a character flaw of mine. I mean, it’s not the snapping turtle’s fault that I don’t see that slumpy, muddy grump as the epitome of beauty. However, if you look hard enough, you can find some beauty in this beast. Snapping turtles are primarily an aquatic turtle and can be found in any kind of watery habitat from small creeks to lakes. However, they tend to prefer slow-moving water and spots with ample hiding places, such as ponds with soft muddy bottoms or abundant aquatic vegetation. Snapping turtles will sometimes bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of a body of water with only their nostrils and eyes exposed to ambush prey. When the unsuspecting passerby gets near, the snapper shoots its neck forward and nabs its victim. Snappers famously eat almost anything they can fit inside their jaws, which can include plants, insects, snails, fish, snakes, and birds. Given their penchant for the swampy digs, they are often covered in mud and algae. For this reason th seem much more inconspicuous than other turtles, they like the cooters, sliders, or softshells that sunbathe on fallen trees in Radnor Lake or the painted box turtles that bumble about forest floors. The snapper’s marshy adornments usually mean my encounters with them take me by surprise—which is odd, considering their size. An average snapping turtle can weigh ten to thirty-five pounds but can get up to eighty pounds! When it’s not slathered in mud, the turtle’s shell, or carapace, can be up to eighteen inches long and highly variable in color, from tan to black. They also have a relatively long, dragon-like tail, a feature unique to the snapper. The only
Written by Cooper Breeden*
turtle that resembles the common snapping turtle is the less common alligator snapping turtle, which looks exactly as you might imagine: it’s much larger than the common snapping turtle and has a thick shell with scaly ridges resembling the back of an alligator. Sometimes snapping turtles remind me of walruses in that they seem so uncomfortable moving around on land—why not just stay in the water? But I guess, in the end, snapping turtles aren’t too different from humans: when they’re hungry or in love, they’ll do things that might seem crazy to us clueless bystanders. Right now, we’re in prime snapping turtle mating season, so if you happ happen upon one, it’s likely because it’s in search of a mate. Once successful, the female snapping turtle will dig a nest and lay up to forty-five eggs. Snapping turtles are notoriously ill-tempered, which is one of the main reasons they may seem difficult to love. But in reality, their grumpiness is probably the exception rather than the rule. Most of us are likely only familiar with snapping turtles in the context of seeing sticks shoved in their faces, which they promptly snap in half. Most creatures have similar reactions to being cornered li this, but the snapping turtle is especially defensive like because it can’t retreat into its shell like other turtles. In the water, snapping turtles are actually known to be docile. The snapping turtle is quite common throughout the eastern United States and doesn’t seem to have succumbed to the human-imposed threats that other aquatic species have fallen victim to. The only exception is in the northern limits of its range, where populations have declined. Perhaps the beauty in this beast is that, despite all that’s been thrown at it, the snapping turtle has the grit to persevere in our ever-changing world.
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