Nashville Part 2: The People

There is one main reason I would love to live in the south- southern hospitality. I love walking down a street or into a store and having someone smile and say hello. In DC people look down and bump into you as they hurry by.

In Nashville, they walk slowly, look up, and smile when they see you. And say how ya'll doing? I used to hate the word ya'll, but I'm beginning to think it's one of the friendliest words (if you could call it a word) in the english language. I came home from our trip swearing to be nicer and more considerate (especially to strangers).

Friday night after the expo we searched all over town for a good place to carb load (really just an excuse for me to eat pasta), and everywhere either had a long wait or didn't have anything that sounded good. Then my dad remembered this great restaurant, Mere Bulles, near our hotel that he'd been to once like a year ago. I asked if they had a table and if there was a dress code (my sister was in basketball shorts). The host smiled and said that he could seat us right away and that we were just fine as we were.

We sat down and because of a small miscommunication between servesr we didn't actually get to order anything until thirty minutes later. So we got another server about thirty minutes into our meal, and the rest of the evening was fantastic. I had a delicious warm goat cheese and spinach salad topped with an amazing strawberry viniagerette. They only had one pasta dish that didn't fill the bill for me so I ordered chicken crusted with honey, walnuts, and almonds with a cranberry BBQ sauce. I'm a lover of good food, and every part of our meal was outstanding. And the dessert was even better- chocolate cake, carrot cake to die for, and a strawberry dessert that was half cake and half cheesecake. What more could you want?

All of that for free.

The manager came out after we finished our desserts and told us that he comped our entire meal because of the delay when we were first seated. I still can't believe it. That's what I call standing behind your product. He wanted us to know that the restaurant is not normally like that and the free meal was his way of apologizing. Even without the free meal I would've recommended the restaurant based on the food and service, but to me that shows class. That shows accountability and a complete understanding of how to really take care of a customer.

That's kind of how the rest of the weekend was as well- people treating people like they genuinely cared. Like they were actually people and not just things. Amazing really. So wherever you are, whether you're in DC or Alaska- maybe today just be a little nicer to people. Say good morning to your neighbor that gets on the elevator or smile at the cashier at the grocery store. Just lookup and notice the people around you and try and make their day a little brighter. And if it's a group of people, maybe even throw in a ya'll.