The face of Nashville is changing so fast it’s hard to keep up. Any part of town you haven’t been to in a few months is apt to look entirely different when you come back.
The 30 minutes you always allotted yourself to arrive somewhere on time has now expanded to 45, and sometimes even that isn’t enough.
And we’re welcoming a new crew of enthusiastic Nashvillians every day – as many as 80 people are moving to the area daily, according to multiple sources. We anticipate an overall population of 1.9 million people by 2025.
New people means new stuff. And no matter how you feel about all this growth and progress, there are many treats in store for the upcoming year.
There really is something for everyone, from nature-lovers and foodie fans to arts patrons and mass-transit aficionados. Why not try on your hometown in a whole new light?
There are too many exciting things in store to mention here, so we narrowed the list to 16. Happy New Year, Nashville! And now, in no particular order, here are 16 things to do in 2016:
1. We love our hometown sports teams. That’s how a town with the occasional 75-degree Christmas came to embrace the sport of hockey, and that’s why we are PUMPED that the National Hockey League All-Star game is being played on the rink in our very own Bridgestone Arena Jan. 28-31.
Even if smooching the Stanley Cup isn’t on your 2016 to-do list, there will be many fun events in conjunction with this month’s NHL All-Star game.
-- Cal Sport Media Via Ap ImagesIn addition, Music City Center will be transformed into a family-friendly hub of all things hockey for those four days, with live music and TV, Meet the Mascots, interactive games, activities and, yes, an opportunity to touch and be photographed with the legendary Stanley Cup.
The NHL All-Star Weekend marks the first time the whole league will be in Nashville. Get your tickets, starting at $221 for the four-day event, as well as game schedules more info here: www.bridgestonearena.com/events/detail/2016-nhl-all-star-weekend
2. Come now, book-lovers, you didn’t think we’d leave out the pursuit of happiness curled up in a corner of your favorite over-stuffed chair, did you? The local bookstore has become almost obsolete, but luckily ours is a city of devoted bibliophiles.
It’s the only way to explain why Parnassus Books is more than doubling its Green Hills space in the first quarter of 2016, taking over the now-empty spot next door in tiny strip mall anchored by Donut Den and Levy’s.
The expanded Parnassus will be around 5,000 square feet of pure joy, allowing room for more books and larger author events. I’m shining up my reading glasses even as we speak.
3. Two words, music lovers: Dixie. Chicks. It’s been years since this trio of bad-ass songbirds performed in town – 10 years, to be precise, since they’ve toured the U.S. On Aug. 17, Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison will take the stage at Bridgestone Arena, and if Earl isn’t interested in going, then he simply has to die.
The Dixie Chicks are back, appearing at Bridgestone Arena on Aug. 17.
-- SubmittedTickets range from $65-$140 and are already on sale at Ticketmaster. Go to DixieChicks.com for more info.
4. Rubens and Goya, early Soviet films and photography, Ragnar Kjartansson and Samurai armor. Those are among the treasures you can expect to find this year at The Frist Center for the Visual Arts, which is free to youths 18 and younger, $12 for adults, $9 for seniors and college students with ID, and $7 for active military. You’d be hard-pressed to find culture at a lower price point.
5. Days of sunshine: 205. Average cost of Nashville nuptials: $26,000. Awesome wedding venues: 75, from country farms to presidential manors and everything in between, BorrowedandBlue.com tells us.
Make that 76 wedding venues, as wedding and event planner Kristin King sets her sights on opening The Sloane, a 6,000-square-foot bridal event space in The Gulch. Renovations start in January, and the space at 1101 Grundy St., which will feature a full catering kitchen, views of the city skyline and a double-sided elevator ample enough for the most elaborate of cakes, should be ready for its first wedding in early fall.
6. If you can avoid being kidnapped and somehow foil your ex-lover’s plot to cut your brake lines and force you into crashing against a boulder on the edge of town, either causing you your third case of amnesia or flinging you into a ravine, thereby leaving an opening for your evil twin to impersonate you and steal your fortune, well, you can go ahead and make reservations at Jack and Jameson’s Smokehouse.
Steve Burton and Jonathan Jackson, better known respectively as Ryan from “The Young and the Restless” and Lucky from “General Hospital” (and more recently as Avery from “Nashville”), are opening a barbecue joint/music venue in Franklin, where renovations at 509 Hillsboro Road are well underway. For a grand opening date, stay tuned…
East Nashville’s Two Son offers fashion-forward clothing and home goods on Main Street.
-- Photograph Courtesy Of Two Son7. Fashionistas and escapees from New York, L.A. and other trendier spots on the globe have more and more to choose from on Nashville’s design front.
Case in point: Two Son in East Nashville, an airy space at once minimalist and homey that features home goods and men’s and women’s lines from Norway, Japan, the U.S. and even two of the store’s owners, Leigh Watson and James Kicinski-McCoy. Think modern twists on classic go-to’s like jeans and tees. Now open at 918 Main St.
8. The tiny dining space at Trattoria A at 1210 West Main in Franklin means a couple of things:
Ricotta tortellini at Trattoria A
-- Ellen Margulies | The LedgerNo. 1, you’ll have no problem chatting up chef/owner Matthew Antonovich, who might well park himself in an empty chair next to you and tell you how he makes his spaghetti alla chitarra (guitar string pasta)
No. 2, you’ll be treated like Italian royalty.
Everything in the renovated, 27-seat cottage is fresh and made from scratch, and if you fancy a look at the kitchen you need only walk in. They’ll let you watch them work and even feed you a few samples of whatever’s on the stove.
9. Parks and recreation! Isn’t it nice to see that the whole city is injecting itself with refreshing new-project Botox, rather than just the usual park and rec hot spots? These projects will reach completion in 2016: the Hadley Tennis Complex renovation, the Una Park Sports Complex upgrade, Percy Warner Park parking improvements and road-to-trail project; and the Nashville Countywide Parks Master Plan (many public meetings, etc.)
10. There are certain things from L.A. we don’t need here: smog (it’s too humid, among other reasons), traffic (it’s getting close, though) and movie stars (we have plenty of stars already).
But there are a couple of things we’re thrilled to have: L.A. transplants (we’ll convert them into grits-eating, gun-toting Southerners in no time) and... Sprinkles Cupcakes. The bakery credited with kicking off the cupcake craze a decade ago has finally opened up a space in Music City, complete with its own vending machine. (See story above).
11. Celebrate some milestone anniversaries this year by getting your art and music on.
- First Saturday Art Crawl, Tinney Contemporary (August) and Schermerhorn Symphony Center (September) are all celebrating their 10th anniversaries
- Frist Center for the Visual Arts will mark 15 years in April
- Bridgestone Arena and The Arts Company will hit their 20th birthdays in December
- Mark your calendar for the 50th CMA Awards in November
- And please note that Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theater also reaches its golden anniversary in 2016
- Pick a hat and saddle up for the 75th Iroquois Steeplechase in May
- And finally, our old pal Jack has his sesquicentennial: Jack Daniels turns 150 years old this year.
Chef Deb Paquette will open Etc., her new Green Hills restaurant, this year.
-- Submitted12. Nashville foodie favorite Deb Paquette, chef/owner of Etch and the late Zola, is opening up a new eatery in Green Hills. Etc. will be open at 3790 Bedford Ave., with 80 interior seats and additional seating on the patio, by early summer. The menu and decor are still in development, but diners can expect an Etch-like vibe with creative, innovative and always delicious food.
13. The Main Library’s Salon@615 series, which has brought the likes of authors such as Garrison Keillor, Nikki Giovanni and Augusten Burroughs, has a whole new crop for us to graze on this year. You can expect many top names throughout the year as authors discuss their books with readers and sign copies. Writers set to appear this winter are:
Elizabeth Strout, author of “Olive Kitteridge,” at 6:15 Jan. 21 for her new book, “My Name is Lucy Barton”
Hoda Kotb and Jane Lorenzini, Today show co-host and New York Times best-selling author respectively, at 3 p.m. Jan. 31 for their new book, “Where We Belong: Journeys that Show Us the Way”
Debbie Macomber, best-selling romance novelist with more than 170 million books in print, at 6:15 p.m. Feb. 24, for her new book, “A Girl’s Guide to Moving On”
For more information, go to nashvillepubliclibrary.org/salonat615
14. Another ramen house in Nashville? Yes, please.
Tennessee Tonkotsu from Otaku Ramen
-- Photograph Courtesy Of Hannah MessingerOtaku Ramen opened its doors Dec. 19 in The Icon Building in The Gulch, a permanent place to call home and from which to serve locally sourced pork-bone based broths, hot chicken buns and Japanese whiskey, among other delights. After three years serving via a pop-up shop, chef/owner Sarah Gavigan couldn’t have asked for – or given – a better Christmas present.
15. Our own little Nashville International Airport isn’t so little anymore.
While once upon a time we had a London connection, we went through tough times when our struggle to hold onto the “international” part of the moniker was based solely on flights to Canada.
Lately, the airport is scrapping the 10-minute parking pickups and expanding the postage-stamp sized cell phone waiting lot to accommodate all the extra travelers. Oh, and did we mention, as of May 5 there’s going to be a nonstop flight between Nashville and San Francisco via United Airlines? Sure, it’s a way to recruit Silicon Valley types, but more importantly, California-with-no-layovers, here I come!
16. Oh, Virginia, this may be the most magical thing-to-do of all: The Music City Transit Tracker. In 2016, you can actually access real-time bus schedules on your smartphone or tablet while waiting at the bus stop. Just imagine: Knowing when the bus will come may get more people to ride and even... reduce traffic. Mind blown. (See story above.)