On Our Way to Music City - 03.23.25

We started today off as good as any day can get - with pancakes. We went to the Pancake Pantry, Tennessee’s first pancake specialty restaurant, for breakfast. The Pancake Pantry opened in 1960 and today offers 24 different varieties of pancakes as well as waffles, eggs, and many other breakfast favorites. The batters are made from fresh ingredients, and each syrup and compote are prepared in their kitchen. I ordered the Smoky Mountain Buckwheat Cakes which are a favorite mountain recipe for $10.40. I also added an over-easy egg to my meal. Avery ordered 8 silver dollar pancakes with bacon and apple juice. The food was good, and the restaurant was busy. We waited outside for about 20 minutes before we were seated. The prices at the Pancake Pantry compared to the Pancake House, where we ate the morning before, were more expensive. While both pancake restaurants were good, my preferred place is the Pancake House from yesterday. 

After we ate, we walked around Gatlinburg’s downtown letting our food digest. Once we felt like we soaked in the last bits of Gatlinburg, we began our 4-hour car ride back to Nashville. Along our way, we stopped at the infamous Buc-ee’s, Dairy Queen, and of course our favorite, Starbucks. Once we arrived in Nashville, we dropped our luggage off at our hotel before heading to the airport to return our rental car. After our rental was returned, we caught a Lyft back to our new hotel.

Avery and I settled into our new home for the week and freshen up before heading out to dinner. We went to Assembly Food Hall, a must do for reasonably priced food and all the variety you could ever need. I ordered two tacos from Velvet Tacos. I ordered the Rotisserie Chicken (queso blanco, roasted corn pico, charred tomato poblano salsa, cilantro, corn tortilla) and Mexi-Cali Shrimp (blackened shrimp, napa slaw, sriracha aioli, avocado, roasted corn pico, micro cilantro, flour tortilla). I also ordered a Salted Watermelon Margarita from Agave Maria at the AFH. Avery ordered a burger from Pharmacy Burger and a Strawberry Season from Agave Maria. Our food was delicious and the AFH was the perfect spot for us to each satisfy our different culinary preferences. We called it an early night after we ate as we had a long weekend behind us and I had a busy next few days ahead of me as I was attending a three-day Human Resources Talent focused conference.