After we finished setting up our small booth at the 2011 Summer NAMM show at the Nashville Convention Center, my colleague, Ian, and I began to walk back toward our hotel thinking about getting something to eat. Mexican sounded good, especially a cold margarita. We came upon an old alley way off 4th St. called The Arcade. It housed some tourist shops and restaurants and we found a Mexican restaurant called La Playa about 3/4's down the way from the 4th St. entrance (see map). We decided to give La Playa a try.
The Arcade, itself, is the oldest shopping complex in Nashville, and quite possibly the South. It was built in 1902 and designed after a similar shopping arcade in Italy. It's located in what was formerly the Overton alley and is in between 4th and 5th Streets in downtown Nashville. It went through a major renovation in the past few years, but it's still somewhat of a tourist trap with trinket shops and specialty food outlets.
The Arcade is two stories high and is covered with a glass roof the length of the building. State flags hang from the upper walls of the Arcade. And the thing that sort of amazed Ian and me was the fact that many of the restaurants in The Arcade were only open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (In fact, as a testament to how Nashville rolls up the streets at night, many restaurants that we saw away from the Lower Broadway area had limited their open hours to daytime only.) It was getting close to 2 p.m. when we got into La Playa.
The inside of LaPlaya is brightly colored with murals painted on stucco walls of a Mexican village courtyard on the main level. But it's pretty small and I'm sure there could be some long waits for tables. There are a handful of tables on the first floor and a couple outside the front, but there are a larger number of booths and tables on the second level. The upper level is where we were shepherded to and were placed in a booth.
The first thing we found out was that LaPlaya didn't have margaritas. Or beer, for that matter. It was a non-alcoholic restaurant. Well, so much for our plan of getting a margarita after set up at the convention center. Ian got a soft drink and I just opted for water.
The menu at La Playa was also pretty limited and it wasn't all that adventurous. It was the typical burritos, enchiladas, tacos - that sort of thing. Chips and salsa were provided, but they didn't have much pizazz to the taste.
I ended up ordering a beef burrito. Ian - you know, I don't remember what Ian got because I was so hungry and sort of upset that I couldn't get at least a beer with my meal. We ordered up and in typical Mexican restaurant fashion the food came to us pretty quick. Or it came out quick because they wanted us to eat up and get the hell out.
And, quite actually, my burrito was pretty good. No, it was damn good. It was large, full of seasoned beef and topped with a creamy white cheese that didn't hinder the taste of the meat. The burrito was surprisingly good and I normally don't go for burritos all that often.
Our lunch at La Playa was pretty cheap, too. Even with a drink and a tip, the bill came to just a bit over 20 bucks. It was a lot of food for a low price. La Playa was a good value with above average food. The only strikes against it that it doesn't serve alcohol. Still, for a lunch place that is only open 3 hours a day, it probably doesn't need to serve alcohol to make money. La Playa was a good find for a good and quick Mexican meal.
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