Harris Teenier

Consider this my audition for Metroblogging Nashville, since nobody but Wage and Kate O’ seem to be posting anymore…

I had a meeting yesterday afternoon in the L & C Tower and I was actually a couple of minutes early for my appointment. I’m sure you felt the earth quake, because that doesn’t happen very often. So I figured I’d drop into the new HG Hills Urban Maket at the Viridian on its opening day. Here’s what I found:

This place is TIGHT. Not like, hip-hop badass tight. I mean don’t try to walk down the aisles with a briefcase over your shoulder tight. There was a good crowd of urbanites checking out the scene and more than enough store employees waiting anxiously to assist them. Pretty much everybody who got laid off when HG Hills closed almost every other grocery store they had in Nashville must have been offered a gig here.

I think the new urbanists will definitely appreciate this store as a place to shop that sells more than malt liquor, single cigs and Hostess Sno-Balls. The decor was very attractive and the lighting was appropriately non-glaring. I, of course, immediately went to check out the beer selection.

Sorry it’s out of focus. I have a crappy cell phone camera and I figured this would be a more appropriate representation of how the beer cooler will probably look to your typical late-night shopper. Their selection and pricing was pretty good, kinda like a Mapco on steroids.

Here’s a shot of the produce section, I know it was the first day, but the freshness and selection looked excellent to me. Here’s hoping they can keep it up so that the new generation of Young Nashvillians aren’t beset with scurvy.

Speaking of freshness, the meat and deli section was fairly extensive, and the prices seemed really reasonable. They did have a limited sushi selection that was extremely expensive. First bad news, I didn’t see anybody who looked like a sushi chef around. I wouldn’t be looking forward to eating catfish sushi prepared by a butcher. No offense. There are lots of other more reasonable sushi options within walking distance downtown, so I don’t expect they’ll hang their hat on this one.

On the whole, the store should be an important addition to the infrastructure needed to support Nashville’s new Urbanism. I hope that it can maintain enough traffic to stay viable. I think I heard that they will be rent-free for a few years thanks to the developers of the Viridian. That’s a smart move. Now if they can just figure out a place for all those Paris Hilton pocketbook dogs to go to the bathroom…