Fiesta Mexicana

Wednesday, February 11 was the second day of my 3-day conference for work in Nashville, TN.  They let us have one hour and fifteen minutes for lunch.  I thought this was enough time to walk the 2/3 of a mile from the hotel to Arnold’s Country Kitchen where I had eaten lunch the day before and greatly enjoyed it.  Another conference attendee who I had first met at the previous conference in Indianapolis came with me.  We walked nearly one block to the southeast, but a thunderstorm of rain and strong winds made the walking difficult.  My umbrella flipped a couple of times.  We decided to go somewhere closer and spotted Fiesta Mexicana less than one block south of the hotel on 4th Street.  Getting to the entrance required climbing a fairly steep driveway and passing an elevated parking lot behind the restaurant.

We entered into a kind of parlor area.  There was a blackboard on an easel with some specials listed.  The hostess came and seated us at a table near the bar.  It seemed like an older building with large rooms and high ceilings.  There was some Mexican and tropical themed décor on the walls and tables.  The menu was fairly extensive for a Mexican restaurant in Nashville.  They had all the usual Mexican dishes: burritos, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, etc.  They served things in combinations or a la cart.  They had separate menu sections for Platos de Pollo (chicken dishes), vegetarian dishes, and especialidades.  They also had some less common dishes such as Parrilla Mexicana (chorizo, shrimp, chicken, carne asada, and carnitas), fajitas texanas, and Bistec a la Lampiquana.  The menu seemed similar to La Parrilla back home only not as extensive.  I was leaning towards getting fajitas as I normally do at Mexican places, but decided to get something less expensive because I wasn’t sure about my work’s per diem budget.

They didn’t bring our food right away but it didn’t take too long.  My Pollo a la Mexicana was pretty good.  They complied with my request to hold the sour cream.  The chicken was very good, flavorful but not too spicy.  The flour tortillas that came with it made delicious little tacos.  The Mexican rice on the side was also good but the best parts were the vegetables: the grilled mushrooms, onions, and peppers, and the raw lettuce and guacamole.  They made the meal very good and very substantial.  My colleague finished more quickly than I did.  After we were both done we waited for our waiter to take our checks.  We soon figured out that we had to pay at the register.  After doing so we returned to the conference.

 My colleague, who works for Noridian in Fargo, ND, mentioned that he plays broomball that’s like ice hockey only they wear suction cups on shoes rather than skates.  He travels around with his team and once in Italy some of his teammates wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant.  We likened this to eating at a Mexican restaurant in Nashville.  He also mentioned that he met a broomball team owner from Socal who seemed very wealthy.  He asked the owned what he did and the owner said he was a master baker.  My colleague didn’t think a master baker could be as wealthy as this owner and inquired further.  He learned that this master baker had the bun contract for all the McDonald’s restaurants in the Socal region.  We returned to the conference and I later learned that my coworker and her husband who also came to Nashville had tried Fiesta Mexicana and liked it so much that they returned there to pick up lunch the next day.  Who knew you could have decent Mexican food in Nashville?