It’s 1982. I’m a sophmore in high school, sent downtown on a dog food run. Mom gives me directions: “Go down Broadway and stop just before you get in the river. It’s Acme Farm Supply. You can’t miss it.”
She was right. Acme Farm Supply, featuring red and white checkerboard patterns on the facade and stacks of seeds and dog food on the sidewalk, was easy to spot. Plus, parking was easy. (Hey, downtown Nashville back in the day – just pull up to the door.)
Once inside, I recall dusty wooden floors and high wooden ceilings and support posts lining the cavernous space, all bearing the scars and scrapes and scratches of those who had come before: the Cummins Brothers’ Grocery Store, the Southern Soda Works, the Continental Baking Powder Company. Everyone there, most in baseball caps, seemed to know each other’s name and spoke with accents that, a quarter-century later in Nashville, would not be nearly so common. I recall carrying a heavy bag of dog food to the car while a stranger opened the trunk and called me “son.”
Now, twenty-five years further on, I leave the same building. Only, this time, instead of a bag of dog food, I have a doggy bag – shrimp and grits (And ohmygosh good!). Tom Morales – an area native and true Nashville visionary – has just given me a tour of Acme Feed & Seed, the downtown hotspot where fast-casual dining and down-home tradition have met and fallen in love. Word space precludes full justice to this place, but, suffice it to say, Tom and his team have provided Nashville with a cultural triumph that works on all levels: historically, artistically, gastronomically, and socially. As Tom says, “It was from the heart. It was not a business plan.”