Watch the corners (Nashville edition)

A weekend can easily sneak into a new place or two. In early December, Nashville flashed such an array of new facets. Despite the legion of new restaurants and boutiques rising everywhere to serve the new population, the city's older parts of town bear surprises

We started with the familiar - Nancy's company Christmas party. Familiar or not, the company finds unexpected party spaces around the city each year, from rooftop patios on Lower Broadway to West Nashville country clubs. For 2017, her company landed at the Cannery Ballroom. I expected the party would fill the Mercy Lounge, yet Cannery Row carried a twist. Along with the ballroom (which hosted the Jesus Lizard's first show in eight years, a sellout), the lounge and the Hi Watt, the third floor houses an event space with unexpectedly sharp skyline views. 

Midway through the proceedings, when the gin and tonics could have swung us toward an early night, we decided to join her friend Dorothy and her husband Jace for a cigar.  We barely had to walk 1,000 feet to Montecristo, a cigar bar on the edge of the Gulch.

Here sat an entire corner of the Gulch neither of us had explored. Tucked behind a jazz club and wedged among several breweries, Montecristo has a full cigar shop and a bar plus other settings for smoking cigars. We occupied the corner of large wooden table that could comfortably seat a dozen people.

Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve both pair exceptionally well with a cigar. I hadn't touched cigars since the last years of college (cigarettes were more socially acceptable). We sat and chatted until the hour grew late and the bar began to quiet.

Early Saturday we joined the columns of cars and pedestrians headed for Donelson Pike, our camping chairs deployed at a windy sidewalk spot along the Donelson Christmas parade route.

Colder than last year as the sun could not punch through the billowy gray sky, the parade felt more festive. Last year's parade fell on a rainy Sunday and drew handfuls of spectators. In the cold, people observed in greater numbers and dozens of floats cruised up Donelson Pike. To complete the Donelson tradition, we bought our Christmas wreath from JVI Secret Gardens, our Christmas display completed with the ring of pine on the front door.

We could have stopped there. Yet after months of perusing its restaurant directory, we finally stepped onto Plaza Mariachi. Built in a former Kroger , Plaza Mariachi is an indoor mall with a dozen restaurants, a Mexican grocery, dozens of small shops and a large food court with constant live entertainment from jugglers to mariachi bands.

After one restaurant switched to its dinner menu, we pivoted to El Ceviche Loco and received two hearty plates of the Latin American seafood delicacy for just $10. A second restaurant with an open bar provided dry Spanish rose to pair with our ceviches. Dessert came courtesy of Paletas Tocumbo, with dozens of fruit-based ice pops in its cooler.

The grocery, Mazfresco Market, immediately hit us with the smell of fresh-cooked corn tortillas. We left with all the tamales remaining at the hot bar, green chorizo sausages for Sunday breakfast and the freshest tortillas either of us ever tasted. They required no accompaniment, but still got one thanks to Mexican-style hot coffees at La Maduro, the sit-down restaurant at Plaza Mariachi's main entrance.

No matter the time, we cannot avoid Pulp Fiction on the big screen. This Saturday's opportunity came at a new venue. Tucked away in a Hermitage strip mall and attached to a tattoo studio,
Full Moon Cineplex, a one-screen theater that usually shows sci-fi and horror films. In recent months they branched into classics with screenings of Pulp Fiction and The Godfather. Once an eight-screen theatre, the building was gutted and the new owners restored a single screen along with a concessions area/bar decorated with old Star Wars and science fiction toys.

The lone employee walked us back to the theater where we awaited our old favorite. Pulp Fiction cruised by, smooth and satisfying as ever. Only two other couples came out on a cold night.

The night had one more act in store for us, shifting from full moon to half moon. As we crested the hill in our neighborhood, the burnt orange sliver dominated the northern sky. In a year replete with one super moon or another, this rising half-moon stunned us. We spent another hour of the cold night watching its steady rise. We were the only creatures active for blocks; even our clowder of community cats dispersed to their nightly hiding spots.

Through binoculars we scanned the craters along the terminator, their contrast sharper when adjacent to the moon's darkened half. Even at home, watching the watching the corners can unfurl the spectacular.