Home Zone Quality Painting

I don't have much to say about Home Zone Quality Painting other than that I am ecstatic about my new paint job! I bought 2 Groupons ($85 each room) a while back, but Home Zone is a very small company, so they were SWAMPED since so many people bought them. I wasn't in a hurry, so that worked out perfectly.

Home Zone is a family company: Jonathan is the painter and his wife Denby is the entire support staff. For big jobs they sometimes bring in a couple other folks. Needless to say, when Jonathan showed up Tuesday morning I really wasn't expecting much. I was just hoping for the best.

Jonathan was about an hour late (sometime after 10am), but Denby called to let me know he was running behind, so I wasn't that broken up about it. Besides, I'll do anything to avoid going to work in the morning. When he showed up by himself, I was slightly worried about it getting done properly since I was having my kitchen/dining room painted. That's a lot of cutting in! Plus, he had to move the fridge and the stove to get the area behind them. Maybe that's not a daunting task to a career painter, but I thought it seemed like a big job for one little dude.

So when Jonathan showed up I told him to paint everything that was the ugly red color, and I asked him if he could remove the blinds in the dining room and paint the inside of the windows. (I couldn't figure out how to get them down myself.) After that, I ran off to work and left him to do his magic.

I got a picture message on my phone of my new beautiful green walls to let me know the job was complete around 1:30pm. I asked Denby if Jonathan could lock up since I had to go to a meeting. When I finally got home a couple hours later, I was blown away. The color was completely smooth, and the cutting in lines were so straight. And he did it all in just a few hours! All by himself! I just can't get over it.

I asked Denby how much they typically charge for a 12x15 room, so I could make sure I had the facts for this review. I think you will all want to set up your own appointment ASAP because (drumroll please) ... they charge $99 a room! That's without a Groupon. Jonathan will paint the trim as well for another $40 a room, and you can have the ceiling painted for an extra $20. For my open concept dining room/kitchen, it would have been about $200 without the Groupon discount, and that's still an AMAZING price.

P.S. If you like the color, it's Benjamin Moore Natura in Brookside Moss.

Allium

Wow. Morgan and I have been Groupon-happy the last few days. I doubt we'll be able to keep up with this pace for much longer. Okay, on to my review...

I went to Allium for Sunday brunch with my brother and my mom. For those of you who are unaware, Allium is in the 5th and Main building in East Nashville (right over the James Robertson bridge). First off, I'd like to say that I'm really sad about what happened to that building. It obviously is set up to be an amazing hip urban living situation, but somehow with the economy that didn't work out. They have underground parking, which is great, but when we surfaced on the main level it was very apparent that there isn't much going on up there. Currently, 5th and Main houses Otter's and Allium, and that's pretty much it. The condos (so cute and modern) appear to be abandoned for the most part. I really hope that they manage to bring in some more businesses and residents because it's a great location.

Despite the rest of the complex being a ghost town, Allium was decently busy at 1:30 on a Sunday. Due to the unnaturally warm weather we're having (I guess global warming is back on), there were several people sitting out on the patio. We chose to sit inside since both me and my mom are cold-natured. The inside of the restaurant is lovely. They have floor to ceiling windows, which let in tons of light. I imagine at night the view of downtown would be really nice. The decor is modern and simple, and the dining area is quite large.

On to the food! I ordered the regular french toast, which was nothing special. Thankfully, they used lots of eggs (it was even listed on the "egg" portion of the menu), which is the way I like my french toast. My brother ordered the blueberry/blackberry french toast, which he said was in the middle of the rankings for all the french toast he has ever eaten. But the rest of the food definitely made up for the unexceptional french toast. I ordered the pepper jack grits, and they were a-MA-zing. They were creamy spicy cheesy deliciousness. I ate every single bite of my HUGE side order even though I was already full. My mom ordered the mushroom and spinach cheesecake, which she said was incredibly rich. We also ordered the popovers, which are kind of like a crusty breadier version of donuts. They were definitely worth the mess they took to eat as they were covered in powdered sugar. I think the best thing we ordered was the goat cheese and red onion tart. I'm a total sucker for goat cheese.

I definitely want to come back for dinner sometime so I can try the potato gnocchi that's on the dinner menu and check out the skyline view. Also, I'd really like to try their croque madame as it appears on all three of their menus (lunch, dinner, and brunch). The prices are very reasonable for such a high end looking place, so I think I'll have to do a girls' night out at Allium sometime in the future.

Finally, I got the thin mint cheesecake to go. I tried one bite at the restaurant, and it tasted pretty damn delicious to me. But really, anything involving thin mints is bound to be good.

Cafe Coco's Italian Market & Kitchen

Now I really like Cafe Coco so I was super looking forward to using my Groupon for Coco's Italian Market, or the full name, Cafe Coco's Italian Market and Kitchen. Whew, that's a long one. My father came to town for the day so I decided to take him and my significant other out to 51st to try this place out.

The place is super cute. I love the way they have the market laid out and it has a good variety of things to purchase, like chocolate, books, coffee, food, and gelato. Beer is available. Prices are also super affordable. Like Cafe Coco, you order your food at the counter and then have a seat. Having been to Cafe Coco before I knew the drill, but others with me and other people in the store at the same time seemed to be a bit confused about what to do. Coco's Italian Market offers both indoor and outdoor seating. While I didn't much care for the view from the patio, the patio itself is great and I really enjoyed sitting out there. The day was so nice, having an outdoor option was a definite plus.

All three of us wound up ordering sandwiches and all three were good and very affordable. My Dad got the Torpedo ($7) and definitely enjoyed it. My boyfriend got the meatball sub ($8) which was really good! It is not very saucy which is how I like my meatball subs. I got the Chicken Pepper Melt ($8). My melt was good but the peppers were a little oily and I wound up blotting some of the oil off. All three of us got the pasta salad which I liked, but the menfolk wished had a little more flavor. The menfolk still ate it all so don't take their pasta opinions to heart too much. I enjoyed it mainly because it reminded me more of actual Italian dishes which tend to not have the overwhelming flavors some of their American counterparts do. Their menu is available online at www.italianmarket.biz. Next time I will have to try the pasta or pizza.

After we ate, my Dad wanted to buy some chocolate for my stepmother which lead to a lot of annoyance on his part. He waited, and waited and waited and watched cooks moving back and forth basically ignoring him until he finally gave up and left without the candy. This is really not cool. I understand if it's not your job to handle the candy section but at least acknowledge the customer and let them know someone will help him shortly. I have a lot of patience for these sort of things, but this definitely irked my father.

I think I will probably come back here, especially for lunch and gelato, but my Dad probably would not because he was pissed off about the lack of service. The sandwiches were good, the clientele didn't irk me, the place was cute, and it was super affordable. I would recommend this to other people with a disclaimer to not get your hopes up for personalized attention.

More on the Wine Loft

Oh, Groupon. The savior of my social life. Morgan insisted that we venture out last night, and I happily obliged. There was talk of gay boys joining us, but a text message from one saying that he had had a "long day o" and stating that "om jave," was enough to indicate that they were bailing. But who needs 'em anyway! Day-o, me say day-o! Daylight come and me wanna get drunk!

As Morgan stated the ambiance in the Wine Loft was very hip and modern. I was a little disconcerted by the fact that I was forced to sit on a poof, and the table was even with my clavicle, but there was wine to drink, so it can't be all bad. What scared me more was the clientele. Now, I know the Gulch is ... different. I mean, who moves to Nashville, TN and chooses to live in a luxury studio apartment with no grocery store close by when they could have bought a 3 bedroom single family house with a yard and a garage? Well, I know I only saw them from far away and did not really get to interact with them, but my guess is: douchebags. Wait, can I say that on a blog? Look, I'm a lawyer. So I don't know a lot about food or wine or other classy stuff, but I know a douchebag when I see them. And I saw a lot of them last night.

Personally, I found the prices to be a bit high. Especially, since there is a very popular wine bar (Rumours East) on the East side and its sister bar in the 12S area (Rumours), which are much cheaper. Although with the Groupon, I guess that doesn't really matter. Yay for Groupon making overpriced hipster bars affordable for the lowly masses.

As for the food, I was not that impressed. Granted we only tried Three Spreads (olive and fig tapenade, hummus, and baba ganoush), but it just didn't wow me. Plus, it took the waitress a good 15 minutes to bring us more pita bread. Morgan's theory was that she had to go slay the great Pita beast. I think it probably had more to do with the fact that we weren't ordering the Dom and rolling with our groupies.

Wow. This review took a very negative turn somewhere around paragraph 2. Oh well. What disappointed me most about the Wine Loft was leaving and realizing that even though we were in "the Gulch," there was no where we wanted to bar hop to. I'll be more into that whole area when it has more to offer, but until then, I will continue to judge it harshly (and probably unfairly).

To close, I still had a fabulous night out with Morgan. We always do. But next time, my vote is for Rumours East.

P.S. I have my own Wine Loft Groupon that I intend to use with my mom, so watch for that review. Maybe I'll change my mind and grow to love the place. Or maybe not.

The Wine Loft Groupon

Friday night, Cate and myself ventured out to the Gulch to use my January $15 for $30 Groupon for The Wine Loft Wine Bar in The Gulch (503 12th S). For those of new to town, the Gulch is towards downtown Nashville on 12th S. Basically, where the two giant surprisingly modern looking LEED certified condos are located is the Gulch (you can see from West End and Broadway).

Of course, in typical Morgan fashion, I did not notice the Groupon said reservations were required until I was leaving to go to the bank and swing by Cate's. Of course, this also means I call Cate with a bunch of OMGZ and WTFzz, and she calmly tells me to STFU, calls over to the Wine Loft, and gets us a reservation. Ding, mission accomplished! Parking in the Gulch is disasterous, but conveniently there is Valet parking right outside. Of course, the valet parking is also at a red light and holds up traffic, resulting in lots of honking and irate cab passengers, but hey - not my problem!

So the Wine Loft has a pretty cool look. Basically, the outside looks sort of like you are going in to an illicit establishment in an abondoned warehouse to do all sorts of sneaky things. The inside is interesting to look at as well. The Wine Loft has very low lighting, lots of velvety couches for your clothing to cling to, little cut fluffy stools to sit on, and black lizard texture tables which are pretty awesome. Refreshingly for me, the music was not country which I'm not a huge fan of. Unfortunately for Cate, it was dance music of the, you know, redundant techno variety which would not have been her first choice. Well, too bad Cate!

So on to the important reviewy stuff: the service was good although a little slow. However, slow worked for us as we were looking to chill and hang out and not in a mad rush to get on to the next location. The food menu looked really good, but a lot of really amazing looking dishes had shrimp in them so heads up if you have seafood allergies.

We went with the Lunetta Prosecco which was $45 for the bottle ($9 for the glass) and the trio of dips with pita bread. Of course, the food is the one thing not listed on their online menu, so I am going to have to try to remember exactly what it was which means I will probably be off base. There was definitely hummus, an olive and fig tapenade, and something I can't remember (Cate help me) but it was spicy and awesome. EDIT: See Cate's post on the baba ganoush, definitely the best part.

The place was a little pricey but the prosecco was good, and there were quite a few options. The clientele seemed a little too serious for me, but if you are the type that enjoys having a glass of wine and expressing deep thoughts with Jack Handy, you'll probably fit in well. There was a cool group of people that went upstairs for a party but since neither of us were invited we were forced to stay downstairs with the serious folks. The couple near us that kept making out would probably like me to add that the Wine Loft has a very romantic ambience and would be a good place to impress a chick or dude on a first date.

Overall it was not bad. I don't know if I would go back for every day type of gatherings, but it would probably be a good place to go if you have a hip business client from out of town and your corporate card. I would also probably go back if I had to stage a relationship intervention and needed a place were I could confront someone about how horrible their relationship is, because it is a public place so no one can kill you but it does sort of feel secluded at the same time. However, they do have deals including a Tuesday night half off for all bottles of wine, which I think may also draw in more of my kind of people.

Ratings on the MorgyMeter:
Environment: 4
Potent Potables: 4
Cheap Factor: 2 - EXCEPT TUESDAY! Half off bottles = way more affordable!
Clientele: 2

So overall, I guess it's a 3 unless its Tuesday. If someone wanted to meet there I'd oblige, but it's just not my scene. I had a good time, but I'm not necessarily going to seek it out if it's not a Tuesday because as Cate mentions above me, there are more affordable options if you are willing to leave the Gulch.

Getting our Groupon

First and foremost, before I delve into the ever fascinating and entertaining stories of purchasing things, the purpose of this blog must be explained.

What is a Groupon? you ask. Are these babes stupid and just can't spell or speak English? Well, possibly but not in the way you might be thinking. See, there is a happy website called Groupon: (http://www.groupon.com/nashville/deals). The purpose of Groupon is to use the power of buying bulk to get people fabulous deals. If enough people buy the Groupon for the day (which has always happened for me), the Groupon is "tipped" and everyone runs off into the night with their $10 for $20 at Cafe Coco's Italian Market http://www.cafecoco.com/ Groupon. Fun times are then had by all within a certain period of time, usually 4-6 months, and all is right in this stingy world.

While sitting at The Wine Loft (http://www.thewineloft.net/intro/) enjoying our Groupon, Cate and myself pondered why we weren't blogging. Seriously though, why weren't we? Especially when we are both actively trying to visit new places in Nashville AND save money. Since we also love Groupons why not mush them all together into one big happy blogspot posting (mainly because we are also obsessed with Google).

So that is a short summary of why this exists and what you need to know. I will try to make sure that all posts to places include a link to the establishment's website for easy access. I will include disclosures if they bribe me for any reason. I do not work in the food industry. I am not cool enough to work for the Nashville Scene. Unfortunately, all I am is a creatively unstimulated late 20's professional with a boyfriend and a friend and nothing better to spend the money in my "entertainment" budget on, sorry Arrow! (http://www.arrownashville.com/ don't click that if you are scared of nude male entertainment.... HA!)