MURRAY — Like many who frequent downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Terry and Judi Little are waiting to hear updates on the status of some of their favorite places in the wake of last week’s bombing.
For the Murray couple, the area of greatest concern is a place they have come to know quite well, the 21c Hotel. It is located at 221 Second Ave. N., which is about a block north of where authorities say a Nashville-area resident parked an RV equipped with a bomb last Friday morning and detonated the device. Numerous buildings containing businesses and attractions that have helped downtown Nashville become a popular place for visitors have reportedly been destroyed or badly damaged.
“We discovered 21c Hotels 10 years ago and they have eight (throughout the country) and there will be a ninth soon. At all of them, though, we’ve gotten to know their front-end staff and management,” Little said Tuesday, then going into how well he and Judi know the staff at the Nashville hotel.
“We’ve stayed at the 21c in Nashville probably a dozen times and, while we’re there, we’ve gotten to know their employees, or at least people who were employees until the pandemic came along because certainly there have been changes with the whole hospitality industry.
“So we’ve gotten to know them pretty personally, and I’ll tell you how personal it can be. About two months ago, one of their bellmen sent us a text just to check on how we were doing. Yeah, we’ve developed that kind of relationship with their people.”
Terry said Tuesday that the best he can do is guess as to what kind of damage the 21c might have sustained in the Christmas Day incident.
“I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t some form of damage to the building. It’s not as sheltered on the south side because the building next to it is not as tall. The 21c is eight stories tall,” he said. “The one thing we are sure about is, at 6:30 Christmas morning, there were not a lot of people in the hotel. As far as I know, the guests and staff, everyone who was inside, were safe and uninjured.
“There are penthouses on the eighth floor and the regular rooms and suites start on the seventh. The bottom three floors are devoted to art and the restaurant. We’re very much worried about (the hotel). Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to be there since February (just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country) and we really miss our friends down there and we miss the atmosphere down there. It’s a place where we can really relax and enjoy ourselves and we really look forward to being there.”
Little said that while the pandemic has kept him and his wife away from Nashville and the 21c, they have still been able to participate in activities involving the hotel thanks to virtual communication. This was demonstrated about two or three weeks ago when the chef of the Gray and Dudley restaurant inside the 21c, Matt Bell, hosted a Zoom event in which he presented a cooking lesson for one of the meals for which Gray and Dudley is known.
“It was in support of the (Tennessee Performing Arts Center) and people in Nashville could buy a package that had all of the ingredients to make these four items. It was roasted chicken filled with compote butter over onions, acorn squash with salsa verde, sweet potatoes that were fabulous and crepes with caramel sauce,” Terry said. “I made the crepes a short time after the lesson for one of Judi’s Sunday morning breakfasts, but the rest of it was going to be our Christmas dinner.
“Well, of course, everything went ‘boom!’ in Nashville on Christmas Day, but we went ahead and did it Christmas Night. But they published the recipes and we watched him do everything (on Zoom), and what was really interesting is he did it right there in the restaurant.
“The restaurant is called Gray and Dudley. When the building where the hotel is now was originally built, it was a hardware wholesaler’s distribution building and the original company was named Gray and Dudley, so they named the restaurant after Gray and Dudley.”
Terry said he and Judy, as is the case with much of the staff at 21c, have met Bell on occasion when he emerges from the kitchen to greet guests. He said Bell has not been with Gray and Dudley too long; he said they were able to know Bell’s predecessor quite well.
He said he has come to know that at least a few other restaurants in the Second Avenue area probably are beyond repair.
“And that’s a damned shame,” he said. “We go up and down Second Avenue when we are there and another place we like to go is The Frist Art Museum (on Broadway, a bit west of the blast site) because they’re always changing exhibits. And when we have friends come in (to Murray), they always want to go to Nashville and the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.
“I still love Murray, but there are times where it’s nice to get to a place that’s a little more urban. We are for sure waiting to hear how things are down there because the first place we’re going to go when we get our vaccine (for COVID-19) is the 21c Hotel. We’ve already made plans, even before the bombing.”
