🎵 Nashville’s delightful new music festival

🌺 Say Aloha to Music City Uke Fest

Nashville’s most delightful new music festival is Music City Uke Fest! Host Grace Fuisz sits down with founder Melanie Ching to get a preview of where every ukulele player in town should plan to be from August 1-4. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

⛔ Neo-Nazis Disrupt Metro Council Meeting

Members of the neo-Nazi group Whites Against Replacement disrupted Tuesday night’s Metro Council meeting. After multiple racist outbursts from the group, At-Large Council Member Zulfat Suara cleared the gallery, saying, “I want to say to all these visitors from out of town: You are not welcome here.” [The Tennessean]

• Sen. Heidi Campbell discussed the increasing local presence of neo-Nazis on yesterday’s podcast. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🏛️ Mayor Proposes Independent Counsel for Community Review

Mayor Freddie O’Connell met with members of the Community Review Board last week to discuss allowing the board to retain independent counsel, rather than share the services of Metro Legal with the police department. [Nashville Banner]

• Listen to CRB chair Alisha Haddock explain the board’s need for independent counsel. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🌭 Daddy’s Dogs Is Opening a Bar

Daddy’s Dogs owner Sean Porter has secured a lease for Gramps Garage Bar, a “vintage garage” concept, to open in East Nashville. Porter calls owning a bar “every dude’s dream.” [🔒 Nashville Business Journal]

• The new joint will be located in the already-hopping neighborhood of East Hill. [City Cast Nashville]

It’s time. Your Burger Queen is here with a final review of the Nashville Scene’s Burger Week 2024. There were over 60 restaurants participating in Burger Week this year, and I can only consume so many burgers, so I had to narrow my scope. As a smashburger enthusiast, I decided to stick to smashburgers this year — and I’m getting scientific with it, folks.

🧐 The Criteria

• Burgers must be explicitly called “smashburgers” to qualify.
• I cannot go anywhere I would spend more on parking than the burger (sorry, Downtown).
• I can only go to restaurants I haven’t been to before (most notably excluding Pharmacy and Burger Republic).

🔬 The Methodology

First and foremost, I followed the Burger Week Commandments and tried an extra side or drink (when possible) and made sure to tip based off of the original burger price. I brought buddies along to give second opinions, and I created a worksheet so we could all take notes with a standardized rubric. The rubric specifically graded each burger on bun, sauce, patty, and toppings. We also took notes on the dining experience and any extra sides we tried. Again, we’re being scientific here — Burger Week is no joke.

🤓 The Obstacles

• As Chris Chamberlain warned us in our Burger Week episode, some restaurants ran out of their special burger before I could get there. This unfortunately happened at Red Perch so I didn’t get a chance to try that one. This is extra sad because Red Perch won “Best Traditional Burger.” I’ll get ‘em next year.
• Despite Burger Week’s official partnership with Uber Eats this year, it was hard to find restaurants that had their Burger Week burger on the app. Given that prices are inflated on Uber Eats and with fees, you’re looking at much more than $7 for a burger. This made it challenging to have burgers for lunch, and, inevitably, led to less burger consumption.
• I cannot lie — I reached Burger Fatigue probably around day 3 and was slightly less excited to chow down as we got into the latter half of the week. I think I will probably be bloated for the rest of the month.

Drumroll please …