City House and Santana

City House in Germantown area of Nashville is one of those restaurants that's always a good choice. It's the restaurant that we take out of town guests to; that we always recommend; and that's a family favorite.

We were early birds because we were pre-show dining so it was a bit sparse on our arrival.

But quickly filled with a bustling lively crowd.

We started with a broccoli salad that was crisp and lemony.

And my favorite octopus of all time outside of Hawaii.

The bread gnocchi is always a good choice.

And someone in our group ends up with a pizza. This one is with house-made belly ham and a fried egg.

We always leave room for the cookie plate but this time we splurged and got the sorghum panna cotta.

Well fed, we headed out to the Ryman to see Santana.

It was one of the biggest produced shows I've ever seen there.  Most Ryman shows are small and acoustically driven and hardly ever have the artist on a big screen.

But it came in handy when the giants in front wouldn't sit down.  Granted, it's hard to salsa when you are sitting and Carlos does make you want to get up and move.  I've never seen so many old hips moving around in my life! It gave me hope for my future.

Reservations for City House here.