At EXPO East 2016, INFRA members made up 75% of the nominees for the four Retailer of the Year awards, and swept the the awards won. Native Sun Natural Foods won for Best New Store, Nature’s Food Patch won for Community Engagement, Alameda Natural Grocery won for Sustainability, and Turnip Truck won for Innovation. We congratulate all of the nominees and winners for their great work in the industry.
The people of Nashville love their Publix and Whole Foods, but The Turnip Truck deserves the title of Best Market. The locally owned store has two locations and places a serious emphasis on sourcing locally. Reviewer Jason King said, “This is a nice natural food store with some great ready-to-eat meal options. The prices are reasonable (especially when compared to other natural food markets), and they always seem to have demos and samples out.”
Thank you note from the Turnip Truck: “WOW. Thank you, loyal customers, for supporting our dream of bringing local, organic food to Nashville. You did this!!!”
Our grocery-bag partnership with Catholic Charities’ Sewing Training Academy, empowering area refugees with job skills
A local charity has helped refugees around Nashville learn to sew in hopes of contributing to the city’s manufacturing industry.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A local charity has helped refugees around Nashville learn to sew in hopes of contributing to the city’s manufacturing industry.
Catholic Charities Sewing Academy has worked to build skilled sewers for today’s manufacturing industry.
In the meantime, students used their skills to make canvas bags for the Turnip Truck in Nashville. The men and women come from all over the world.
“So most of the students in the class at this point are refugees.We’vestudents from 10 different countries. A lot of the students lately have been from Nepal, Burma, Somolia, Syria, Iraq,” said Trishawna Quincy.
You can buy the limited edition bags at the Turnip Truck for $19.99.
Troy “Fraz” Frassrand (left) and Christi Frassrand of the competition barbecue team Chokin ‘N’ tha Smoke.Since Turnip Truck launched its splashy new store in East Nashville earlier this year, a lot of the attention has been on the locally owned natural market’s East Side operation. But Turnip Truck also has a prominent location in the Gulch, and this weekend it aims to show the love to its many customers there — by throwing a big customer appreciation party at Turnip Truck Urban Fare, located at 321 12th Ave. S.
The event is 2 to 6 p.m. this Saturday, July 16, and there will be a plethora of free samples on offer at the store, including items from Albert’s Organics, Boar’s Head, Bongo Java, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Real Water and Yazoo Brewing Company.
The party will also host a competition barbecue truck, Chokin “N” tha Smoke (out of Fayetteville, Tenn.), which will be serving up fresh barbecue chicken and ribs, smoked on-site, for customers to purchase. Live bluegrass music will add to the festive mood.
The wine in grocery stores law took effect Friday, and hundreds of retailers across the state started selling wine at 8 a.m. It’s a landmark shift in Tennessee’s alcohol laws that potentially has widespread impact on businesses and consumers.
See coverage from earlier today:
3:46 p.m.: Turnip Truck, East Nashville:
“Today’s the day,” one customer said while walking into the Turnip Truck in East Nashville.
Since Tennessee passed the new law allowing grocery stores to carry wine, the Turnip Truck has been planning for today.
On aisle 2, the shelves are stocked with some of the best organic wines a reasonable amount of money can buy, from bottles of Italian and French to cold cans of Oregonian Underwood.
The natural food store sold its first two bottles of red wine just after 8 a.m.
Within reach, customers can also pick up some fine cheese, cured meats, nuts or chocolate. At the start of the aisle, the Woodland Street grocery store has stocked wine tumblers, champagne flutes and bottle openers.
“If you’re headed to a party or just trying to pull together your evening, it’s one-stop shopping,” Turnip Truck chief operating officer Kim Totzke said.
Totzke, a former chef who has lived in the East Nashville neighborhood for 21 years, said the grocery store’s ability to sell wine is about convenience, not getting new customers. She handled the wine buying process from start to finish.
Totzke’s favorites? The Klinker Brick Old Vine Zinfandel and the Love Drunk Rosé. To try the Klinker, shoppers will have to check back another day because it already sold out this afternoon, along with two other brands.
“It’s definitely important to make sure everyone understands that your wine store is still there for that experience with the larger selection and the customer service of a full complete wine store,” Totzke said. She lauded nearby Woodland Wine Merchant for their quality of service.
One customer asked not to be photographed near the wine. He said his good friend owns a wine store but was on his way out with bottles of pinot noir and champagne.
“I will still shop at my favorite wine shop down the street, but I think it’s awesome,” Shawna Lee, 53, said. She was buying a bottle of organic Art of Earth Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. “A lot of states have this down, so it’s good Tennessee does now.”
While Dan + Shay spend most of their time on the road these days, when they do have some time off they can be found grabbing a bite at a few of their favorite local spots and catching up with friends, whether it’s at their record label offices or down on Broadway.
Here are Dan + Shay’s Nashville Favorites…
The Turnip Truck: “Turnip Truck definitely. Great organic food. Healthy food. It’s a cool place to hang out. They have great prepared food, hot bar, cold bar, soups.”
321 12th Ave S / theturniptruck.com
Robert’s Western World: “Robert’s Western World is our favorite bar. It’s one of the traditional honky tonks down on Broadway. There’s a magic to the music that’s being played there. There’s cheap drinks, they have grilled cheese, fried bologna sandwiches. It’s a whole experience.”
416 Broadway / robertswesternworld.com
Warner Music Nashville: “We love hanging out at our record label, our publishing company Warner Music Nashville. We signed here. It’s all of our friends. We love everybody here. It’s good people. They’re so supportive and they believed in our art. Any chance we get we’re roaming the halls, stealing people’s snacks, drinking coffee. We spend most of our time here.”
20 Music Square E / warnermusicnashville.com
Ocean Way Studios: “We like cutting our records there. We cut our new record there. We’re studio nerds. Even if we don’t have anything to record we go in there. It’s cool, inspiring vibes.”
1200 17th Ave S / oceanwaynashville.com
Chris DeStefano’s Condo: “We love that guy. Talk about a nerd in the best way. We’re all nerds. We love Star Wars and The X-Files. He is the greatest nerd ever. He’s got so many hit songs [so] he’s got some money in the bank for sure. He has all this memorabilia; the Back to the Future Casio watch, from the movie Alien he has the gun. He has toys to play with. We wrote ‘Nothin’ Like You’ there.”
