There are a few wise rules to live by, and one of them, surely, is never to take advice about BBQ from a vegetarian. But this is a unique circumstance, and I beg you to live dangerously for a minute and hear me out.

You may have heard of a happy little place in Berry Hill called Mothership BBQ. Heck, you may have eaten there once or twice. (In which case I’m sure I don’t need to tell you it’s good. Hey, I report what I hear.)

What you may not know is that the Mothership is in peril. The owner, also known as blogger Nashville Knucklehead, has put out a request for investors to step forward:

I have busted my ass getting this prototype where it is today. I have worked 70 to 80 hours a week for nearly a year. I am really really tired, but I am dedicated to this project. However, I need $50,000 for the move. I am willing to sell more equity in the company than that amount of investment would usually get. I have a business plan. I’ll show you the numbers. If you have a dottering old rich uncle who is loose with his checkbook, let me know.

If you don’t happen to have $50,000 sitting around, you can still help. At the very least, you can get over to the Mothership in the next few days and fork over a few bucks for what I’ve heard described as the best BBQ in town.

And if a vegetarian can get behind the cause, surely you can too.

From the Nashville Post’s Permit Patrol comes news of a new restaurant in our future:

Shaub Construction is renovating the former Arthur’s Restaurant space at the Union Station hotel for another restaurant. The permit is valued at $500,000. Renovation on the rest of the hotel is nearly complete. Arthur’s closed last year. Instead of bringing a restaurant, owners Adventura, Fla.-based Turnberry Associates and its local partners are working on a concept of their own.

In other news, uh, Arthur’s closed down last year. Go figure. I never actually ate at Arthur’s, but I had some friends that worked at the bistro that shared their kitchen. It was a nice secret that you could get a lot of the same crap for much cheaper and a less stuffy environment.

Okay, so this may not be truly appropriate MetBlog material, but it’s such a helpful service that I feel like I should include it for those who may be moving to Nashville or for those who are simply relocating across town.
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Although the deal isn’t officially dead yet, all indications are that there won’t be any baseball downtown anytime soon. On Tuesday, the Metro Council voted against extending a deadline that would have given the Sounds and Struever Brothers Eccles and Rouse more time to work out a deal for the proposed riverfront baseball stadium. That decision left the two groups with only until April 15th to get something worked out. And yesterday, Metro’s legal counsel officially informed the Sounds that they were in default.
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If you love this city and want to see it get better, here’s your chance to have some input.

I’m one of the facilitators for the upcoming community discussions called Nashville’s Agenda. This initiative listens to Nashvillians about what they want from their fair city. The last time this was done, it resulted in things like the Frist Center and Pulse Day.

If you haven’t spent a few quick minutes taking the survey, do it now.

And, plan on coming out to one (or more) of the community discussions about these key issues. You can be in my group if you want.

Several local blogs have already covered this, but how psyched am I that Lazzaroli’s pasta shop is coming in right down the street from us? (Karsten and I are already on a high-carb diet; this will ensure that it stays that way.) We stopped in a few weeks ago while they were working on the interior. We put a bug in their ears about having plenty of vegetarian options, and they let us know they’re planning to carry Provence breads. This is sounding pretty darned good.

We’ll miss the charm of the Enchanted Gingerbread shop, but having fresh pasta around all the time will be fun.

Now all we need is a coffee shop, and we’ll almost never have to leave our neighborhood. Oh yeah, except to go to work.