Nashville is the capital of Tennessee. It is located on the Cumberland River in the north-central part of the state. It is most notably known as a center of the music industry, earning it the nickname “Music City”.
After attending a concert at the Grand Ole Opry we took a Gray Lines tour of Nashville which included the downtown areas, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Ryman Auditorium which was the original location of the Grand Ole Opry for decades.
I last visited Nashville in 1984 for a computer conference with my friend Bob Lucena. We stayed at what’s now the Grand Ole Opry Hotel and ate at a new restaurant that specialized in fried catfish called the “Cock of the Walk”. Had us a scrumptious feast back then. You can just image my surprise when Karen and I discovered that the “Cock of the Walk” Restaurant was only a couple hundred yards form our RV park. We relived my past with another scrumptious meal consisting of catfish!
A Little History on the Name “Cock of the Walk”
In the early 1800’s, Natchez “Under the Hill” in Mississippi was a gathering place for the “Keelboatmen” bringing goods and supplies down the Mississippi River on their way to New Orleans. Each boat had its own “champion” fighter and when two boats met it was the custom for these “champions” to fight for the honored title of “Cock of the Walk” the “Best of the Best”. In the late 1970’s some folks got together at that historic site in Natchez on the Mississippi and developed a combination of southern style recipes to compliment their specialty of golden fried catfish. the name of “Cock of the Walk” was reborn—the “Best of the Best”.
Leave a Reply