Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/407098
istock W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 | w e s t w o r l d 31 Nashville Rising Now there's even more to love about Music City than those honky-tonk blues by John Campbell O ver a dinner of roasted monkfish in the Capitol Grille of Nashville's Hermitage Hotel, the conver- sation quickly turns to hockey – and the prospects of the Nashville Predators. "The NHL lockout really hurt us," says Janet Kurtz, director of sales and marketing for this five-star, five- diamond hotel, referring to the 2012-13 labour dispute between players and owners that effectively killed half the season while ham- mering game-day eateries and watering holes across North America. You might not expect to hear hockey talk in a city better known for cheatin' hearts and honky-tonks, but there are a lot of moving parts that make up Nashville these days – not just country music. Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp., calls this "the Golden Age of the city." ere's a sense of ascendency within Nashville today, an internal belief it has joined the ranks of the great American cities. Fine cuisine, high culture, two major league sports franchises (the Preds and the NFL Titans) and one of the world's most vibrant music scenes, along with a full-on commitment from the corporate sector to build, build, build, have combined to take Nashville into a new era. Some 11.8 million visi- tors now pump an annual $4.16 billion into the local economy. Even the taxi drivers are required to take annual hospitality training. Still, when all is said and done, Nashv ille w ill always be Music City. ⊲