Dan gave me "the chips"

Nashville Bicycle Lounge
961 Woodland St
Nashville, TN
615-227-2775

The Sign

I stopped by Dan's shop, the Nashville Bicycle Lounge, because it just opened and I wanted to drop off a little "shop warming present". Dan's shop, the Nashville Bicycle Lounge is a bit of a concept in bike shops. The concepts I see are 1. to reduce, reuse and recycle, while providing really great bike maintenance and excellent mechanic care 2. provide a nice inviting lounge and hip waiting area while your bike gets worked on, 3. provide a low to no pressure sales atmosphere for the new and used bikes he sells.

The shop is located off of Woodland St in East Nashville, and behind Asphalt Beach. There is an alley way behind the Asphalt Beach building, and look for the parking spaces and the Nashville Bicycle Lounge. This bike shop is a different concept from any other bike shop I have ever been to, and I really dig it. The concepts are that this bike shop is really about reducing, reusing and recycling. Dan is reducing his resource usage because he does not own a car, and bikes everywhere, including work. He cannot pickup and drop off bikes for repairs because he does not have a motorized car or truck. He is reusing some inner tubes, and had made wallets and cases out of old bike inner tubes. Dan is reusing old bicycles, fixing them up, and selling used bicycles. He has some new bikes, but there are some really cool used bikes to be had here too. The deal is, many old bike frames are made from steel, iron, iron that came from iron ore. Iron is an element of the Earth, and it is iron whether you have iron straight from the earth, or if it is used and reused in various products over and over again. Iron is iron is steel, so that old iron in an old iron bike frame is a as good as brand new iron.

At the bottom of the triad of reducing, reusing and recycling is recycling. It is of course better to reduce consumption of trash producing goods, it is 2nd best to reuse trash producing goods, and 3rd best is recycling trash. Dan is committed to recycling old bike parts, bike tires, bike inner tubes, paper, plastic and glass. There is very little landfill waste generated from this business.

"The Crab Chip"

The 2nd concept that Dan wants to convey is the "Lounge". If you need a bike to be worked on, like new brake pads, cables, tuneup, the deal is, it doesn't take days to do that. At this point, Dan can probably get a bike on the "lift" right away, do most of the work in about 1/2 hour, and get you on your way. Dan has set up a lounge and internet that comfortable for anyone to stay in for the time it takes to change out break pads or other typical bike maintenance situations. It was funny, the 1st time I was there, I totally was drawn into the couch to sit and relax while M's bike got worked on. The other options are to walk one block to Marche, Battered and Fried, BBQ, a dollar store, etc., or walk 2 blocks to Bongo East coffee, the Turnip Truck to run errands, the hardware store, etc, or walk a few blocks to pizza, burrito, Far East Asian food, etc., or just enjoy the neighbor hood. Anyway, while I was sitting on the couch, Dan asked if I wanted chips and dip. I love chips, my favorite food are chips, and what kind of chips did he have?

UTZ - "THE CRAB CHIP"!!

The Crab Chip are Utz chips with Old Bay style seasoning on it. When I lived in PA, the home of the Utz factory, I used to eat Utz because they were locally made, and delicious. The lard fried chips, the Old Bay style chips, and the salt and vinegar style chips, are my favorites. I really haven't had Utz since moving to TN because shops don't sell them, or they shops sell only plain ones. I miss factory fresh Utz. I have been thinking about "The Crab Chip" for a couple weeks now because there is a foodie blog friend of mine who just moved from Nashville to the District, and for those who know geography, the UTZ factory is just over the PA border from MD, and is about 65 miles from the District. UTZ is a locally made food to PA, MD, VA and the District. So, my foodie friend had these chips and blogged about them in her blog Hungry Times Two. As I read her blog, I have been thinking about those chips over and over again. And to my surprise and happiness, Fred brought a few bags of "The Crab Chip" to Dan's shop to share and Dan gave me my own bag!!! Oh, my lucky day!

Inner tubes to be recycled

Sorry to say, the chips are now gone from Dan's shop, and are at my house as I hoard over them. But, if you have a bike and want to get it spring and summer ready, go visit Dan. He can give you a free safety check, and he maintenance prices are listed on the Nashville Bicycle Lounge website. Dan is up front with what maintenance cost, so you will not be surprised and hit with a bill that you are not expecting. He also is really quick, so there won't be the old tired delay tactics you get at other bike shops when they say it takes 2 weeks to fix a bike.