I’m following up on my recent post about “What’s New in Belle Meade” with this edition of “What’s Newer in Belle Meade”. I’ve paid better attention this time and have some more details for you.

Next door to the liquor store is a new arrival to not only Belle Meade, but Nashville as a whole. As far as I know it is the first of it’s kind. Sweet CeCe’s is a self-serve frozen yogurt buffet, if you will. Those of you who know me know that I have a huge weakness for frozen yogurt, and I’d kinda been putting it off visiting the store because I knew I’d be hooked. Well, yesterday I tried it and I know I’ll be back. All of the flavors are made there in the store and are fat-free…except for the peanut butter, of course. However, I have to say that the peanut butter yogurt is probably the best of it’s kind that I’ve ever tasted. Usually PB yogurt has a slight coffee taste, but this one was all PB. It is still low-fat, but just not fat-free. There are a plethora of toppings, including all the standards plus gummy worms, golden grahams, and sour ropes. I’m not exactly sure how one has a sour rope as a topping to eat with their dessert, but I may try it myself next time. I settled for the Country Vanilla and rainbow sprinkles and was very pleased. The vanilla was creamy, which is sometimes not the case with fat-free yogurts, and not bitter at all. The staff was very friendly and welcoming, meeting me as I walked in and offering up samples to help me decide. I will definitely be back!

The hair salon I mentioned last time is actually a barbershop, Uncle Classic Barbershop to be more specific. It is a small shop, but since their main focus is men’s hair cuts, shoe shines, and straight razor shaves, I suspect they don’t need as much room as a full-service salon.

Last in this edition is the scoop about the new Harris Teeter. They had their grand opening yesterday, and, being a frequent HT customer and just curious to find out, I went for a shopping trip (after getting my CeCe’s yogurt). The first impression as you drive in is not a great one. Everyone is directed to an underground parking lot on an immediate downward slope (can you say “runaway carts”???). It’s a spacious garage, but still a garage. I recommend making the first turn and then parking at the far end of the straight away. There are elevators that go back up to the street level just outside the store, but also an escalator that goes right into the store. The escalator makes a great impression and made me forget about the parking lot. The store is bi-level, as I suspected it might be, and I did not venture up to see what was on the 2nd floor. Although, it looks like there is some sort of cafe in addition to the beauty products, cards, and pharmacy. The store itself is quite impressive. The aisles are nice and wide, the produce department seemed to have every variety of pepper, and the number of organic/health food options was almost overwhelming. Every product had the organic version (if it exists) right along with the “regular” kind…which is great, and probably getting more common, but it was definitely noticeable. Because I’m a VIC card holder, I got a promotion in the mail for $20 off a $50 purchase and there’s one for each of the next four weeks. Um, yeah. Saving $20 on a $50 bill, which is easy for me to rack up, is a deal I will not pass up. If it means I’m stocking my shelves for winter, I’ll still use them.

Happy shopping, fellow Belle Meadeans!
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Edited 7/27/09 – I stand corrected. CeCe’s is not the first of its kind in Nashville. There has actually been another self-serve yogurt shop near Vanderbilt for quite some time called Yogurt Oasis. And they even have fat-free peanut butter yogurt…although it doesn’t really taste like peanut butter, which, I find, is pretty common about most peanut butter yogurts. Anyhoo…