Nashville Friday Five: The Best Local Gifts (for $60 or Less)

1. Sperry’s Black Label Sauce

You know how you can tell if someone loves you? Your holiday gift comes out of the fridge. It’s a pain to keep gifts cold, and that means You Matter. For my money, Sperry's Black Label Sauce is the best way to send that message. Made in house with umami-packed things — soy sauce, wine, Worcestershire, mustard, garlic — it’s also laced with the unexpected: pineapple juice, brown sugar, whiskey. While I rarely sauce steak, I love a good dipping sauce, and this is the most complex, savory, addictive one I’ve had in ages. At $5.99 a bottle, it’s better than any too-sweet sauce you’ll pay more for. (I’m looking at you, Luger.)

Stop into Sperry’s Mercantile to grab it, or build a whole basket of goodies while you’re there. If you’re willing to go the cold route, grab their luscious Potato Leek Soup, famous Pink Peppermint Ice Cream or glow-in-the-dark Green Goddess (pictured). If you’re not, grab a slice of their salty-sweet Caramel Cake and some Beautiful Briny Sea Salt (French Picnic or Magic Unicorn FTW). Don’t have time to stop and shop? Fill up a cart online and Sperry’s will have it ready for pickup when you are. 

2. ABLE jewelry and clothing

If you’ve never heard of ABLE, here’s the short story: The Nashville-based nonprofit was founded in 2010 by Barrett and Rachel Ward, who met in Africa and whose own backstory is well worth reading. The pair had a goal: to help women in Ethiopia leave the commercial sex industry. How would they do it? Fashion. By creating sustainable jobs, they enabled women to build better futures for themselves and their families. The keyword there: sustainable. When only 2 percent of people making clothes earn a living wage, ABLE decided that’s exactly what they’d offer — as well as safe working conditions and quality jobs. They started with scarves, sold 4,000 in three months, and have since expanded into jewelry, shoes, clothes, leather goods and more. 

I’m not ashamed to admit I have an ABLE problem. It started when my sister-in-law gave me one of those first 4,000 scarves, and it continues now as their flagship store is located in my neighborhood, The Nations. The reason I return so often is that their aesthetic is classic — clean lines, gold and silver, the kind of jewelry you can keep forever and give to anyone — and they’re often running sales (like they are now). My go-tos are the Circle Ring, X Ring and Letter Necklace, but the good (if monetarily problematic) thing about ABLE is they’re always refreshing their designs. That means you can return to the well for a last-minute gift any day, and for that, (my husband and) I thank them.

3. Ranger Station candle/cocktail glass

If there's one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s a fancy candle. If there’s a second, it’s a cocktail. So Ranger Station candles check all my boxes. 

While their website puts forth an expensive, manicured Americana vibe, their prices are shockingly down-to-earth. It’s hard to find a top-of-the-line candle for less than $50 — let alone one that comes with an adorable matchbox, a cocktail card and a glass to make your cocktail in. Most importantly, their scents are strong but not headache-inducing. They are, in fact, the only candle that can stand up to a dirty diaper pail (a gorgeous slogan they’ll undoubtedly want to co-opt for their marketing going forward).

For the background, see this year’s Best of Nashville:

Ranger Station started as a way to kill time between tours. Former drummer Steve Soderholm was living in a refurbished ranger station, and named his scented candles after his humble abode. He and his wife Jordan started selling the candles ... and eight years later in July 2023 opened their first brick-and-mortar shop in 12South.

Buy a candle there, in these locations or online.

4. Compost Nashville subscription

For another gift idea you can feel good about, we must start by feeling bad. Did you know:

• Food waste that’s left to rot in landfills doesn’t just biodegrade — it produces methane gas, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of warming the atmosphere and depleting the ozone layer. 

• Americans waste about 400 pounds of food per person per year. That means 35 percent of our food ends up in the trash.

• Middle Tennessee isn’t much better. Nearly a third of all waste in our landfills is food or other organic materials that could be composted.

So what happens when you compost instead? Composting is a biological process that happens when microorganisms, bacteria and insects break down organic matter into a soil-like product called, yep, compost. You can then use that compost to mulch beds — while locking in moisture and suppressing weeds — or to improve the structure and health of your soil.

So, why not compost? You absolutely can; however, most of us don’t. Maybe you lack the time, space, or know-how. Maybe you suck at yard chores (✋🏽). Maybe you dry-heave if you catch a whiff of week-old shrimp shells (✋🏽✋🏽). 

Compost Nashville fixes all of that. For $29 a month, they’ll bring you a 4-gallon container, pick it up weekly and leave you a clean one. You can stuff it with everything from food to pet hair to paper plates to nail clippings. And you can earn free compost (which they’ll also deliver) as you go. So far, Compost Nashville has diverted more than 9.6 million pounds from landfills. Bonus: The first two weeks are free. Give it now.

5. Woodland Wine Merchant’s Six for Sixty bag of wine

If you hear “bag of wine” and immediately think “Bota Box bladder,” congrats on going to college! Now, let’s redefine that concept. As a multiyear winner of the Scene’s Best Wine Shop in the readers' poll, Woodland Wine Merchant is known for its quirky curated spirits (including my beloved Forthave). But if you’re at a loss for what to give someone, a bottle of wine (or five) is never a bad idea. 

With Woodland’s 6 for $60 deal, you don’t have to worry about figuring out what someone likes. Woodland’s staff will select the wines (which would definitely go for more than $10 a piece à la carte) and package them in a slick black tote — you simply choose red, white or both. Bonus: If you need to stay true to a $50 max, you’ll just have to save one bottle for yourself.