A big part of Nashville’s food and drink community is John Dyke’s natural grocery store Turnip Truck, which is turning 25 years old this year. Starting out with a cozy little store in Five Points in East Nashville, Dyke has moved the East location into a much larger building and expanded into three different new neighborhoods, with stores on Charlotte Avenue, in Midtown and in The Gulch.
The East Nashville store at 701 Woodland will host a free community block party in its parking lot from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 9. The event will feature product samples from local vendors, a special menu of food and drink for the day and discount deals on some premium products.
Turnip Truck's East Nashville location
Music has always been a part of Turnip Truck’s legacy — including the fact that a young Sturgill Simpson once worked at the store's Gulch location, which offered a flexible schedule that allowed him to pursue his music career. There will be live music as part of the festivities at the block party, featuring many former and current employees. But I’m afraid you probably shouldn’t expect Sturgill to perform. (But maybe Johnny Blue Skies? A man can hope ...)
There will also be family activities organized by Bach to Rock, Fairytales Bookstore and Turnip Green Creative Reuse. Another way Dyke and the Turnip Truck family continue to support their community is through a rounding-up partnership to benefit The Store. Customers at all locations have the opportunity to donate at the register to help purchase natural foods to stock The Store, Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley's nonprofit, which provides free groceries in a market setting to locals facing food insecurity.
Dyke and his company show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. “Since 2001, Turnip Truck has been connecting local farms with Nashville’s tables,” Dyke says. “Four stores and 25 years later, we feel like we’re just getting started.”
