A couple weeks ago, Aura and I hopped in the car and drove out to Cookeville to catch a fabulous afternoon of basketball inside the confines of the Hooper Eblen Center on the lovely campus of Tennessee Tech University. I had spent the morning recording episodes of ‘Drinking With…’ and didn’t have time to squeeze any breakfast in. By the time 12:30PM came around, it was too late for a sit-down lunch anywhere. We had to hop in the car and make the hour-long drive to Cookevegas or else we’d risk missing the beginning of the game. I told Aura it was fine – I am personally a concessions demon…with a hot dollar in my pocket, I can go crazy. So, I wasn’t worried. When we made it inside and scoped out our seats, I told her I was going to go get some food. I love concession stand hot dogs – few things in life beat them. But, they’re admittedly usually small. With that in mind, I stepped up to the register and ordered two for $5 a pop. When the cashier handed them to me, I felt my hand buckle under the weight of this thing and thought, “what have I got myself into here?” I found out when I opened the aluminum foil and caught a load of this Goliath-esque hog:

A thick dog that hangs over the bun on both ends?!?! In this economy?!?! I mean, just look at this thing! This massive hunk of meat cost me $5! What a value! How can this possibly be profitable for the Tennessee Tech concession stand!?!?!

As I was marveling at this dog, a lady approached the condiment table. She had ordered the hot dog as well, and upon opening hers up, she said to me, “oh my word – look at how big this thing is!” I responded in kind, “I ordered two of these things thinking they were small!” This girthy tube of meat was like they put two hot dogs in the body of one. The bun could barely contain it. When I got to my seat, I got to work on it – meaty with the relish flowing from end to end. If they serve hot dogs in heaven, this has to be the one.

Real talk for a moment – I haven’t spent much real time in Cookeville in close to 20 years outside of stopping by and visiting a friend, having a quick meal on the way home, or stopping to fill up. But, that afternoon made my wife and I say we needed to come back and spend a day exploring. It’s evolved so much since the days I was crashing on friends’ couches and going to frat parties. We had dinner at a fine establishment called Fire & Vine. We got some red velvet hot chocolate at Cream City (easy tiger). And, we dipped into The French Cookie for some late night macarons to carry home. It was a delightful experience that made me think Cookeville is underrated in the ‘small town Tennessee’ conversation. I’ll have to go out there and do some real journalism some time this summer and write up a full report.

Also, as a side note: any time you question whether or not I am qualified to be critiquing restaurants in Nashville, please remember this post and how I sucked this bad boy down enjoyably.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

Hello, and welcome in to the latest edition of Yankee Candle Reviews here on SoBros Network. I will be your host – the Fragrance Aficionado of SoBros Network, also the EIC, Stoney Keeley. My passion for Yankee Candle began in 2006, when I strolled into the location in Providence Marketplace in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. I picked up a jar of Autumn Woods, and found it captured the essence of the season perfectly. I’ve been hooked in this…well, you could even call it ‘romantic…’ relationship with Yankee Candle ever since. Today, we’re getting into the spring spirit with Splash of Rain.

Sick eBay find to report, folks – I was scrolling through the pages of eBay as I am wont to do. Suddenly, I see this old black band label Splash of Rain, which I have never smelled before, for just $12. Nobody had bid on it, so I threw my name in the hat. Sure enough, I ended up winning that bad boy. With $7 for shipping and tax, I ended up paying little over $20 for what should be considered a national treasure. The old school label really took me back. The nostalgia alone was worth it. Let this serve as a reminder that you should always be checking the eBay machine. You just never know what you’re going to find.

This is clearly an old candle. So, we’ll just say there’s a certain ‘plastic’ quality to the candle. But, it’s not enough to completely undo this fragrance. It is outdoor/fresh loaded with a floral hint to it. It’s equal parts rainwater and daisies, the perfect spring fragrance. Man, I wish I could’ve smelled this thing in its heyday.

Recommended Burning: Holding hands through the meadow, you stroll at a leisurely pace, enjoying the company of one another on a warm spring day shrouded in sunshine. With rays still beaming down, you notice a raindrop splash across your head. As you look towards the sky, a deluge falls upon you and you laugh. Spring showers – how they pop up so quickly! You look down and realize your wife is wearing a white t-shirt with no bra underneath. She doesn’t even seem phased by the fact that you can clearly see her breasts through her wet white t-shirt. You realize that’s because she wants you to take her…right here…right now…in this rainy meadow. Let’s just say the rain won’t be the only thing splashing. As you return home to change and throw your garments laced with bodily fluids into the washing machine, you turn and light up Splash of Rain, settling in for a cozy evening and potentially a Round 2…Round 3, even.

Check out the Yankee Candle archives here on SoBros Network for my extensive backlog of Yankee Candle reviews! Also, be sure to check out my comprehensive list of the top 100 Yankee Candle fragrances of all time. I worked on that thing for forever, so any read is appreciated, thank you. That is all.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

Valentine’s Day 2026 – My wife and I have a somewhat regular tradition to try a new restaurant in Nashville on Valentine’s Day. We don’t stick to it every year, but we did this year, and man, were we completely stoked to cross this restaurant off of our list. We’ve seen the steady barrage of social media posts about Maiz de la Vida throughout the years, but the stars had never aligned. As far as I knew, it was just a food truck. So, you can imagine my delight when I looked them up and realized there’s a brick and mortar location in The Gulch now. When I saw that they accepted reservations, I was sold. Then, the fun part began – perusing the menu and trying to decide in advance what we’d eat.

We arrived for our 8:30PM reservations, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the vibes in the restaurant. It’s a lovely setting tucked away in plain sight behind Two Hands in The Gulch. We started with a couple of cocktails. I don’t recall exactly what mine was called, and it doesn’t appear to be on their regular menu, but it was smoky with a touch of vanilla…perfect for a cooler winter night. Our meal started with the guacamole and salsas. Truthfully, I could’ve made a meal out of the chips. I haven’t had a chip that tasted so fresh before in my life. The guac was good, but the star of the dish, to me, was the oil-based salsa made from habaneros. It dialed up the heat, but man, the flavor was on point. My wife ordered the Mole Negro, perfectly cooked chicken in a mole sauce that tasted as if it had a million years’ worth of spice in it. The butter risotto was the unsung hero of that dish, as it soaked up every bit of flavor from that mole. But, the inspiration to write…to create…to heap praise…that came from what I ordered: the Carne Asada.

This steak was something worthy of celebration – a 9oz NY strip served under chiles toreados and with garlic potatoes and herb butter. With a distinct flavor cooked to perfection, I felt like I had stumbled upon some hidden gem in this city. Sure, there’s a great steakhouse or two in town, but for my money ($48 in this case), this Carne Asada stacked up with any steak I’ve had in Nashville before. The potatoes were perfect – skin on, just as I like them – and I could’ve drank the herb butter through a straw. But, what this dish made me realize about myself is that I quite enjoy a bit of heat with my hunk of meat. The pepper cleared out my sinuses and about brought a tear down my cheek, but the savory and spicy combination worked so well. Any time the heat grew to be too much, I could drown it out with creamy potato or butter.

I’ve stopped scoring restaurants in the name of writing more stories about them. Not that anyone really cares, but under the old ‘Nashville Reviews’ series, this would’ve been one of the highest grades I’ve given out. Absolutely loved it and cannot wait for the next special occasion to go back and do it all over again. For more on Maiz de la Vida, check out their website here.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

Fellas, if you’re still groaning when your better half tries to drag you into Bath and Body Works, I don’t know what to tell you. You’re missing out. The Men’s Shop always has something new cooked up. Whether it’s body spray, bar soap, hand cream, or body wash, it’s a quality product that doesn’t just evaporate after a few minutes. I’ve been using their body wash for awhile now because it’s one of the few products on the market that has real staying power.

But, I really felt compelled to share my love for the men’s line at Bath and Body Works after receiving a bottle of the ‘Whiskey Toast’ cologne. I’ve had their cologne before – their iconic Bourbon scent – and it sold me. I know we’re creatures of habit. We pick our cologne scent when we’re young and we ride it out our whole lives. But, if you haven’t tried it out yet, I’d encourage at least stopping by and perusing their selection. Long live Bath and Body Works.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

Hello, and welcome in to the latest edition of Yankee Candle Reviews here on SoBros Network. I will be your host – the Fragrance Aficionado of SoBros Network, also the EIC, Stoney Keeley. My passion for Yankee Candle began in 2006, when I strolled into the location in Providence Marketplace in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. I picked up a jar of Autumn Woods, and found it captured the essence of the season perfectly. I’ve been hooked in this…well, you could even call it ‘romantic…’ relationship with Yankee Candle ever since. Today, we’re getting a little weird with Cherries on Snow.

It feels like every year at the holidays, when Yankee Candle runs it back with their semi-annual clearance sale (affectionately known in this household as “the semi-anny”), there’s an over abundance of Cherries on Snow. I don’t quite know what to make of that. Is it that no one likes Cherries on Snow and there’s always a ton of them left over to mark down? Or, is it so popular that they make an insane amount of inventory in it? I don’t know. But, the more you dig into this candle, the more you’ll realize that everything about it is weird.

I ended up landing on this as a Valentine’s Day candle – elements of fruit…elements of winter…it just made sense. But, since the first time I smelled it many years ago, it has been one of my favorites at this time of year. Yankee’s fruit fragrances are among their strongest, and Cherries on Snow is no different. I can light this joint up and the whole house smells like cherries. But, where this candle really excels is in the hints of freshness that hit you on the back end of this sniff. It’s a weird pairing, but it’s worthy of a shot.

Recommended Burning: You’ve been snowed in for days. At this point, things are getting a little boring. You can only binge so much Netflix and eat so much soup before the lack of variety gets to you. You decide to spice it up, so you pick a cherry from the bunch in the kitchen and you show your partner how you can tie the stem in a knot with your tongue. It’s a very charging moment, and you both feel your sense of arousal awaken. Your partner lies on their back. You spread the bunch of cherries across their bare belly. You mount your partner, smushing the cherries with your bellies. That is when you should light Cherries on Snow.

Check out the Yankee Candle archives here on SoBros Network for my extensive backlog of Yankee Candle reviews! Also, be sure to check out my comprehensive list of the top 100 Yankee Candle fragrances of all time. I worked on that thing for forever, so any read is appreciated, thank you. That is all.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.