Nashville Recs

[sicilygirl]

H and I are going to Nashville in a couple of weeks.  We arrive on a Saturday around noon and leave on Wednesday at about 6 pm.  H will be attending a conference all day (through dinner) on Monday and Tuesday and also a half day on Wednesday.  

So we'll have Saturday afternoon/night and all day Sunday together.  We might also want to do something after dinner on Monday and Tuesday and maybe Wednesday afternoon, if we have time.  Then I'll need to entertain myself all day Monday and Tuesday and also Wednesday morning.

I would love recs on what to do when I'm on my own.  I'm not used to traveling on my own (but I'm looking forward to a couple of days by myself!), so I'm not super comfortable dining alone in nicer places.  So I definitely need casual food place ideas.  Also maybe shopping/spa/tours I could do.  And will I need a car?

The only specific thing H has mentioned wanting to do together is to see the Johnny Cash museum.  In general, we like live music, shows, bars, good (but not fancy) food, and just seeing the major "sites."


 

[neonpink]

If you are into music this is a pretty famous Cafe that lots of musicians have played at. I haven't gone there personally but just saw it on the Foo Fighers Documentary about Nashville. It seems like it could be a cool place to check out.

bluebirdcafe.com/

I've only been once for a Hockey Game and it's a cute city with a nice little downtown area with restaurants and shops.

[jwright]

I did a girl's weekend in Nashville a couple of month's ago. The "main drag" will be easy to find, the old fashioned boot-wearing bars. The weekend was kind of a blur so I don't remember specific details; but it might be worth googling these places

We went to the following for meals:
- Frothy Monkey - very cool coffee shop, might be ideal to hang out in to kill some time; good food and drinks
- Monell's - old fashioned family style lunch and/or brunch. Fantastic food; they seat you in groups of eight with other patrons and you pass food to the left; there were definitely solo diners here and you could talk to the others at your table. We had to Uber to this location but it wasn't far.
- Rolf and Daughters - fantastic food! This might be more like a date night place; I also think it was in an up and coming area, so another Uber
- Watermark - eh; most expensive and least favorite meal; it was just okay
- The Farmhouse - awesome, awesome brunch

[jcbarbee]

There are lots of breweries to tour there.

Jeni's ice cream.

Etch was delicious for dinner, we sat at the bar and we able to watch them make the food.

We cruised down the main drag and listened for good music and went in.

The flying saucer is fun there! It's in an old train station.

[FormerCityGirl]

The Bluebird is really cool, but if you can't get reservations through their system which they describe in detail on their site, I'd check out The Listening Room instead.  Also, there is absolutely no talking at all during the shows at The Bluebird at all since they are a true listening room.  They will ask you to leave if you try to have a conversation.  The servers aren't even allowed to talk after a certain point.  Green Hills is a good area to shop and wander, but it's away from Opryland or Lower Broadway.  Lower Broadway would be a good place to wander between 2nd and 5th during the daytime for you.  It's mostly tourists at that time.  There's a lot of casual dining, Ernest Tubb's Record Store, and a lot of live music.  I do a lot of wandering there while DH sleeps off the night before.  If you go up to 10th and Broadway, there's an art museum called The Frist that usually has some good exhibits.  It's also not far from The Gulch which has some quirky high end shops (good for daytime) and restaurants for nice dinners with your DH.  We like Sambuca.  Tuesday night's late night at The Stage (10PM-2AM) group is really good if their regulars are in town.  Unless you are staying on Lower Broadway, depending on concerts, Predators post season games, and other events Lower Broadway can be really hard to get in and out of at night.  Tin Roofs (Downtown, Cool Springs, Music Row), Loser's/Winner's (West End and Cool Springs), Mercy Lounge (small concert venue), and The Building (some events are BYOB with cover, but our friends love this place) are good places to find live music off Lower Broadway if there are huge events.  Any big event can shut down 1st-5th street on Lower Broadway (where most of the Live Music is in the more known places) even on week nights for block parties.  Those are very worth going to if you can walk to them, but the traffic they cause and catching cabs can make them something you want to stay away from.  The Pfunky Griddle is an awesome pancake place that is a make your own pancakes.  It's off the beaten path, but we love going and making pancakes without the mess.  If there is not a cover at a bar with live music, they are not paying the musicians.  The musicians are only making tips from the crowd.  

[cuddlyevil]

Prince's Hot Chicken is a must as well.

And it might sound corny, but check out the main branch of the library--the building is new(ish) and beautiful.

There's a lot live music all over Nashville.

[sicilygirl]

I've been working crazy hours and sick on top of that and am just now getting back to this post!

I appreciate all of the responses and will read over them a little more carefully and do some more research this weekend when I have a few minutes of free time (God willing). Thank y'all for all the recommendations! I already see some delicious looking food recs and lots of other fun stuff to occupy my time!

[vadasultenfuss]

Commenting so I can find this later.

[sicilygirl]

neonpink jwright jcbarbee FormerCityGirl cuddlyevil vadasultenfuss

Thank you all for the recommendations! We got back from Nashville last week, and we had such a great trip! We/I got to do SO MUCH stuff. It was awesome.

Quick recap:
We arrived on Saturday and had a quick lunch at the Frothy Monkey downtown then walked around and looked at the war memorial auditorium and capitol building all afternoon. We went the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage Hotel for dinner, and spent a couple hours drinking whiskey at Oak Bar before that.

On Sunday, we toured the Ryman and went to the Country Music Hall of Fame (where we saw Vince Vaughn, which was fun!). We walked up and down Broadway and 2nd Ave. stopping in different bars and shops to eat, drink, and listen to live music. That night we saw Kevin Hart, who was performing as part of the Wild West Comedy Festival. He was hilarious, of course.

On Monday, while H was at his conference, I walked to the farmer's market and had some delicious lunch and Jeni's ice cream, then walked through the Bicentennial Park and on to Germantown. I basically just looked at the pretty houses around there and stopped in for some coffee to escape the rain for a little while. Monday night I went to a Nashville Sounds baseball game at the brand new stadium, which was really nice. I had lots of fun doing that!

Tuesday I rented a car (actually they "upgraded" me to a giant 4 door truck which was interesting to park, lol), and I drove to Franklin. I mostly just walked around downtown, shopped and ate. I also visited the Lotz House and Civil War Museum, which I found really fascinating. On my way back into town, I stopped by Centennial Park and saw the Parthenon replica. I dropped off the truck, then Ubered over to the Grand Ole Opry. There were some random artists I had never heard of, but I was pretty excited to see Diamond Rio! I met up with H and his conference people afterwards at Tootsies, where we hung out all night.

On Wednesday, we got to tour the Hatch Show Print facilities before we left town, which I would highly recommend to anyone that's traveling there. It was so cool to hear the history and see the letterpress machines. We even got to make our own mini poster (but we also bought one at the Ryman).

All in all, a great trip!