Thank you, Rachel, for contributing the below recap of your recent trip to Nashville, Tennessee - also known as Music City!
I visited Nashville a few weekends ago for the first time! I had always heard good things about this city and wanted to see what all the hype was about. My sister and I arrived Friday early afternoon and left Sunday late afternoon, so although a quick trip, we jam-packed everything in and feel like we got a good impression of the city.
We checked into our hotel in the West End/Music Row area, which was a convenient location to Broadway, where we walked to first. We visited DINEvent Dining Partner, Ole Red to get a tour of the space (thank you, Sarah!) and then my sister and I enjoyed a drink and lunch at their Lookout space.
After lunch, we walked up and down Broadway people watching and popping into a couple bars/restaurants. We also wandered to Printer’s Alley which used to be home to the publishing industry in the 20th Century as well as many speakeasies during prohibition.
After that we had a dinner reservation at 5th & Taylor, a restaurant that came highly recommended. Sadly, the area where this is located was affected by the recent hurricane that hit Nashville, but restaurant was open and running off generators. We were happy to find out that 5th & Taylor was also giving back 10% of all proceeds that night to aid with the devastation that hit. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs when it came to our food selection, but it was worth every bite – especially that mac & cheese with Benton’s bacon!
After dinner, we headed back to Broadway to check out the famous, Tootsie’s before calling it a night!
It was a super sunny day so we explored this neighborhood, which is home to the #WhatLiftsYou art mural that you may be familiar with from, well, let’s be real, Instagram!
This was my favorite area of Nashville. I typically tend to like more modern, trendy areas so no surprise here! While exploring, we also had a drink on the rooftop of Pig Leg Porker, which we would’ve liked to have eaten at too but were so full from brunch and wanted to save room for our dinner reservations at Husk.
Husk, like 5th & Taylor, was another restaurant that came highly recommended. They change their menu often based on what their producers provide to them. You may notice below that we opted for beef tartare as an appetizer (again!) because not only did it sound the most appealing to us from the choices, but we decided it would be fun to compare it to the previous night’s tartare.
After dinner, we wandered to Midtown but didn’t spend much time as we were tired from the previous two days. Our final day was even nicer and sunnier than the day before, so we decided to just grab a quick breakfast and then walk along Broadway once again. We popped into another DINEvent Dining Partner, Redneck Riviera.
We also stopped into the historical Ryman Auditorium and then headed to a Farmer’s Market to pick up some goodies and spent some time at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.
While heading back to the hotel before the airport, my sister and I chatted about our weekend and overall thoughts on Nashville. The two of us had a great time and ate some amazing meals, however we were not as “in love” with this city as everyone else seems to be. Don’t get me wrong, it was a BLAST and it’s loaded with delicious restaurants and fun bars, but it is also flooded with tourists…
There are a few things for next time I’d like to do and see. Some restaurants that we didn’t have time to go to but heard great things about include Kayne Prime, Henrietta Red and Etch and of course working in the industry I am in, the list of restaurants could go on forever! I would’ve really loved to try Biscuit Love (the line was over an hour wait on both Saturday and Sunday) or Loveless Cafe (although I did get some jam from Loveless at the Farmer’s Market). I’d also like to explore Midtown more for some nightlife. Another spot I wish I saw was The Hermitage Hotel, which earned the #1 hotel in Tennessee ranking for 2020. Of course, the Grand Ole Opry is a must see that unfortunately did not make the “muse see” list on this trip.
Clearly there is more of Nashville I need to take on, so I will be back one day!
Setting the Southern Table,
Rachel
