Joy's Nashville Favorites
Now that we’ve lived in Nashville a year, and many of my social media friends and followers are well aware that we live here, I regularly get asked for recommendations on places to eat and play and see. Since my list has grown over the last…
Last update 5/8/19
Now that we’ve lived in Nashville a year, and many of my social media friends and followers are well aware that we live here, I regularly get asked for recommendations on places to eat and play and see. Since my list has grown over the last year, and I am still finding new places, I have a hard time fitting all my recommendations into one Instagram message. Sooooo I figured now is as good a time as any to put together my full list of Nashville favorites, which I will come back to regularly to update as I continue to find new favorites.
Now, keep in mind, we moved here when I was a pregnant sea cow, and then I had a baby and spent many months indoors… BUT we still explore as often as we get the chance. Bolded places are NOT as family friendly. Also, I’ll note if anything is dog-friendly.
Coffee Shops
This is its own category since they’re all amazing. Keep in mind, a few of these have multiple locations, but they’re all great!
Crema
Barista Parlor
Dose
Caliber
Steadfast
8th and Roast
Cafe Roze (also, great food menu)
Portland Brew
Ugly Mugs
Frothy Monkey
Bowtie Barista
Red Bicycle
Restaurants
Mas Tacos Por Favor
Joey’s House of Pizza
Phat Bites
Pinewood Social
Nectar Urban Cantina - dog friendly and very family friendly with outdoor live music
5th & Taylor
Oak Steakhouse
Sindoore Indian
Chauhan Ale & Masala House
Chaatable
Hemingway’s Bar and Hideaway
Martin’s BBQ
Mitchell Delicatessen
Lockeland Table
Tacos y Mariscos Lindo Mexico (hole in the wall in Madison - get the chicken)
Burger Up
Restoration Hardware Cafe
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
Clawson’s Deli
Hathorne
Fat Bottom Brewing Co. (chicken salad)
Coco’s Italian Market
Sweets
Shipley’s Donuts
Five Daughter’s Bakery (beware! overpriced and very sweet, but a good treat - just don’t go overboard!)
Soda Parlor
Olive and Sinclair (Chocolate Co.)
To Do
Nashville Zoo
Opryland
State Museum
Nashville Farmer’s Market
Hill Center Mall (Green Hills area) - almost all stores are dog friendly!
Broadway - touristy, but entertaining night life/live music if that’s what you’re looking for
Germantown neighborhood - shops and restaurants
The Green Hour (Thurs-Sat only - bar)
Rudy’s Jazz Room
Lane Motor Museum
Two River’s Dog Park
12 South (food and shopping)
The Gulch (if you’re into murals… haha oh boy)
Any of the many breweries (Yazoo, Fat Bottom, Black Abbey, Nashville Brewing, Jackalope, etc..)
Nashville, TN
Usually, when I do posts on my travels, I itemize each day's itinerary. Check out our trips to San Antonio and The Blue Ridge Mountains and you'll see what I mean.
That being said, Nashville was its own kind of crazy and I decided it was more worthy of a story.
As many of our trips stem from, this trip was business for Thomas. He had a conference to attend, and being the tag along that I am, forced my way onto the itinerary.
*That is a complete an utter lie. Tom loves when I come along and it's almost always his idea*
Since we're geniuses, we stayed in the world's most comfortable, adorable Airbnb. Here's the listing. It looked exactly like the photos, but even better. If I'm being honest, Nashville is actually rather saturated in amazing Airbnb's. I'm not sure why anyone would bother with a hotel in Music City... but I digress.
It was located in East Nashville, and was above their detached garage. We had a parking spot, private entry, and full amenities in the most perfect studio. Both of us remarked that it weirdly smelled and felt like home which we loved, and would have made a super cute first apartment. Our host was amazing, and I had a nice chat with her one morning while she was in the back yard with their two friendly dogs. She pointed me in the direction of good food, coffee, and bars (many of which in walking distance). She was a total delight and so sweet! We would highly recommend staying there.
Nashville is my definition of a perfect, small-town city. You can walk to so many corner coffee shops (none of which are Starbucks) and drive from one end of town to the other in about twenty minutes. I desperately miss living in a city with soul, I'll admit. Being in Nashville felt very natural to me... who knows, maybe we'll find ourselves there next!
We had some awesome meals which included Burger Up, Mas Tacos Por Favor, Taco Mamacita, and Lockeland Table. My favorite meal was honestly from Mas Tacos Por Favor - super yummy street tacos. Done and done.
For coffee, I walked to Portland Brew and Barista Parlor and drove to Eighth and Roast. Each of these was awesome in totally different ways. Portland Brew was great for working and spending the day in, as it had tons of space. Plus, I met up with a college buddy there who writes as well - Tanner from Written to Speak - he's really, really awesome guys. He writes about some seriously tough stuff and the encouragement I walked away with was amazing. Barista Parlor was crazy hipster and they were not shy about their snobbiness in regards to coffee... and I love me some coffee snobs, so it was a win-win. And Eighth and Roast... well, let's just say I happened to have my morning joe with the lead singer of one of my favorite bands like it was NBD while I was secretly freaking out on the inside. No, I did not take creeper photos, but I was certainly tempted to. We had a nice, casual chat for about a half hour or so and he was very kind. Here's a not so subtle hint as to who it was:
While there, we had a little mini reunion of sorts with a some friends from college. Tanner, as I mentioned before, was my coffee buddy for two of the mornings and I grabbed dinner with my friend Anna and then drinks afterwards with all four of us at a bar called Old Glory which was super cool, weird, and dark. For a Tuesday night, it was pretty busy and our poor bartender was taking breaks at our table - haha - like literally sitting in our booth talking with us to catch a breath. We had such a blast catching up, talking about serious things, and joking about anything and everything. However, even the slightest of hangovers doesn't bode well with our no-longer-21-year-old selves and we were draggingggg the next day.
Since Tom was in conferences everyday until dinner, I spent my days walking to coffee shops to work, hanging out in the Airbnb to work, and doing a little exploring of the city. My exploring kind of halted when I got into a car accident - which was my fault and thankfully no one was hurt - but it shook me up enough to want to leave my keys tucked out of sight for the rest of the trip. This idea was short lived, because Tom forgot his conference lanyard the very next morning and I had to rush it down to him, but it was worth a shot. My car was amazingly left (mostly) unscathed, but the other guy lost his front bumper. He was gracious, but that's probably because I apologized profusely while hyperventilating and took full blame. We all admitted it was an honest accident, though, and it was very civil and calm. Later that night, since I was just on a roll with life, my phone slipped out of my purse pocket a mere FOUR inches to the ground and cracked the screen. LOVELY.
Between meeting singers, getting in car wrecks, and breaking phones... our trip to Nashville was one to remember. The friends, culture, sights, food, coffee (bless you, Nashville, for having wonderful coffee), and accommodations truly left us itching to come back/we're kind of in love with the city. Visit Nashville guys. Click the photos to enlarge. Enjoy!
