Nashville for a newbie....

[qtlaw]

So traveling to Nashville for the first time, will have a couple nights to myself, any live music venues or food or museums to recommend?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

You'll feel like you're the only person in Nashville who isn't at a bachelorette party.

(I'll post again when I get home and have a few minutes. It's a cool city.)

 

[qtlaw]

You'll feel like you're the only person in Nashville who isn't at a bachelorette party.

(I'll post again when I get home and have a few minutes. It's a cool city.)

Thanks!

 

[TwoGloves]

The Southern (on Third?) has really good food and the prices aren't crazy. I had a Cajun shrimp BLT there that was unbelievable. But I believe it's only available during the week. Lots of good music at the bars near the arena but I really liked BB Kings the best. It's on Second, I believe.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

OK, I'm back...

Best place I found to eat was Puckett's Grocery at 6th and Church. (It's a restaurant.) Ate a couple of meals there and wish I had even more.

Also ate at Acme Feed and Seed, on Broadway down by the river. Pretty good. Nice atmosphere. They had a record section and I picked up an old, out-of-print Cheap Trick record, still sealed. That made me happy.

The Ryman is an amazing old theater with a great history. No one was playing there while I was in town so I took the tour. Totally worth it.

The Johnny Cash museum looks like a cheesy storefront operation but is actually really nice. They've got some great stuff in there. Well worth the visit.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a totally mixed bag. There's some really cool stuff there. When I went there was a great exhibit on Johnny Cash bringing Bob Dylan to Nashville to record. They had Gram Parson's embroidered suit, which was worth the trip to me. They also have a lot of kitschy stuff (the cornfield set from "Hee Haw!"), the mundane (the IKEA desk chair Dave Cobb sat in while producing a Jason Isbell record!), and the just plain stupid (the plaid shirt Blake Shelton was wearing when he moved to Nashville!). Also, strangely, almost no mention of Willie Nelson anywhere. Even up in the top level where they have all the plaques for the Hall of Famers, his is up in the rafters and hard to find. Weird.

If you're a vinyl guy there are great record stores around. Jack White's Third Man Records is freakin' awesome if you're into records or the White Stripes.

I went for a week long music festival so I didn't do any of the honky tonk bars -- I was at concerts in different venues each night. (Saw Dwight Yoakam at the Mercy Lounge, and while I'm not the biggest Dwight fan, seeing him in a bar was pretty cool.) City Winery looked nice.

And I wasn't kidding about the bachelorette parties. They're everywhere. All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

 

[misterbc]

Robert’s for music across from Ernest Tubb record store. Music from 11am to about 1am, their artists focus on old style country but its friggin great.
Try to catch Daniel Donato somewhere in town, one of the truly great unknown guitar players.

 

[DanOregon]

Second Roberts. It's funky (there is an actual western wear store within the bar). And cruise through Tubbs and check out the Ryman, they're all within a block of each other. Also - Prince's Hot Chicken https://www.princeshotchicken.com/

 

[drexler]

It's been many years since I've been there, but I'll second on Puckett's. I remember going there for lunch and, like PC, could have eaten every meal there.

 

[Mwilliams685]

When I was there I felt like I could close my eyes and pick a place along Broadway Ave and have a good time.

I second the comment about the Johnny Cash museum.

 

[typefitter]

This is a little esoteric, maybe, but there's a very cool print shop, Hatch Show Print, that does beautiful posters and such with old wood blocks. I got a Patsy Cline poster there that I really like.

If you like minor-league baseball, the Triple-A park there is really nice. Great guitar-shaped scoreboard.

 

[qtlaw]

Guys thanks for these great tips!! Just what I needed. I’m staying on Broadway luckily so I can do most of this.

 

[Chef2]

All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

POGTFO.

 

[Chef2]

Guys thanks for these great tips!! Just what I needed. I’m staying on Broadway luckily so I can do most of this.

Especially the drunk girls.

 

[TwoGloves]

OK, I'm back...

Best place I found to eat was Puckett's Grocery at 6th and Church. (It's a restaurant.) Ate a couple of meals there and wish I had even more.

Also ate at Acme Feed and Seed, on Broadway down by the river. Pretty good. Nice atmosphere. They had a record section and I picked up an old, out-of-print Cheap Trick record, still sealed. That made me happy.

The Ryman is an amazing old theater with a great history. No one was playing there while I was in town so I took the tour. Totally worth it.

The Johnny Cash museum looks like a cheesy storefront operation but is actually really nice. They've got some great stuff in there. Well worth the visit.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a totally mixed bag. There's some really cool stuff there. When I went there was a great exhibit on Johnny Cash bringing Bob Dylan to Nashville to record. They had Gram Parson's embroidered suit, which was worth the trip to me. They also have a lot of kitschy stuff (the cornfield set from "Hee Haw!"), the mundane (the IKEA desk chair Dave Cobb sat in while producing a Jason Isbell record!), and the just plain stupid (the plaid shirt Blake Shelton was wearing when he moved to Nashville!). Also, strangely, almost no mention of Willie Nelson anywhere. Even up in the top level where they have all the plaques for the Hall of Famers, his is up in the rafters and hard to find. Weird.

If you're a vinyl guy there are great record stores around. Jack White's Third Man Records is freakin' awesome if you're into records or the White Stripes.

I went for a week long music festival so I didn't do any of the honky tonk bars -- I was at concerts in different venues each night. (Saw Dwight Yoakam at the Mercy Lounge, and while I'm not the biggest Dwight fan, seeing him in a bar was pretty cool.) City Winery looked nice.

And I wasn't kidding about the bachelorette parties. They're everywhere. All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

I thought Acme was OK, perhaps a bit overrated.

 

[TwoGloves]

OK, I'm back...

Best place I found to eat was Puckett's Grocery at 6th and Church. (It's a restaurant.) Ate a couple of meals there and wish I had even more.

Also ate at Acme Feed and Seed, on Broadway down by the river. Pretty good. Nice atmosphere. They had a record section and I picked up an old, out-of-print Cheap Trick record, still sealed. That made me happy.

The Ryman is an amazing old theater with a great history. No one was playing there while I was in town so I took the tour. Totally worth it.

The Johnny Cash museum looks like a cheesy storefront operation but is actually really nice. They've got some great stuff in there. Well worth the visit.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a totally mixed bag. There's some really cool stuff there. When I went there was a great exhibit on Johnny Cash bringing Bob Dylan to Nashville to record. They had Gram Parson's embroidered suit, which was worth the trip to me. They also have a lot of kitschy stuff (the cornfield set from "Hee Haw!"), the mundane (the IKEA desk chair Dave Cobb sat in while producing a Jason Isbell record!), and the just plain stupid (the plaid shirt Blake Shelton was wearing when he moved to Nashville!). Also, strangely, almost no mention of Willie Nelson anywhere. Even up in the top level where they have all the plaques for the Hall of Famers, his is up in the rafters and hard to find. Weird.

If you're a vinyl guy there are great record stores around. Jack White's Third Man Records is freakin' awesome if you're into records or the White Stripes.

I went for a week long music festival so I didn't do any of the honky tonk bars -- I was at concerts in different venues each night. (Saw Dwight Yoakam at the Mercy Lounge, and while I'm not the biggest Dwight fan, seeing him in a bar was pretty cool.) City Winery looked nice.

And I wasn't kidding about the bachelorette parties. They're everywhere. All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

Art Garfunkel was at the Ryman last time I was there. Saw some people leaving after the showed ended. They were highly disappointed because he did a lot of poetry.

 

[TigerVols]

OK, I'm back...

Best place I found to eat was Puckett's Grocery at 6th and Church. (It's a restaurant.) Ate a couple of meals there and wish I had even more.

Also ate at Acme Feed and Seed, on Broadway down by the river. Pretty good. Nice atmosphere. They had a record section and I picked up an old, out-of-print Cheap Trick record, still sealed. That made me happy.

The Ryman is an amazing old theater with a great history. No one was playing there while I was in town so I took the tour. Totally worth it.

The Johnny Cash museum looks like a cheesy storefront operation but is actually really nice. They've got some great stuff in there. Well worth the visit.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a totally mixed bag. There's some really cool stuff there. When I went there was a great exhibit on Johnny Cash bringing Bob Dylan to Nashville to record. They had Gram Parson's embroidered suit, which was worth the trip to me. They also have a lot of kitschy stuff (the cornfield set from "Hee Haw!"), the mundane (the IKEA desk chair Dave Cobb sat in while producing a Jason Isbell record!), and the just plain stupid (the plaid shirt Blake Shelton was wearing when he moved to Nashville!). Also, strangely, almost no mention of Willie Nelson anywhere. Even up in the top level where they have all the plaques for the Hall of Famers, his is up in the rafters and hard to find. Weird.

If you're a vinyl guy there are great record stores around. Jack White's Third Man Records is freakin' awesome if you're into records or the White Stripes.

I went for a week long music festival so I didn't do any of the honky tonk bars -- I was at concerts in different venues each night. (Saw Dwight Yoakam at the Mercy Lounge, and while I'm not the biggest Dwight fan, seeing him in a bar was pretty cool.) City Winery looked nice.

And I wasn't kidding about the bachelorette parties. They're everywhere. All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

Ok, as the resident native I have to admit this list is pretty spot-on.

But Nashville's not all about music and mayhem; if you want to get a look at Antebellum South – including from the slaves' perspective – Belle Meade Mansion is about 15 minutes down Broadway and is pretty interesting. Be sure to check out the bathtub that lardass President Taft got stuck in, and the horse barn whose lineage includes more Kentucky Derby winners than anywhere else.

And since you're on Broadway, you really need to visit the Parthenon; as one boneheaded former mayor told the prime minister of Greece, "I prefer ours over yours because ours is still standing." The Athena statue inside is really cool.

As for food, if you do the hot chicken thing Nashville is oddly now famous for, you really need to do it at Hattie B's; I think they claim to invent it, but then again I think the Pancake Pantry claims to have invented pancakes and it's the most overrated spot in town.

Not overrated: Arnold's and/or Swetts. You really can't say you've done Nashville if you haven't hit one of those two meat-and-threes, @qtlaw.

 

[DanOregon]

F- Hattie Bs, it's Prince's for hot chicken, which has been around a hell of a lot longer than 2012.

 

[qtlaw]

Ok, as the resident native I have to admit this list is pretty spot-on.

But Nashville's not all about music and mayhem; if you want to get a look at Antebellum South – including from the slaves' perspective – Belle Meade Mansion is about 15 minutes down Broadway and is pretty interesting. Be sure to check out the bathtub that lardass President Taft got stuck in, and the horse barn whose lineage includes more Kentucky Derby winners than anywhere else.

And since you're on Broadway, you really need to visit the Parthenon; as one boneheaded former mayor told the prime minister of Greece, "I prefer ours over yours because ours is still standing." The Athena statue inside is really cool.

As for food, if you do the hot chicken thing Nashville is oddly now famous for, you really need to do it at Hattie B's; I think they claim to invent it, but then again I think the Pancake Pantry claims to have invented pancakes and it's the most overrated spot in town.

Not overrated: Arnold's and/or Swetts. You really can't say you've done Nashville if you haven't hit one of those two meat-and-threes, @qtlaw.

Fantastic stuff T Vols!! Thanks again to others too.

 

[Old Crank]

F- Hattie Bs, it's Prince's for hot chicken, which has been around a hell of a lot longer than 2012.

Yes, Hattie B's is way overrated. Average fried chicken with hot sauce of some kind and mediocre fast-food fries. Once again marketing wins over actual taste.

 

[CD Boogie]

OK, I'm back...

Best place I found to eat was Puckett's Grocery at 6th and Church. (It's a restaurant.) Ate a couple of meals there and wish I had even more.

Also ate at Acme Feed and Seed, on Broadway down by the river. Pretty good. Nice atmosphere. They had a record section and I picked up an old, out-of-print Cheap Trick record, still sealed. That made me happy.

The Ryman is an amazing old theater with a great history. No one was playing there while I was in town so I took the tour. Totally worth it.

The Johnny Cash museum looks like a cheesy storefront operation but is actually really nice. They've got some great stuff in there. Well worth the visit.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a totally mixed bag. There's some really cool stuff there. When I went there was a great exhibit on Johnny Cash bringing Bob Dylan to Nashville to record. They had Gram Parson's embroidered suit, which was worth the trip to me. They also have a lot of kitschy stuff (the cornfield set from "Hee Haw!"), the mundane (the IKEA desk chair Dave Cobb sat in while producing a Jason Isbell record!), and the just plain stupid (the plaid shirt Blake Shelton was wearing when he moved to Nashville!). Also, strangely, almost no mention of Willie Nelson anywhere. Even up in the top level where they have all the plaques for the Hall of Famers, his is up in the rafters and hard to find. Weird.

If you're a vinyl guy there are great record stores around. Jack White's Third Man Records is freakin' awesome if you're into records or the White Stripes.

I went for a week long music festival so I didn't do any of the honky tonk bars -- I was at concerts in different venues each night. (Saw Dwight Yoakam at the Mercy Lounge, and while I'm not the biggest Dwight fan, seeing him in a bar was pretty cool.) City Winery looked nice.

And I wasn't kidding about the bachelorette parties. They're everywhere. All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

Ya buried the lede.