I came to Nashville expecting bachelorette parties and country music and left with a list of restaurants. Almost two months living there will do that. Hot Chicken is a debate I’m sitting out: SS Gai is what I want when I want fried chicken. Everything else, I’m happy to argue.
Mornings
I am not a coffee person and Living Waters Coffee Bar still made me sit up. It’s a microbrewery with a coffee bar attached, the room is generous, the seats actually invite you to stay. The coffee is several steps north of whatever you grab on the way to work. Even my flat palate could tell. If you can’t make it out there, The Well Coffeehouse is the safe second choice. Stick around long enough that you want a beer instead, and Bearded Iris Homestyle IPA is the local pour.
Breakfast I tend to skip, or eat as last night’s leftovers, so my breakfast list is short. If you want a real first meal of the day, Adele’s weekend brunch buffet is the answer. The roasted chicken, usually a dinner-only thing, shows up on the buffet, the blackened shrimp earn their plate, and the dessert section is not an afterthought. Make a reservation. Do not show up hopeful.
Lunch and dinner, by mood
Lunch in Nashville rewards picking a craving and following it down the menu. Seafood, you go to Red Perch at Sylvan Supply: fish and chips with the calamari add-on, or the fish sandwich. Thai, Degthai, where everything on the menu lands and the portions ask you to come hungry. Do the Thai iced tea. Fried chicken, SS Gai at The Wash, with the crispy chicken skin on top and chili oil on the side. Outdoor seating if the weather behaves.
If I had one night left in Nashville, dinner would be Maiz De La Vida from the food truck parked outside Chopper Tiki Bar. Street-style birria, the fish tacos, walked the ten feet inside the bar and paired with whatever cocktail the bar is doing. The combo does not miss. For something with a tablecloth in the picture, Lyra’s grilled octopus is worth the table.
After
City House gets the dessert vote. I worked through nearly the whole dessert menu this fall and would go back tomorrow even if I weren’t ordering pizza. Folk, also a pizza place, makes a tiramisu I think about, and the cocktails keep up. When the craving hits at home and I’m not driving anywhere, Domino’s is, occasionally, the answer. I know.
For nights in, the home pantry is its own pleasure. Roy’s Meat Service is where I went for meat. Fair prices, the kind of customer service that looks at you like a neighbor. Seafood, Aloha Fish Company, fresh-flown from Hawaii a couple of times a week; call ahead, they move locations. Everything else, Publix, Kroger, or Trader Joe’s, in that order on most days.
Music, and tennis of all things
Music in Nashville lives in the small rooms. The Listening Room and Bluebird Cafe are where songwriters play their own songs to an audience that’s actually listening. Bluebird is the one. The room hushes when the round starts.
Broadway is mostly cover bands and bachelorettes, lovely for that, not why you come for the music. For something with a roof and a history, the Ryman Auditorium is the picture you have in your head when you imagine a Nashville show. I saw Passenger up there and the upper-level seats give you the whole hall.
Carter Vintage Guitars is an afternoon on its own, even if you don’t play. A wall of guitars, then another wall, then another.
Then, tennis. The Tennis Store in Franklin is worth the drive even if you only need balls and a grip. Same-day stringing, which almost no one offers, and prices that match Tennis Warehouse, so I get the rest of my kit there too. For courts, Mundy Park is the best surface setup in the greater Nashville area. I tried plenty.
Reading this back, that’s the Nashville I had: small rooms, a wall of guitars, fish flown in, a taco walked from a truck to a bar, and a tennis shop in a strip mall in Franklin that will hand your racket back the same afternoon.