I may have missed the ball on getting you my snapshots of my trip to Nashville. But the good news is, that gave me time to put together a whole stinkin’ guide.
Ever since becoming mildly obsessed with the TV show, I’ve been wanting to go to Nashville to take in the tunes at the Bluebird Café and find Connie Britton in her trailer and convince her to be my best friend. Luckily, my current (real) best friend Sarah was right there with me and decided to choose the city as her bachelorette destination.
Our itinerary was planned by the Maid of Honor who, lucky for us, also just started a travel blog, Bon Voyaging. She beat me to the punch in writing up a mini guide to Nashville. I found this incredibly helpful in putting together the below, since in the land of bourbon and bacon, I may have accidentally forgotten to take a few brain cells home with me.
Even though we got there on Friday evening, and I left early Sunday, we managed to pack in an extraordinary number of things into our short stay – especially considering we spent 3 hours of our Saturday waiting in line for pancakes. We stayed at Hutton Hotel which was chic and cute, just as Gwenie promised it would be, and also perfectly located.
Friday night we had dinner at Taco Mamacita, where the tacos were meh, but the margaritas were good and cheap. We bounced around to a couple places after we couldn’t get into the super trendy library-style speak easy, The Patterson House. If you go to Nashville, you should at least try to get in there, and then if you are a super geeky fan of the show, you should stroll down two doors. We are 90 percent positive this is where Scarlet and Gunner go to write their music. This area (Midtown) was less touristy and we loved that there was Loser’s Bar and Grill right next to Winner’s. Both had great live music without all the intensity of the Honky Tonks.
Saturday morning we went to the much-acclaimed Pancake Pantry. We waited two hours in line to get in, then possibly another hour for our food, which may or may not have the waitress’ spit in it. Only a group of 10 New York girls would wait 2 hours for brunch at a pancake restaurant, then order egg white breakfast wraps with about 3 different requests and substitutions. Needless to say, we didn’t order right, but it was worth the wait for the mounds of pecan pancakes and buttery hash browns we got for the table.
We spent the rest of the day walking around to various vintage shops. Couldn’t quite tell what the name of the neighborhood was, but it had an awesome hipster-y vibe. And popsicles. The Las Paletas popsicles were amazing. We then moseyed back Downtown to check out the level of day drinking happening on Broadway. It was high to very high. Luckily there were other fun things to see like Hatch Print Shop and some crazy candy joints.
That night we ate at Tavern which was serving one of the more ridiculously delicious bar snacks I’ve ever eaten: buffalo cauliflower. I’m definitely going to be recreating it for you guys sometime soon. Then, it was off to the Honky Tonks. The bars were a sweaty crowded mess. But after a few Taylor Swift covers, the sing-alongs made all the beer-down-the-back worth it.
My favorite part of the night, perhaps my favorite part of the whole trip, was karaoke. Much to our surprise Lonnie’s Western Room is just one room. It being an industry town, drunk college kids and country hopefuls alike, sing on a big stage in front of everyone. This sounds intimidating, which is why none of us actually got up there to do it. But it turns the venue into one big sing-along. No one seems to notice or care that they don’t have mics.
Below is a full list of everywhere we ate, drank, and went. And check out Bon Voyaging’s full guide for more.
Have you been to Nashville? Let me know what I missed in the comments!
Xo
Phoebe
Eating:
Pancake Pantry: In case your common sense is lacking, as ours certainly was, I will spell it out for you: get the pancakes. The pecan version was stellar, as were the loaded hash browns that came with ham, cheese, and the works.
Taco Mamacita: The tacos were forgettable, but it was a fun cheap place to start a party weekend. The cheese dip was weirdly good. But maybe that was the South rubbing off on me.
Tavern: Highlights included the buffalo cauliflower (special), the kale salad, and the three types of fries.
Las Paletas: By far the best flavors were Pineapple Chile, plain Jane Strawberry, and Chai Tea. My Tamarind Chile was interesting, but got old after a few licks
Merchants Restaurant: We didn’t actually eat here because the wait was too long, but it was a nice little respite from the day drinking in the middle of broadway. The sweet potato fries looked baller.
Boozing, Singing, Dancing:
Rebar
Shopping:
hey phoebe,
it’s emma from brown, love your blog and i actually live in nashville! i wish i’d known so i could give you recs. the hipster neighborhood you’re referring to is 12th avenue south, which was once known as waverly and recently gentrified. martha stewart did a spread about in in her mag. my bf runs a used bike store there called halycon. they have a great restaurant called 12th south taproom and an organic burger place with monthly farm to table dinners called burger up, both of which i think would be right up your alley. however, the best restaurant is hands down city house. it’s totally your style, all small plates and was written up in nyt. and the less crowded alternative to patterson house is holland house in east nashville (run by the same people). but don’t even get me started about listing all the good down home southern cooking places and honky tonks and hipster parties…. next time you need some nashville info, let me know!
This blog is so much fun to read, and makes me wish I had your life in my 20’s. And the food photos are just gorgeous.