Nashville, where can I pedal for entertainment?
May 19, 2012 10:39 AM   Subscribe

Spontaneous day-trip to Nashville! When: Tomorrow, aka Sunday. Who: 2 weird, young dudes with a car and 2 bicycles. MeFi: What should we put on our list of awesome stuff to do and places to go? We already plan on eating and drinking at Bosco's. More growler-worthy beer is always welcome.
posted by Giggilituffin to Travel & Transportation around Nashville, TN (9 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Do you like coffee? Go to Crema.
posted by hijinx at 11:00 AM on May 19, 2012


Bosco's is a nice place to go on a casual date but it's not, like, the apotheosis of anything. Go to Yazoo Brewery for growlers (and a brewery tour if you like--although they might not be open on Sundays). The Flying Saucer has about a million beers on tap, including flights. Broadway Brewhouse is also a good, casual place.

Some signature Nashville restaurants are:
Pancake Pantry (breakfast)
Sunset Grill (a bit prissy, 80's California cuisine)
Cafe Margot (for a splurge)
Germantown Cafe (another splurge)
Gerst Haus (a casual German restaurant that has brewed its own beer since 1955. Actually, Yazoo brews it now, but still--local beer.)
Prince's Hot Chicken Shack (ridiculously hot fried chicken)
Rotier's (burgers)
Brown's Diner (burgers)
Loveless Cafe (soul food)
Monell's (soul food)
Hog Heaven (BBQ)

Some other good locally owned restaurants are:
Tayst (seasonal, sustainable)
Wild Cow (vegetarian)
Rosepepper Cantina (Tex-Mex)
Family Wash (beer, pub grub, live music)

Surprisingly good ethnic food places are:
Woodlands (vegetarian South Indian and Indo-Chinese--it's really amazing.)
Samurai Sushi
Smiling Elephant (Thai)
PM (pan-Asian, the chef was on Top Chef and comes from a longtime Nashville restaurant family)

There's also a lot of good ethnic (and Southern) food at the Nashville Farmer's Market food court downtown.
posted by elizeh at 11:24 AM on May 19, 2012


Yazoo and The Smiling Elephant are closed on Sunday. You can get growlers filled with Yazoo at the Green Hills Whole Foods and probably some other places. I think Blackstone Brewpub on West End does growlers too and they should be open. If you're going to be in the Bosco's area Hot And Cold across the street is a pretty cool little Ice Cream/ Frozen Treats + coffee shop where you can get local Las Paletas popsicles. Could be good since it's supposed to be hot tomorrow.

IMO most of the cool stuff in Nashville is in the area around Vanderbilt on the west side, the Five Points Area on the East side, or somewhere in between. Luckily those two areas are a reasonable bike ride apart! It's about five miles.
posted by ghharr at 11:58 AM on May 19, 2012


I once drove from NYC to Nashville just to see the Parthenon Reconstruction and bow before the statue of Athena. Highly recommended. Weird and cool.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:05 PM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the Parthenon is fascinating! of all the things I expected to see in Nashville, a reproduction of the Parthenon was not one of them.

Be careful biking - wear your helmet and use your lights. If you want to go for a bike ride off the city streets, I admit I like the Shelby Bottoms greenway along the Cumberland, right in town. If you cross the river, use the Shelby pedestrian bridge or the Woodland bridge (has a sidewalk).

Do you like looking for records or CDs? You can always check out the Great Escape. Do you want to horrify salespeople by asking to play instruments worth thousands of dollars? Go down to lower Broadway (bright lights honkytonk tourist trap of Nashville) and check out Gruhn's.

Sunday night is the bluegrass jam at the Station Inn. This is an interesting place to go, it's a one-story concrete holdout in the 12 south area, which is hugely gentrified/getrifying. Also, no cover on Sunday night, and it's one of the only smoke-free bars in Nashville.

I would personally avoid Pancake Pantry tomorrow. The brunch line is generally outrageous, particularly on a spring or summer day (even with all the undergrads and their parents gone from campus right now, I think it would still suck, but I'm impatient at best).

5 points - it's gonna be hot tomorrow, if it's open, Pied Piper is a local ice cream shop in the 5points area in East Nashville.

There's a santa and christmas-themed bar in south Nashville I haven't been to yet, but want to, Santa's Pub (also has karaoke!). How late are you going to be in Nashville? Sunday is sort of a rough day, IMO, for doing stuff in Nashville, lots of places are just closed.
posted by circle_b at 12:44 PM on May 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


The Station Inn is on 12th ave. S but it isn't in the 12 South neighborhood, it's in the Gulch.

Also FWIW lots are bars are non-smoking now since they changed laws a year or so ago. I think almost all the honky tonks on lower Broad are.
posted by ghharr at 1:41 PM on May 19, 2012


Check out the Parthenon, yes... but then I would drive to East Nashville, and park in the five points area. From there you can bike all over the neighborhood... it's a pretty bike friendly area. In addition to the East Nash places mentioned above, here are my faves.

I can't say enough good things about Silly Goose. I live in NYC, but had one of my best meals in recent memory there in February.

I Dream of Weenie is a "gourmet" hotdog stand... perfect for a snack (they even have a brunch weenie)

Village Pub has some interesting beers on tap... and it's a really mellow place to hang.
posted by kimdog at 2:31 PM on May 19, 2012


I also recommend The Parthenon and Monnel's, especially on Sunday. Biscuits and peach preserves....mmmmm.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:16 PM on May 19, 2012


Omg, seconding Las Paletas. We went there after hitting Burger Up (next door) and the flavors are insanely awesome.
posted by jquinby at 7:47 PM on May 19, 2012


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