One night in New Orleans and Nashville
August 18, 2012 7:37 PM   Subscribe

One night in New Orleans and Nashville. Where to stay, what to do?

As part of a road trip from Austin to Baltimore, I'd like to stop for the evening in places that I haven't been and New Orleans and Nashville fit my timeline pretty well. (I'll be stopping in Floyd, VA the 3rd night.) Assume I'll be getting in around 6pm to each city and it'll be midweek, the last week of August. Secure parking is necessary since my car will be loaded with my stuff.

I'd like to have a nice, regionally representative dinner and then maybe a handcrafted cocktail or a local beer somewhere within walking distance to my hotel. Where should I be? I'd like to spend about $75/night or less for food and drink. Any early morning breakfast ideas would be great as well!
posted by youcancallmeal to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
For drinks in New Orleans, go here. It is one of the best bars in America, and very likely the top mixology bar. Don't order off the menu, just tell the bartender what you're kind of in the mood for and let him do his thing.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:44 PM on August 18, 2012


If you get a chance to go to east Nashville's Mitchell's Deli, it is freaking delicious. Not sure of their evening hours, but it has awesome sandwiches and the best breakfast foods I've ever had.
posted by shortyJBot at 7:59 PM on August 18, 2012


The signature place to go in Nashville is the Country Music hall of fame. If you have time get the studio B tour.The signature dish is hot fried chicken. Get it at Prince's. The heat ratings are the same as the Texas Chlli Parlor in Austin.
posted by brujita at 8:04 PM on August 18, 2012 [3 favorites]


In New Orleans, if you're staying anywhere around the French Quarter or CBD, Cure will be quite a ways a way. Bar Tonique is small, friendly, at the edge of the Quarter, and makes delicious cocktails with fresh ingredients. If you want additional options, the New York Times had a recent article about NOLA cocktails.

There are tons of restaurants around the CBD/French Quarter/Warehouse District: Herbsaint, Bayona, Cochon, etc.

If you don't want to be right by the Quarter, one option would be to stay at the Prytania Park Hotel, which is a short walk from Emeril's Delmonico Restaurant. The Prytania has good rates and (I think) free parking (street level in a private lot) - most hotels near downtown charge an extra $20 or more for parking. Your breakfast spot around there (in the Lower Garden District) would probably be Surrey's Cafe.

It will be easier to give targeted recommendations after you decide where exactly you're staying, so let us know if you pick a hotel.
posted by unsub at 11:05 PM on August 18, 2012


Response by poster: I was planning on picking hotels based on the places I wanted to visit.
posted by youcancallmeal at 11:44 PM on August 18, 2012


Here's a recent article about the food scene in Nashville. One of the more interesting areas of Nashville with great restaurants and bars is East Nashville. Five Points and the surrounding neighborhoods have lots of great places to eat and some degree of walkablity. There's one of the other famous hot chicken places, Bolton's, and one of my favorites is Silly Goose. Family Wash is a fab music venue with decent food. The problem is that there aren't any hotels in that area (there are a couple of B&B/AirBnB places).

Most of the hotels with any degree of walkable are downtown, or around Vanderbilt/Music Row (West End & Hillsboro Village). Downtown is mostly touristy, so I would avoid that. In the West End area there's a bunch of decent hotels. Nearby is one of the most talked about restaurants, The Catbird Seat. I've not eaten there, but heard great things.
posted by kimdog at 4:30 PM on August 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


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