Travel advice for Nashville please!

April 21, 2015 10:01 PM

Hey MeFites familiar with the Nashville area! I am coming to your neck of the woods for work for a day or two, and would like to find some things:

Food: vegetarian, gluten-free, no soy, no tomatoes. I like Indian and Mexican best but am totally happy with gluten-free pizza. I need to be able to ask questions. I'm fine with going to the grocery store.

Tea: I love tea. If there's a good place to get tea in Nashville, I want to know about it. If there's merely a non-shitty place to get tea, I want to know about that too.

Zines and indie publishing: I love zines and indie publishing, and if there are quirky bookstores or infoshops I would love to know about them, and about what else is in that neighborhood.

I also love museums. The Frist is sadly not that great, but there have to be other options around, right? Help me out here!

posted by bile and syntax to Travel & Transportation around Nashville, TN (8 answers total)

Best answer: Nashville is not a museum-heavy town, and so I would suggest a visit to Cheekwood instead, which can be quite lovely at this time of year. Or - embrace the fact that it's Nashville and visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, it's well done and fairly interesting (and hey, technically it's a museum!). I don't know if you've been inside the Parthenon, but the Athena statute is fairly impressive. I wouldn't advise going to that part of town just for that, but if you're in the area and want to nip in for a quick look (there is an entrance fee), it could be fun to drink a cup of tea in the gardens at Centennial Park and see the statute.

I am a tea person and I was about to say there wasn't anywhere great to get tea and then I asked a friend and they pointed me toward a place in East Nashville called High Garden, which looks super interesting. Due note that they are closed Sunday and Monday. Sorry that I can't give real world experience, but still thought I would mention. There is also Savannah Tea Company where you can have food, too, but I haven't had very good experiences there so I hesitate to recommend.

I don't know if Parnassus Books is quirky enough for you, but I am super fond of Ann Prachett and what she is trying to do for independent book sellers and taking on authors that are being ignored. And, of course, they promote local authors.
posted by dawg-proud at 11:19 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Vegetarian and gluten free is tough in Nashville. Maybe Woodlands on West End Ave for Indian and Grins on the Vanderbilt campus. Possibly Treehouse on the east side, they had a decent amount of gluten-free stuff last time I was there.

Book Man / Book Woman is a cool used book shop. If there are any local zines you could find them at Grimey's records on 8th.

One of the fancy coffeeshops might have good tea too? Barista Parlor or Crema.

Tennessee State Museum is free and decent, Cheekwood and the Country Music Hall of Fame are cool but spendy. Vanderbilt also has a small art gallery but I dunno what the current exhibit is.
posted by ghharr at 11:38 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Lane Motor Museum is worth an afternoon, even if you're not a huge car fanatic, some fun stuff there
posted by edgeways at 4:36 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm from Detroit, but spent 4 days in Nashville just last week.

I can't help you out w/ teas, but as a tourist I did enjoy the Parthenon building and museum as well as the Johnny Cash museum.

And, it's not quite zines and indie publishing, but the Hatch Lithography studio was pretty cool (and right inside the CMHOF (which I didn't go in).

http://hatchshowprint.com/
posted by bricksNmortar at 5:48 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: YES to Woodlands for delicious veg*n Indian food. Their gluten-free options are clearly marked and the waitstaff were very helpful and friendly when I had menu questions (I'm vegan).

Other all-vegetarian joints I loved when I was in town were The Wild Cow and Sunflower Cafe, but they're both pretty far out from downtown, so if you don't have a car, you might not have time to trek out to patronize them. Greens Cafe is smack dab in the middle of Midtown, but it's a total hippie "detox" joint (steamed quinoa! beets! lentils!!!!) so I'm not sure if I can recommend it in good conscience to someone who's looking for, erm, regular people food.

I'd also recommend checking out Howlin' Books in South Nashville; it shares a building with Grimey's Too and Frothy Monkey, a cafe/coffee shop with a handful of vegetarian and gluten-free options and a small selection of High Garden Teas.
posted by divined by radio at 7:36 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For tea, Dose (dosecoffeeandtea.com) and in Franklin, about 20 min. south, Music City Tea or Franklin Tea. I think Savannah Tea Co has closed; definitely no longer in Germantown.
posted by mmiddle at 8:18 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best Vegan/Vegetarian food: The Wild Cow. I've always been unimpressed by Sunflower Cafe, and I do second Woodlands.

I also second the recommendation to check out the Hatch print shop.

And it may sound nuts, but the Country Music Hall of Fame is actually a really interesting museum, even for someone who isn't particularly interested in country music (like me).
posted by KateH at 9:05 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks so much, everyone!
posted by bile and syntax at 3:32 PM on April 22, 2015