Tennessee - Nashville
Where words fail, music speaks.
We began our morning by waking up at 7AM, arriving to the airport by 8:30AM and making our way quickly through security before grabbing Chick-fil-A’s Chick-n’-Mini’s for breakfast at 9AM. Oh, how I had missed traveling.
After sleeping for the entire one-and-half-hour flight, we deplaned and immediately came across a man playing his guitar on a small stage by an airport bar - our first of many Nashville music experiences to come for our three-day long weekend away.
Just outside of the airport terminal, there was a line of taxis; we decided to jump in one rather than waiting for an Uber or Lyft to arrive. A $35 taxi ride later and we made it to Noelle - our luxury boutique hotel that featured beautiful architecture and art by local Nashville designers.
We were able to check in early at 11:45AM - standard check-in was at 4:00PM - and we were given a complimentary room upgrade; a sign of good things to come for our trip.
Hungry from our lack of food since Chick-fil-A at 9AM EST (8AM Nashville time), we went across the street to Church and Union where we ordered a flight of four mimosas and a poutine appetizer. We then made the less than five-minute walk to Broadway - the street in downtown Nashville that houses the entertainment district of live country music, restaurants and tourist attractions.
We stumbled into Second Fiddle - a typical local’s country bar with a band playing on stage at the front entrance; American flags, aged pictures and stereos displayed on the walls - we ordered a Yazoo Pale Ale, locally brewed in Nashville, and sat at a table in the middle of the bar while we enjoyed people watching and differentiating the tourists from the locals.
Wanting to explore the city, we walked about 15 minutes to The Union Station, a luxury boutique hotel and event space that was originally a terminal on the L&N Railroad from 1900 - 1986.
After sitting at the hotel bar for a drink and admiring the mix of historic original and modern architecture and art of the property, we walked about 25 minutes back to our hotel where we ordered a soft pretzel and deviled eggs from room service and watched HGTV before we got ready for our evening.
On our list of boutique hotels to explore in the area was Bobby Hotel, a short walk up the street from our residence for the weekend. We were able to be seated immediately at the bar lounge area of its Union Tavern restaurant, where we ordered a drink and delicious hummus appetizer and admired the local artwork and sculptures lining the walls and halls of the hotel.
We returned to our hotel and decided to get a final drink and appetizer of roasted Brussels sprouts at the Trade Room bar - designed with a combination of 1930’s Tennessee architecture and modern lounge seating - to end the evening; we listened to a woman playing live music on her guitar.
The following morning, we went down to our hotel lobby and grabbed a cup of coffee to go from Drug Store Coffee - housed in the original location of the drug store counter from the former Noel Place hotel, built in 1930.
We took our coffee and walked about 25 minutes to The Gulch, an upscale trendy neighborhood in Nashville scattered with high-end boutiques, restaurants and urban housing complexes.
Biscuit Love, a locally-owned breakfast restaurant, was in the heart of The Gulch and we had our hearts set on eating there. Evidently, so did many others.
After standing in line for 40 minutes in the cold shade of winter in Nashville - although we were provided with a hot apple cider station while we waited - we made it inside to place our order at the counter and sat down at a table to enjoy our well-worth-it breakfast of eggs, bacon, grits and, of course, a biscuit. While the line had been long and the restaurant inside was packed full of people, once we ordered at the counter and sat down, we received our meal within 10 minutes.
Once we were finished with our first meal of the day, we wandered around the neighborhood in and out of shops and made our way back toward Broadway, where we went on an hour-and-a-half-long hop on, hop off trolley tour of Nashville through Old Town Trolley Tours. Tired from walking and full from breakfast, we opted out of hopping off at any of the stops, and stayed on the bus for the entire time. This wasn’t for lack of seeing the sights, passing through streets holding the Musician’s Hall of Fame, Music Row, the Capitol building, Centennial Park, Belmont and Vanderbilt Universities, The Gulch neighborhood, Frist Art Museum and more.
The trolley tour returned us to Broadway, and we went to The Twelve Thirty Club for a drink and nachos before walking back to our hotel’s rooftop bar, Rare Bird, decorated with stylish outdoor seating, fireplaces and heaters; overlooking downtown Nashville.
For dinner that evening, we went to Merchants - located in a building that dates back as early as 1892 - where we ordered a drink and steak salad to pick at, still full from our breakfast and appetizer earlier in the day.
We finished the evening by walking a few doors up the street on Broadway to Nudie’s Honky Tonk - named after Nudie Cohn, a Ukrainian-born tailor who earned his fame from his elaborately designed rhinestone-covered suits that he created for both himself and celebrities including Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel at 11AM and took a Lyft to the 12South neighborhood of Nashville, near Belmont University, where we went to Frothy Monkey for a late breakfast of a rosemary honey latte and an omelette. Afterward, we walked down the main street of the neighborhood, in and out of boutiques and through a small park. With time to spare before we had to be at the airport for our flight, we stopped in Bartaco for a carafe of ginger-mint tea and appetizers of spicy cucumber salad and plantains.
We took a Lyft back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and headed to the airport, filled with excitement of the many trips to come.