The Best Places to Eat in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

Sift is a bakery-cafe with a giant stick of butter painted on its exterior, which is the closest thing to a mission statement you'll find on a building. Inside, the case runs to tiramisu brownies, apple crumb tarts, and cherry almond breakfast cakes, with a box of six getting you a sixth free. The coffee and tea come from the Dose people, so the golden chai arrives under soft whipped cream. The maritozzi is how you end up buying a second box.

1. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

Yeast is a small East Nashville bakery built around the kolache, the Czech pastry Texans have been quietly keeping to themselves. The sweet Bohemian versions come filled with fruit, and the savory Tex-Czech ones run toward sausage, cheddar, and jalapeño. A few tables and a tiny patio exist, but the move is to carry your bag across the street to East Park and eat on a bench like a person with nowhere to be.

1. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville

A small espresso counter tucked into the side of a vintage clothing and furniture store, Earl serves coffee through a brick-inlaid window that connects the two spaces. Grab a seasonal flavored drink, then wander the racks next door, which is about as Nashville as an afternoon gets. The grab-and-go cooler stocks bites from a local caterer, worth checking before you leave.

1. The Infatuation The ‘It’ Coffee Shops Across America Right Now

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Neighborhood Empire Builder · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Neighborhood Empire Builder · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Neighborhood Empire Builder · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best All-Day Breakfast · Best of Nashville

Butcher & Bee is a Middle Eastern-leaning, mostly meatless sit-down restaurant on Main Street, and it adds a 2.2 percent charge to every check to fund staff health insurance. The kitchen takes seasonality seriously enough that August arrives as tomatoes in everything, cocktails included. The "Order Like a Pro" option hands the menu to the cooks, a relief if you hate choosing. Nashville Scene has named it Best Restaurant.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Restaurant · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Seasonal Menus · Best of Nashville

Close Company is a cocktail bar in the Neuhoff District, a Nashville outpost of New York's Death & Co., set in a big, open, colorful adaptive-reuse space. The menu favors familiar drinks with a twist, like a Bitter Melon Negroni, and the Wray & Ting pairs Jamaican rum with grapefruit soda. Food comes out of a cubby counter you retrieve it from yourself. Ordering a vodka tonic here is a bold way to announce yourself. Nashville Scene named it Best New Bar in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Bar · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New 'Cue · Best of Nashville

Haraz is a Yemeni coffee shop in East Nashville, part of a chain that has grown from one Dearborn storefront to dozens of locations. The draw is mufawar, a cardamom-infused coffee served hot or cold, plus Turkish coffee and a short pastry case with sweet and savory options. Order at the counter and ask questions, because the staff will happily explain anything unfamiliar. Nashville Scene named it Best Overlooked Coffee Shop.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Overlooked Coffee Shop · Best of Nashville

Little Rey is a fast-casual taco counter on West End from the Atlanta restaurateur Ford Fry, and the sauce-and-salsa bar is the real draw, with two green salsas, one mild and citrusy, one spicy and creamy. Smoky steak tacos and whole rotisserie-style chickens come out fast, George Jones plays overhead, and there's free parking and a patio you wouldn't expect on this stretch. Nashville Scene named it Best New Fast-Casual Joint.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Fast-Casual Joint · Best of Nashville

Spicy Boy's is a casual Cajun counter-service joint in Cleveland Park, the sort of place where you order at the register and eat with plastic forks. The gumbo is a smoky, densely layered stew that has talked more than one regular out of their stated plan to branch out. The Nashville Scene has handed out Best of Nashville nods for the gumbo, a rum-heavy Painkiller, and a root beer float, so dessert is covered.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Float: Root Beer Float · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Frozen Drink: Painkiller · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Gumbo · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Lunch Spot · Best of Nashville

Urban Cowboy Bar is a cocktail bar on the second floor of downtown's Arcade, where the taxidermy, neon, and leaded glass have clearly been arranged by someone who owns a good lamp. The drinks are carefully made, and the pizza comes by the slice, which keeps the evening from getting too serious. Looking down over the Arcade gives the room a big-city feel, and Nashville Scene named it Best Bar Spinoff in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Bar Spinoff · Best of Nashville

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Mailea Weger

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Dessert Special: Bread Pudding · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Brewery for Last-Minute Gatherings · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Under-the-Radar Business Magnate · Best of Nashville · Wesley Keegan

Tiger Bar is a gin-leaning cocktail bar on Gallatin Pike dressed as a 1930s carnival sideshow, and it commits without tipping into costume party. There's a mystery cocktail wheel you can spin to let fate pick your drink, which saves you from the menu and also from yourself. The Flamin' Hot Mozz Sticks have a Nashville Scene award, and Esquire put the place on its list of America's bars.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. Esquire The Best Bars in America
3. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Theme Bar · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Fancy Sushi · Best of Nashville

All Or Nothing is a bagel shop built around a wood-fired oven and a pun: "All" for everything, "Nothing" for plain, both sourdough. It began as a folding table and a pizza oven outside a drum shop and has since graduated to an Airstream. Order at the window, expect schmears made in-house, and watch a summer series hand the griddle to local food trucks. It has won Best New Bagel Spot and Best Chef Series from the Nashville Scene.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Chef Series: Camp Bagel · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Bagel Spot · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Old Nashville Hangout · Best of Nashville

Chopper is a tiki-ish cocktail bar that swapped the grass skirts for robots, with Star Wars characters turning up in the barware and the drinks billed as "lab tested," as if a bar had a lab. Mai tais and rum runners get their own spin alongside a rotating seasonal menu, and the coffee drinks tend to be the interesting ones. A taco truck usually parks out front, so dinner is basically handled.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Symbiotic Food Truck/Bar Relationship · Best of Nashville

Coral Club is a cocktail bar on the East Side, a short walk from Five Points, that goes for beachfront in a spot where Gallatin Pike is the only shoreline. It manages with mellow lighting, low-key decor, and a rooftop patio. The list runs from a gin-lemon Seasonal Fix to a straightforward Old Fashioned, plus a zero-proof option. It took Best New Cocktail Bar from the Nashville Scene.

1. Punch Best New Bartenders · Matthew Izaguirre
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best New Cocktail Bar · Best of Nashville
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Old-School Dessert: Chocolate Malt Cake · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Seasonal Donuts · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Addition to Germantown · Best of Nashville

Frankies is a pizza and sandwich spot on Cherokee Avenue that treats cheese like a serious hobby. The stracciatella arrives with red-onion agrodolce, pistachios, and a drizzle of olive oil good enough that they now ship it around the country. There's a fennel sausage sandwich, and the pizza has collected a few Nashville Scene Best of Nashville nods. Casual, counter-ish, and best approached with a plan to share, if you're the sharing type.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Cheese Thing · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best New Sandwich: Fennel Sausage Sandwich · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Pizza · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Pita · Best of Nashville

Green Chili is a casual Indian spot in a Rivergate strip, beneath Vietnam Veterans Boulevard, across from a Hooters and next to a church that used to be a Circuit City. It's easy to miss, which is how Nashville Scene ended up naming it the Best Tucked-Away Indian Restaurant. The servers will joke with you about the spice levels, and the owners also run the Japanese steakhouse in town, so apparently they just know hospitality.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Tucked-Away Indian Restaurant · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Back-of-House Vibes · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Back-of-House Vibes · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Back-of-House Vibes · Best of Nashville

Halls Catch is a seafood restaurant on West End with a dining room dressed in iridescent fish-scale walls and a wave sculpture on the ceiling, which is a lot of commitment to a theme. The better trick is the back bar, tucked down a short hall, where walls of windows open onto a downtown skyline from an angle almost nobody sees. Nashville Scene named it Best Hideaway Bar with a View in 2025, so the secret is now technically printed.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Hideaway Bar with a View · Best of Nashville

Harriet's Rooftop is a bar on the 19th floor of 1 Hotel, where the designers apparently decided the Nashville skyline could use some competition from a lot of plants. Charred-wood accents and clusters of soft seating break the big space into smaller corners, and the outdoor bar keeps fire pits going for chilly nights. Expect hotel-rooftop prices, and it holds a Nashville Scene Best of Nashville nod for rooftop design.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Rooftop Bar Design · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Decadent Whiskey Tasting · Best of Nashville

Hometeam Pizza is a casual pizza spot on Alabama Avenue where the ranch gets nearly as much attention as the slices. The co-owner built it from sour cream, mayonnaise, and buttermilk, then fussed with the spices until it came out pourable but not runny, which is a standard most bottled versions never attempt. Nashville Scene named it Best Ranch Dressing, and her husband says it's what she gets complimented on most, after the kids.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Ranch Dressing · Best of Nashville

Honeytree is an East Side meadery, which means you're drinking fermented honey in a taproom instead of ordering a flight and pretending to know what a Viking would have wanted. Mead tends to run sweet, and the ginger candied in house is what pulls their Sweet Baby Ginger back toward something you could drink at a normal pace. It won a Best of Nashville from the Scene for exactly that. Dress is whatever you wore to work.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Mead: Sweet Baby Ginger · Best of Nashville

A Victorian mansion that once housed Nashville's mayor now houses a Southern restaurant with a commitment so strict on local sourcing that the menu can change daily. Wood-burning ovens do heavy work, meaning plenty of smoked, grilled, and barbecued dishes done in the classic style. Tables downstairs look out over the vegetable gardens, which, given how directly those gardens inform your plate, feels less like a view and more like disclosure.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Restaurant · Best of Nashville
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Inglewood Lounge is an East Nashville bar where the booths are tucked away and the lighting forgives everyone, which is the whole pitch for a first date. There's a covered patio, a dance floor for when things go well, and a bar menu with a piri piri chicken sandwich you can take to go when they don't. The U-shaped parking lot makes the exit easy. Nashville Scene voted it Best Place for a First Date in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Place for a First Date · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Breakfast Burrito · Best of Nashville

Margot is a neighborhood cafe and bar in East Nashville, the kind of dinner spot where the staff has clearly been to school for this and then politely hidden the diploma. It's been running for ages without turning fussy, which in this city is its own small feat. Nashville Scene gave it Best Service Staff, and the evidence is that nobody at your table ever feels processed.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Service Staff · Best of Nashville

Martha My Dear is a neighborhood cocktail bar on Gallatin Ave, in a space that spent a short, theatrical stretch as a WWII-themed Euro bar before closing without much mourning. The new owners kept some of the Old World bones and swapped the concept for something calmer, with drinks built by a bartender who came up through Attaboy. It's casual and low-key, with cocktails that take their job seriously and nothing else around them does.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Reinvented Bar · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Breakfast Bagel · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Specialty Sandwich · Best of Nashville

Music City Tea is a loose-leaf Chinese tea shop in an unassuming house in Murfreesboro, with shelves and tables crowded with pouches, bins, and tins. The owner sits you down and pours round after round through a gaiwan while explaining oolong versus green versus black, so plan on an hour and a mild caffeine tremor. Nashville Scene named it Best Intro to Tea in 2025, and you'll probably leave with a colorful gaiwan of your own.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Intro to Tea · Best of Nashville

Punk Wok is a casual sushi counter tucked into a corner of the Sylvan Supply complex on Charlotte, the kind of spot that predates the recent flood of sushi openings and has never felt the need to mention it. Happy hour runs three hours, every day, with half-price maki, nigiri, and sashimi and $2 domestic beers. Nashville Scene gave it Best Happy Hour in 2025, which the math on that deal mostly explains.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Nepalese/Bhutanese Restaurant and Grocery Store · Best of Nashville

Retrograde is a bright, clean coffee shop in City Heights, and by midmorning it fills with the laptop crowd, the same remote workers who lost their last roost when a beloved Nations spot closed. They're easy to pardon, since the whipped feta and prosciutto toast tastes like a Germantown brunch with the reservation and the markup removed. Nashville Scene named it the best thing on toast in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Cozy Pizza Spot · Best of Nashville

Schulman's is a neighborhood dive bar dressed as the finished basement of your friend's cool parents, with stained glass lampshades, a lacquered bar, and leather booths that have seen things. The martinis run twelve dollars, there's a double cheeseburger and a pickle beer, and the backyard is built for smokers holding frozen margaritas. Nashville Scene named it Best New Bar in 2024.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best New Bar · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Facelift · Best of Nashville

Sperry's Mercantile is a gourmet market and prepared-foods shop out in Bellevue, where the casseroles are fancy enough to bring to a dinner party and pass off as your own. Beyond the grab-and-go case you'll find a wine section, full meat and seafood counters, and a dining room next door. There's also a drive-thru for breakfast and lunch, a thing the Belle Meade original has the good sense not to attempt.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Grab-and-Go Expansion · Best of Nashville

Sperry's Mercantile is a gourmet market and prepared-foods shop, the kind where dinner arrives in a container and you take the credit. The Bellevue outpost has a full seafood and meat counter, a curated wine wall, and a drive-thru for breakfast and lunch, which is not a sentence you expect about a place with fancy chicken casseroles. It took Nashville Scene's Best Grab-and-Go Expansion. Eat in the dining room or carry it home.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Grab-and-Go Expansion · Best of Nashville

Studio Mama is a supper club in a recording studio, where about thirty people share a multicourse meal cooked by a former studio chef, then watch a songwriter play from a few feet away. The $550 ticket buys dinner, conversation with strangers, and a set that feels like it was written for your table. It's a house concert that happens to have a proper kitchen. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville nod for Best Reason to Splurge.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Reason to Splurge · Best of Nashville

SuperNormal is a burger counter in Sylvan Park, and the move here is the packaging. Your burger and fries ride side by side in a bright orange cube with three vent holes punched in the lid, so the steam escapes and nothing goes limp on the drive home. It's fast-ish food with the design instincts of a gallery gift shop. Nashville Scene gave it Best Presentation/Packaging in 2025, which tells you where the effort went.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Presentation/Packaging · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best New Brunch · Best of Nashville

Tabla Rasa Cafe is a neighborhood spot on Greenwood Avenue, and its calling card is a sprinkle-and-peanut-brittle ice cream topping that Midwestern kids grew up shaking out of a Dairy Queen cup. Transplants who spent years hunting for it south of the Mason-Dixon line can now stop. It's casual and cheap, a stop for a cone or a cup, and Nashville Scene gave the sprinkle crunch its Best Throwback to Childhood nod.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Throwback to Childhood: Sprinkle Crunch · Best of Nashville

TailGate is a brewery taproom with pizza, a patio, and a surprisingly large footprint, since the owner has quietly built it into nine locations without investors. It's the kind of place where the beer, the cider, and a painting class can share a Tuesday, and nobody finds that odd. Dogs and kids are welcome, so the crowd skews toward people who left the house with a leash or a stroller.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Under-the-Radar Business Magnate · Best of Nashville · Wesley Keegan

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Under-the-Radar Business Magnate · Best of Nashville · Wesley Keegan

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Under-the-Radar Business Magnate · Best of Nashville · Wesley Keegan

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Rooftop Bar · Best of Nashville

The Iberian Pig is a fine-dining Spanish restaurant on Overton Street that treats ham as a legitimate afternoon activity. From 4 to 6 every day, the bar serves a board of jamón and cheese with pickles and funky mustards, plus a cheap sangria, so you can feel European on a Tuesday. Dinner runs more formal, and the burnt Basque cheesecake with black garlic dulce de leche is the dessert that talks you out of ordering something safe.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Happy Hour: Jamón Happy Hour · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Fancy Dessert: Burnt Basque Cheesecake · Best of Nashville

The Loading Dock is a coffee shop that lost its lease, went looking for a new home, and came back in the Buchanan Arts District with more room than before. Expect fun coffee creations next to the classics, High Garden teas, local art and plants for sale, and seating spread across two floors and a patio. Nashville Scene gave it Best Comeback, which is a fair category for a place that refused to just become condos.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Comeback · Best of Nashville

The Optimist is a polished seafood restaurant on Nashville's Adams Street, the kind of place where the wood-roasted oysters arrive before you've decided how much of the bill you're willing to think about. The room leans nautical in a restrained, postmodern way, and the menu rotates often enough that regulars can't coast on habit. Outside, a seasonal bar called Jacqueline serves cocktails when the weather cooperates. Nashville Scene named it Best High-End Seafood in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best High-End Seafood · Best of Nashville

The Southern Steak & Oyster is a downtown Nashville steakhouse and raw bar, the sort of place where the menu leads with oysters and the wine list leads with your expense account. It's the flagship of a family restaurant empire that has since passed to the founder's daughters. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville nod for Best Ballsy Real Estate Move, after the family locked in a 20-year lease extension.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Ballsy Real Estate Move · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Seasonal Coffee Concoctions · Best of Nashville

Up-Down is an arcade bar in East Nashville, which means you can lose to a teenager at a cabinet game and then order a drink about it. Retro movies play on the walls, theme nights come around regularly, and the rooftop has its own bar and a skyline view. Nashville Scene named it Best Arcade Bar in 2024. The crowd skews toward grown-ups reclaiming their childhoods, quarters optional, regrets not.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Arcade Bar · Best of Nashville

Upbeet is a fast-casual counter in the Gulch where you build a grain bowl or smoothie assembly-line style, like a sandwich shop that has taken a vow of wellness. Everything is organic and gluten-free, and dairy shows up only if you ask for the cheese. The menu flags allergens plainly, so the person at the table with seven restrictions can finally order without a ten-minute interrogation of the server.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Option for Diners with Dietary Needs · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Shawarma · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best (Mostly) Unchanged Bar · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Bellevie Hang · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Cookie: Brownie Cookie · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best South Nashville Sweets · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Downtown Lunch You Forgot About · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best OG Craft Beer Emporium · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Dive · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Bar for Babies (and the People Who Have Them) · Best of Nashville

Drusie & Darr is the Hermitage Hotel's dining room, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten production that took over from the old Capitol Grille without scaring the regulars off. The vaulted rathskeller ceiling is now painted in pinks and peaches, and the open kitchen has a wood-fired oven doing smoky things to pizzas and vegetables. Dinner here is a proper hotel-restaurant occasion, and the ladies' room is aggressively pink.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restaurant · Best of Nashville

Game Terminal is an arcade bar in Berry Hill with more than 200 games, nearly 100 of them pinball machines that cost a single token each, plus rows of others that cost nothing at all. You buy tokens at the door, order a drink, and lose track of time while a low-key birthday party unfolds two machines over. Trivia Tuesdays are on the calendar. Nashville Scene named it Best Arcade Bar in its 2023 Best of Nashville.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Arcade Bar · Best of Nashville

Golden Pony is a cocktail bar in East Nashville's Highland Yards, done up in midcentury modern with a bohemian streak and a queer-centric bent. The drinks are bespoke, the snacks are there to keep you upright, and the room is cozy enough for a first date or a long overdue catch-up with an old friend. Nashville Scene named it Best New Bar in 2023, and the bathroom mirrors keep getting mentioned, so budget a minute for them.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Bar · Best of Nashville

Lakeside Lounge is a neighborhood dive in East Nashville with real cocktail training behind the bar, a frozen scotch-and-honey drink among them, plus darts and cheese fries. The TVs might be showing Terminator 2 and a dog show at once, and nobody blinks. The bartenders will debate your favorite Nicolas Cage movie, so pick a side first. Nashville Scene gave it Best Bar in 2023, and the menu spells espresso with an X.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Bar · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Shot: Espresso Martini Shot · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Brunch · Best of Nashville

Melrose is a basement dive bar where the entertainment is built in: pool, ping pong, foosball, darts, and shuffleboard, so nobody is ever forced into conversation. It has survived floods, an era of indoor smoking, and a brief closing, and it came back with a light spitshine and most of the old character. Drinks are local beer and basic liquor, the popcorn is free, and dress code is whatever you wore to work.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

Old Glory is a candlelit cocktail bar in a former industrial steam plant, where the old boiler still sits in the corner and a coal hopper hangs overhead like a very heavy chandelier. Weeknights are quiet and date-friendly, while weekends turn the floor into a dance party. The drinks are spirit-forward, and the monthly lineup of drag, circus acts, and jazz nights suggests the boiler has seen weirder things than you.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Unique Bar Entertainment: House of WOW · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Uzbek Restaurant · Best of Nashville

The Cafe at Thistle Farms is a daytime counter-service cafe on Charlotte Pike, run by a nonprofit that employs women survivors of trafficking, addiction, and prostitution, so the sandwich arrives with a mission statement attached. A teacup chandelier hangs overhead, and the menu leans toward BLTs, breakfast bowls, and a case of cakes. Nashville Scene named it Best Cafe in its 2023 Best of Nashville, if that helps you decide on lunch.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Cafe · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Place to Go With a Big Party · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Irish Latte · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Carryout Supper for Weeknights · Best of Nashville