The Best Places to Drink and Stay in Downtown Nashville

A glass tower above the Cumberland River in SoBro, this Four Seasons sits steps from the Country Music Hall of Fame, which makes for an interesting lobby crowd, rhinestone boots alongside tailored suits. Rooms run floor-to-ceiling windows and warm wood finishes with just enough musical nod to feel intentional. The rooftop pool, spa, and an in-house restaurant keep you on property longer than planned. It holds a Michelin two-key designation and a Forbes Four Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

Polished marble, low lighting, and plush fabrics signal exactly the kind of cocktail bar that doesn't care about honky-tonk clichés. Four Walls sits inside The Joseph Nashville, but it operates on its own logic, one that skews global and sleek while the rest of the city leans into its cowboy boots. Esquire put it on their Best Bars in America list, and Food & Wine ranked it among the top hotel bars in the country.

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Food & Wine The Top 10 Hotel Bars in the US
3. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Elevated Bar Experience · Best of Nashville

The vaulted stained-glass ceiling in the lobby alone makes a case for booking a room. This landmark hotel in downtown Nashville holds a Michelin two-key distinction and two restaurants from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, which is either a perk or a trap depending on your willpower. Guest rooms lean into Southern warmth without tipping into kitsch, and the building itself has been a fixture of the city long enough to feel genuinely rooted in it.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

The Patterson House is a cocktail bar that moved up to the top of a Gulch building and traded its old library-and-cigars gloom for a sweeping room hung with deep purple curtains. After dark they pull the drapes back to show the city lights, which suits a Manhattan fine. The food menu is big enough now that the pork chop might be your whole date night, not a warm-up for dinner.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Esquire Mushroom Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Restaurant and Bar Relocation · Best of Nashville

The exterior is blanketed in ivy, which tells you everything about this hotel's priorities before you even check in. A high-design, sustainability-forward luxury stay on Demonbreun, 1 Hotel Nashville trades neon and boot-scootin' for reclaimed wood, organic textures, and views over downtown that some terraced rooms get all to themselves. The Bamford spa, a rooftop bar, and a farm-to-table restaurant round things out. It holds a Michelin Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

Copper, oak, marble, and brown leather set the tone in the 297 rooms of this 21-story luxury hotel in SoBro, where the Pizzuti family's art-collecting instincts show up everywhere from the lobby to the porte cochère. Tennessee artists get prominent wall space, the rooftop pool draws a well-dressed crowd, and there's a full-service spa when Nashville catches up with you. A Forbes Four Star property.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

A 33-story oval glass tower two blocks from the Broadway honky-tonks, the JW Marriott is a full-service downtown hotel with 533 rooms, a spa, a rooftop pool, and three restaurants. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the skyline, and the bronze and gold metalwork throughout is meant to echo the Cumberland River. Michael Mina's rooftop bar sits at the top of it all, which is either very Nashville or very not Nashville, depending on your mood.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

A former bank building in Nashville's Arts District, the Fairlane Hotel leans into its Seventies origins rather than apologizing for them. Where most boutique hotels default to cool grays and mid-century safe choices, this one goes warmer, with the color accents that decade actually favored. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels, which tracks for one of the more considered stays on the north edge of downtown.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A wall of vintage speaker cabinets anchors the lobby of this art deco boutique hotel, a Hyatt property a short walk from the Ryman. The bones are old-school, neon marquee and octagonal windows intact, but Stonehill Taylor updated the interiors with leather and velvet that nod to Nashville's musical past without leaning too hard on it. Rooms feel considered rather than themed, and there are two bars, one off the lobby and one on the rooftop pool terrace, for when you need both.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Nash Collection is a boutique hotel that gets Nashville right, trading the honky-tonk clichés for something genuinely stylish without feeling like it's trying too hard. The kind of place where the lobby crowd looks like they flew in for a show and decided to stay an extra two nights. It fits the city's new energy perfectly, warm and a little flashy, but with enough taste to back it up.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Bar Roza is a cocktail bar tucked into the alley beside the Arcade, built around aperitifs and bitters rather than the usual whiskey-and-regrets lineup. The menu sorts drinks into categories, including hot-and-cold pairings and ones that make aperitifs and digestifs share custody. Small plates like mortadella focaccia are on hand for pacing yourself, which the creamsicle-tinged pisco drinks will make you appreciate.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

L.A. Jackson is the rooftop bar atop the Thompson in the Gulch, where a giant tree strung with tiny white lights sits in the middle like it's auditioning for a wedding. The cocktails lean on tangy shrubs, the sparkling rosé arrives with a guava pomegranate popsicle in it, and the hot chicken croquettes are the smart order. Weekend nights bring a DJ, so dress for a skyline and a crowd that came for both.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

A honky-tonk on lower Broadway where the band plays for tips, the cowboy boots for sale hang on the wall, and a High Life costs about what it did when your dad was young. The kitchen turns out fried bologna sandwiches and cheeseburgers off a griddle, which suits the steel guitar fine. It smells like leather and fryer grease, and the tourists who wandered in for one beer tend to stay through the second set.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide