The Best Places in Music Row

A sweeping spiral staircase and a towering wine cellar greet you in the lobby, which sets the tone for this 234-room luxury hotel on West End. Champalimaud designed the interiors, and the result lands somewhere between art hotel and serious whiskey destination. Three in-house dining and drinking spots lean into Southern fare, and the rooftop pool deck has skyline views that make Nashville's reputation for a good time feel like an understatement.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The brick-and-glass building at the north end of Music Row sets the tone before you even walk in: mid-century space-age interiors with an industrial edge running through the public spaces, which is about as on-brand for Nashville as a hotel can get. This boutique hotel sits just outside downtown, close enough to the nightlife that you can hear it thinking about you, and it's a Michelin Selected Hotel.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Cocorico is a French bakery and café where the owner is actually from France, which saves everyone the usual accent anxiety. Croissants and baguettes share space with a little market of quiches, pasta, and local goods, plus a goat cheese sandwich that Nashville Scene once crowned Best Vegetarian Sandwich. Framed photos of Toulouse and mosaic tile set the scene for a counter-service lunch, with a muffin-sized chocolate cake as the closer.

1. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Vegetarian Sandwich: The G.O.A.T. · Best of Nashville

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Midtown Nashville's answer to Vanderbilt parents who refuse to feel like they're staying near a university, the Kimpton Aertson is a hotel that leans hard into the city's warmth without the honky-tonk gimmickry. Rooms run toward modernist clean lines, Woodhouse Spa is on hand for the morning after, and the brasserie Henley anchors the social life downstairs. Music Row is a short walk if you need a reason to leave.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The heat scale here runs from "Southern" (no heat at all) to "Shut the Cluck Up," which tells you most of what you need to know. Hattie B's is a counter-service hot chicken spot, and Nashville basically treats it as a civic institution. Order dark or white meat, bones or boneless, then pick your tier and brace accordingly. The pimento mac and cheese makes a reliable peace offering on the side.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The meat-and-three is Nashville's quieter religion, and this old-school soda shop on Elliston Place is one of its oldest temples. Red leather booths, a soda counter, fried chicken, whipped potatoes, turnip greens, and pies that have had the same baker for over thirty years. The milkshakes and banana splits bring in a different kind of regular. The New York Times named it among Nashville's 25 best restaurants.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

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

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