One of my favorite texts I could possibly receive goes something like this: Are you free this weekend for a road trip?
So you can imagine my delight when that very message popped up on my phone from some dear friends on mine from high school. Since all three of us live in different states and have very different work schedules, it’s pretty rare that we all have a free weekend at the same time (in this case it was MLK day on the Monday) so this was not to be missed.
And where did we decide to go?
Nashville, Tennessee
I had never been to Nashville before this weekend and I’m always up for exploring new cities.
Saturday morning I drove from Waynesville, NC to a restaurant called Hickory Falls just south of Nashville where I was meeting Emma and Lauren (about 4.5 hours). And after plenty of catching up and super good food, we headed over to check in at our hotel before going into downtown Nashville for dinner.
Side note: We actually stayed outside the city, pretty close to the airport, and it was only about a 15 minute drive from all the places we wanted to visit. (I was super nervous that we would be hearing loud airplanes all night long but we didn’t and it was great.)
I won’t give you the details on every single place we drove to see but I figured I’d at least share the highlights.
For dinner we headed to the Acme Feed Seed on Broadway which had super tasty baked mac ‘n cheese and sweet potato fries. The live music there was amazing too.
To be fair, most of the places we visited had amazing live music. Tons of different styles. We continued making our way up Broadway, stopping in various places where the music was fun and trying to hide from the snow. (Yep. It was freezing.)
Another favorite from Saturday night was the Legendairy Milkshake Bar, which was our last stop of the evening. They had EVERYTHING you could possibly want from a milkshake place with options like donuts, cheesecake, waffles, and cotton candy to top whichever flavor of ice cream you chose! You could build your own or choose from their signature shakes. They also had gourmet hot chocolates and cappuccinos with crazy fun toppings too!
Sunday we went back to downtown Nashville looking for the awesome wall decor that is scattered all over the city. The Gulch was our first stop where the beautiful wings by Kelsey Montague are!
It was a balmy 18 degrees and windy while we were walking around, but we managed to shrug out of our big bulky coats for a picture in front of the gorgeous wings.
There were so many fun walls in the area that we wandered around for a bit after seeing the wings.
There were tons of really nice people who were willing to take our group photo as well which was super kind of them.
Due to how cold it was we did need to stop for frequent coffee breaks (okay, by WE I definitely mean ME) and Nashville had some super fun coffee shops that were extremely photogenic and had lovely warm beverages.
We happened to be really close to Three Brothers Coffee, and we only realized this coffee shop had one of the cool walls we had seen online after we got there. Bonus!
I highly recommend their warm vanilla and lavender lattes.
Emma particularly liked pausing to pose in front of this cute little flower shop, for obvious reasons really:
We also drove by Centennial Park in Nashville to see the Parthenon. It wasn’t open on that Sunday but we thoroughly enjoyed standing at the entrance and feeling super tiny anyway. (Yep, still freezing by the way.)
We then decided we were starving and in need of lunch, so we headed over to this place I had read some really good reviews about called The Pharmacy. (Location: 731 McFerrin Ave, Nashville 37206.)
Y’all. This place. The burgers were amazing. (Egg was an option. ‘Nuff said.) The tater tots had that perfect crunch : soft potato ratio. The beer selection was so good. We sat on these long picnic tables and fun 80s music played in the background while we defrosted from the INSANELY cold weather outside and filled up our bellies.
It was the perfect lunch spot. So perfect, in fact, that I had to get one of their T-shirts to bring home with me. If I ever visit Nashville again, I would 100% go back to this place.
We wandered around Broadway again that evening, listening to more music and pursuing the cheesiest tourist shops we could find.
By the time we were hungry again it was dark and we headed closer to the river to another place that was highly recommended called Pinewood Social. (Location: 33 Peabody St, Nashville, TN 37210)
This place was the perfect mix of coffee lounge / restaurant / bar / bowling alley. If this place was in Asheville, I would go every single week. After a long day of walking/driving around the city, it was the perfect spot to relax with a latte or a caesar salad, and then there were six bowling lanes in the back which just added that extra element of chill.
All in all, a super fun weekend, and I am so glad we had the chance to go.
(If any of you follow along on my instagram, I promise you will see these photos again.)
Did I miss any of your favorite spots to visit/hang out in Nashville? Let me know in the comments, so that I can check them out next time!
