Nashville On the Flip Side
The New Nashville Hideaway Guide
Nashville,
Properly Spent
Nashville, Tennessee · East Nashville & Beyond
The city has spent a decade becoming what visitors wanted. What survived that process is far more interesting than what was intended.
Broadway is a condition Nashville developed, not a destination it intended. The neon strip, the pedal taverns, the rooftop bars with identical cocktail menus and identical DJs playing to identical crowds in cowboy hats they bought that morning , all of this exists because Nashville said yes to everything, and the market obliged. What nobody planned, and what nobody markets, is what happened in the neighbourhoods while Broadway was busy being Broadway. East Nashville kept its head down. It got quietly, seriously good. That is the city we went looking for, and the city we found.
We stay at Virgin Hotels Nashville, on Music Row, which places us fifteen minutes from East Nashville by car and well clear of Lower Broadway by disposition. The hotel is on the right side of the city's personality divide. The rooftop pool exists. The Commons Club bar exists. The staff remember your name without being told to appear as if they do. The room has a personality, which at this price point is rarer than it should be. We choose Virgin because my wife wants a pool morning, and a pool morning is the right way to begin a day in a city you are still learning. The rooftop at eight in the morning, before the Nashville sun gets serious about itself, with coffee and no agenda: this earns the fifteen-minute commute to East Nashville on every day of the trip.
"Go not for what Nashville promises. Go for what it accidentally became while promising something else."
The morning ritual begins at Café Babu, in Chestnut Hill, eight minutes from the hotel. The café was founded by Shivani Darsinos as a tribute to Indian hospitality, which is an origin story that reveals itself immediately in the room: Mediterranean in its bones, warm in its disposition, the kind of place that operates at the precise speed a morning without obligations requires. The cardamom latte is the order. Brown sugar, star anise, espresso strong enough to mean it. The turkey-fig-brie sandwich, warmed. We take a table and stay forty-five minutes without once checking the time, which tells you everything about the room. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings it converts to wine and cocktails, the whipped feta appears on the menu, and the pace slows further still. We note this for later. Later does not disappoint.
East Nashville has an Asian dining scene that cities twice its size have not managed to assemble, and it assembled it without announcing the fact. Four restaurants, one square mile, all rated above 4.6 by guests who were not giving points for effort.
We begin at Koré on the first evening, on Chapel Avenue, because beginning at Koré is the correct introduction to the neighbourhood. Korean-fusion tapas in a room that feels genuinely of its place: warm, specific, the kind of atmosphere that makes you stay longer than you planned and leave having ordered more than you intended. The galbi dumplings first, then the octopus, then the crispy tuna, then the gochujang mole, which sounds constructed and tastes inevitable. The cocktails are made by people who care about cocktails. A couple at the next table is on their second visit in three nights. We understand this completely.
97 Chapel Ave, East Nashville. Tuesday through Thursday from 5pm, Friday through Sunday from 4pm. Closed Monday. Reserve one to two weeks ahead for weekends. The galbi dumplings are non-negotiable.
The second evening belongs to Noko, on Porter Road, which is the restaurant East Nashville built for itself rather than for visitors. Asian-influenced in the most considered sense, not in the sense of a fusion menu assembled to appear adventurous. The lobster buns have a following that extends well beyond the city limits. The sea bass arrives with skin crisped exactly right and a slaw underneath that works harder than slaws are typically asked to work. We order the beef dumplings and then order them again, which is not a decision either of us regrets. The burrata, which sounds wrong in this context, is the dark horse of the menu and the most surprising plate of the evening. 4.9 stars from over a thousand guests. We add our names to that number without hesitation.
701 Porter Rd, East Nashville. Tuesday through Saturday from 5pm. Sunday brunch 11am to 2:30pm. Closed Monday. The beef dumplings, the sea bass, the burrata. In that order or any order. The kitchen handles them all correctly.
Lunch belongs to Xiao Bao on Meridian Street, which is the everyday version of what the neighbourhood does well. The exterior gives nothing away. Inside: a 1970s diner aesthetic, hand-pulled noodles made in-house and served with scissors, crab fried rice that manages to be simultaneously familiar and surprising, an Okonomiyaki that earns its place on a menu that has clearly been thought about rather than assembled. We order the lychee martini because it is the last afternoon and because it is the correct decision. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
On the shopping day, the morning begins at The Butter Milk Ranch on 12th Avenue South, in the 12 South neighbourhood, which is a twenty-minute drive from the hotel and worth every minute of it. The instruction is simple: arrive at eight when the doors open. The crowd that arrives at ten is a different crowd entirely and they will wait. The crab rangoon croissants are not a gimmick; they are the thing you came for before you knew you came for them. The Migas scramble is the second correct choice. Nashville locals are quietly territorial about this place, which is the appropriate response when something is genuinely good and not yet entirely discovered.
2407 12th Ave S, Nashville. Open at 8am. Closed Monday. The crab rangoon croissants. Arrive before the city wakes up fully and the table is yours.
My wife's afternoon unfolds across two streets: 12 South and the Gulch. Vinnie Louise on 12th Avenue South is the first stop, 4.9 stars, where the staff have been trained to help without hovering, which is the distinction between a boutique and a shop that happens to be small. The selection is considered. The accessories are the kind that travel well. She takes two hours. I do not suggest we move on before she is ready, because I have learned something about shopping days. The Shop at W Nashville in the Gulch earns its perfect 5.0 rating in the first five minutes. The buyers have a point of view. The Ranger Station candles are a reliable way to carry a city home in your luggage.
Harriet's Rooftop, 19th Floor
710 Demonbreun Street, nineteen floors above the city. One cigar from the travel case, a bourbon neat, twenty minutes of Nashville spread below in every direction before the evening formally begins. Harriet's rooftop is not the city's most serious bar. It is, at this particular hour, with this particular view, the correct place to be. We arrive before dinner and stay until the light changes. Then we go to dinner.
Harper's is the finest dinner in Nashville, and the gap between it and what comes second is not close. We have the reservation for the third evening because that is how long it takes the city to prepare you for it properly. The oysters arrive correctly cold. The elk tenderloin is cut with the edge of a fork and served with the quiet confidence of a kitchen that has made this dish many times and still means every component of it. The lobster mac exists on this menu without apology, which is the right attitude. The butter cake arrives at the end of the meal and we eat all of it, which was not the plan when we ordered it. The room is warm without being precious about warmth. Reserve in advance. This is not a restaurant you find a table at the night you decide you want to go.
2 Lea Ave, Nashville. Open from 4pm. Reserve well in advance. The elk tenderloin. The oysters. The butter cake. Do not skip the butter cake under any circumstances.
Pullman Standard Bar is inside The Gibson Garage, the guitar manufacturer's flagship store, which makes the block worth visiting before the bar opens. The bar itself is exposed brick, deep chairs, a cocktail menu that has been thought about rather than compiled. The espresso martini is what regulars describe as the best in the country. This is likely an overstatement, though not by much. The bartenders understand the history behind what they are making and will explain it when asked, which is the correct posture: informed without performing the information. We begin every evening here before driving to East Nashville.
Barrel Proof, on 4th Avenue North in Germantown, is the bourbon bar Nashville needed and took too long to get. The old fashioned is, by the consensus of everyone we ask, the best in the city. The staff know their spirits without making you feel examined for not knowing yours. We go here after Noko, on the second evening, and stay longer than intended, which is the correct outcome for a bar that has earned that kind of time.
The Patterson House, on the fifth floor at 700 8th Avenue South, is Nashville's most storied craft cocktail bar, now in a room with city views and a pace that communicates its intentions immediately. The service is slow on purpose. The Garden Grove Smash is the recommended order on a first visit. We go here on the final evening, after Harper's, because after Harper's the right speed is slow and the right room is one designed for conversation rather than closing out a night efficiently. We stay until the evening is finished, not until a clock suggests it should be.
"Three mornings on a rooftop, three evenings in a neighbourhood that earned its reputation without asking for attention. This is the correct shape of the trip."
Nashville is a city in the process of becoming something that it did not plan to become. The tourist economy that filled Broadway with pedal taverns and rooftop bars also funded the restaurants on Porter Road, the boutiques on 12th Avenue South, the cocktail bars that hired people who read. The city that visitors arrive expecting and the city that rewards them are different places, separated by twelve minutes and a clear decision about where to spend the time. We made the decision. We would make it again.
Published 2025
Virgin Hotels Nashville · 1 Music Square W · virginhotels.com/nashville · Request a city-facing room.
Koré · 97 Chapel Ave · Reserve 1 to 2 weeks ahead · kore-nashville.com
Noko · 701 Porter Rd · nokonashville.com · Walk-ins possible midweek.
Harper's · 2 Lea Ave · Reserve immediately · harpersnashville.com
Café Babu · 1044 3rd Ave S · Closed Monday · The cardamom latte.
The Butter Milk Ranch · 2407 12th Ave S · Arrive at 8am · Closed Monday.
Vinnie Louise · 2308 12th Ave S · Then The Shop at W Nashville · 300 12th Ave S.
Pullman Standard Bar · Barrel Proof · The Patterson House · In that order, across the trip.