The Kinora Guide to Nashville

Noelle

200 4th Avenue North, Downtown

The 1929 hotel that came back to life a few years ago and turned into one of the best boutique properties in the American South. A Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Award winner, and worth every mention. Every floor features art from a local artist. The lobby has a rotating gallery. The Hidden Bar is a genuine speakeasy that most guests never find because they don’t know to look. The rooftop overlooks all of downtown. The service is warm in the way southern service is supposed to be. If you can only stay at one hotel in Nashville, this is where.

The Hermitage Hotel

231 6th Avenue North, Downtown

The grand dame of Nashville hotels, opened in 1910, a Beaux-Arts classic that has hosted seven presidents and one Grand Ole Opry founding. Recently renovated, still classical, still doing white-tablecloth service the way it was done a hundred years ago. Drusie & Darr, the Jean-Georges restaurant downstairs, is one of the finest dining rooms in the state. The men’s bathroom on the ground floor has been named the best public restroom in America multiple times, which is a small joke that turns out to be true. Stay here when the occasion calls for it.

Fairlane Hotel

401 Union Street, Downtown

A 1970s bank building reimagined as a mid-century modern boutique hotel, with the original terrazzo floors, travertine columns, and brass details all preserved. Rooms feature marble showers, deep soaking tubs, and a handful come with private terraces and fire pits. The service is exceptional — press a button and the staff will bring freshly brewed coffee to your room, any time of day or night. Complimentary happy hour every evening in Modern Love, the lobby restaurant. The kind of hotel where the details are the point.

Bobby Hotel

230 4th Avenue North, Downtown

The rooftop pool at Bobby is the reason most people first hear about it, but the reason to stay is the rest of it. The design is confident without trying too hard — think mid-century apartment more than boutique hotel — and the location, one block off Broadway, means you can hear Nashville without living in it. The rooftop lounge stays busy through midnight. The rooms are quiet enough to sleep. That balance is harder to pull off in downtown Nashville than it should be.

The Russell

1400 Woodland Street, East Nashville

A former Methodist church, converted with love, in the middle of East Nashville. Twenty-three rooms, each different, all with a certain quiet reverence to them that a converted church can’t quite shake. Local design, local art, and a location that puts you in walking distance of East Nashville’s best restaurants and bars. If Noelle is downtown Nashville at its most polished, The Russell is East Nashville at its most itself.

Rolf and Daughters

700 Taylor Street, Germantown

Chef Philip Krajeck opened this room in 2012 in a hundred-year-old Werthan factory building, and it has been the hardest reservation in Germantown ever since. Modern Italian with a Southern accent, communal tables, and a pasta program that would justify a trip on its own. Krajeck has been a James Beard finalist for Best Chef Southeast. The squid ink paccheri with octopus is the move. So is the roasted chicken with preserved lemon. Book two weeks out.

Locust

111 South 11th Street, East Nashville

Trevor Moran’s tasting counter, twelve seats, one seating a night. Moran cooked at Noma before coming to Nashville, and Locust is what happens when you take Noma’s discipline and apply it to Southern ingredients. The menu is short. The technique is exact. The room is quiet in a way that most Nashville rooms aren’t. If you want a religious experience with your dinner, this is where it lives.

Bad Idea

1108 Woodland Street, East Nashville

The neighborhood restaurant that everyone wishes was in their neighborhood. Aaron Clemins and team have been running one of Nashville’s most consistent kitchens since 2022 — small plates, wood-fired everything, a rotating menu that reflects what’s actually growing that week. The wine list is genuinely curated. The room feels lived-in. Sit at the counter. Order everything. Trust the kitchen.

Butcher & Bee

902 Main Street, East Nashville

The Charleston-born restaurant group’s Nashville outpost, and one of the best all-day rooms in the city. Middle Eastern-inflected Southern cooking, whipped feta that has its own following, and a brunch program that gets treated like Sunday church. The patio is the move in warm weather. Come with people who like to share.

Drusie & Darr

at The Hermitage Hotel, 231 6th Avenue North

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Nashville restaurant, inside the Hermitage Hotel, and one of the two or three best fine-dining rooms in the American South. The tasting menu is the way to go, but even à la carte, the kitchen doesn’t miss. The bar next door is worth its own visit if you don’t feel like committing to a full dinner. Come for a birthday. Come for an anniversary. Come because you feel like being taken care of properly.

Prince’s Hot Chicken

5814 Nolensville Pike, and other locations

The original Nashville hot chicken, at the family that invented it. Three generations of Princes have been running this business, and every hot chicken restaurant in the country traces some part of its lineage back to their kitchen. Get it hot if you can handle it, medium if you can’t, and mild if you’re not sure. Sides matter here — the mac and cheese is real. The line is real. Bring cash and patience.

The Patterson House

1711 Division Street, Midtown

Nashville’s original serious cocktail bar, opened in 2009 by the Goldberg brothers who also gave the city Pinewood Social and Barista Parlor. Speakeasy-style, tobacco-leaf wallpaper, bartenders in vests. The menu is real. The list is deep. Order what the bartender is excited about. Sit at the bar if you can.

Attaboy Nashville

8 McFerrin Avenue, East Nashville

The sister to Attaboy in New York, in East Nashville, with the same rules — no menu, tell the bartender what you like, they build you something better than you’d have ordered. Small, dark, no sign. The kind of bar the neighborhood is quietly protective of.

Pearl Diver

1008 Gallatin Avenue, East Nashville

A tropical drinks bar in East Nashville, which sounds like a novelty until you realize the drinks are actually excellent and the room is one of the more fun rooms in the city. Zombies, mai tais, painkillers — all made with real ingredients, all served in the appropriate glassware. Feels like a vacation from wherever you were.

The Hidden Bar at Noelle

at Noelle, 200 4th Avenue North

The speakeasy inside the Noelle, small enough that most guests never find it, quiet enough that the ones who do usually don’t tell anyone. Ask the concierge. Or don’t. Half the fun is figuring it out. Once you’re in, the cocktails are as considered as the room itself.

Bastion

434 Houston Street, Wedgewood-Houston

A twenty-four-seat bar with a nine-seat restaurant attached, tucked into an industrial building in Wedgewood-Houston. The bar side is where you can walk in. The restaurant side requires a reservation weeks out. Both are excellent. If you want to see Nashville’s culinary scene at its most confident, this is it.

Barista Parlor

519 Gallatin Avenue, East Nashville (and other locations)

The Nashville coffee company that turned into a small local empire without losing what made it good in the first place. Serious espresso, single-origin pour-overs, and a room with high ceilings and better music than most cafés bother with. The East Nashville location is the original. Sit at the bar. Order a cortado. Watch Gallatin Avenue wake up.

Sump Coffee

1017 Fatherland Street, East Nashville

Small, quiet, precise. Sump takes coffee seriously enough that the espresso is dosed to the tenth of a gram. The room is small and mostly quiet, which is exactly the point. Come for a proper pour-over. Read a book. Come back tomorrow.

Steadfast Coffee

603 Taylor Street, Germantown

The Germantown coffee shop that anchors mornings for half the neighborhood. Steadfast roasts their own beans, and it shows. The pastry program is one of the better ones in Nashville. Sit near the window. Watch Germantown wake up. This is the coffee shop the neighborhood deserved.

The Ryman Auditorium

116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, Downtown

The Mother Church of Country Music, originally built in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, and still one of the best sounding rooms in America. The tours are worth it if there isn’t a show that night. If there is a show, buy a ticket. The acoustics haven’t been improved because they can’t be. It’s already right.

Cheekwood Estate & Gardens

1200 Forrest Park Drive, Belle Meade

Fifty-five acres of formal gardens, sculpture, and a 1929 mansion turned art museum, twenty minutes from downtown. The gardens change with the seasons — cherry blossoms in spring, dahlias in summer, chrysanthemums in fall, holiday lights in winter — and any time is worth the drive. Bring water. Bring a book. Give yourself half a day.

Radnor Lake State Park

1160 Otter Creek Road, Oak Hill

A 1,300-acre nature preserve fifteen minutes from downtown, with hiking trails that feel like they belong to a much wilder part of the country. Deer, otters, herons, sometimes a bobcat. The Lake Trail is easy. The Ganier Ridge Trail is not. Come early. Come often. This is Nashville’s back yard.

The Country Music Hall of Fame

222 Rep. John Lewis Way South, Downtown

Yes, you should go. Even if you don’t like country music. It’s a museum about how a specific American musical tradition developed, and the exhibits are done well. The RCA Studio B tour is included with your ticket and takes you to the recording studio where Elvis, Dolly, and Willie Nelson all made records. Give it three hours. It’s worth them.

Third Man Records

623 7th Avenue South, The Gulch

Jack White’s record label, retail store, and live venue in the Gulch. The vinyl selection is deep. The live shows are announced with little warning and sell out quickly. Even without a show, walking through Third Man is like walking through a working record store from a decade you couldn’t name. Worth an hour.

A Walk Through East Nashville

Fatherland Street to Five Points

Not a destination. A walk. Start at Barista Parlor on Gallatin. Walk down to Five Points, the intersection where East Nashville’s best restaurants and bars cluster. Keep going west toward the river. This is the Nashville that most tourists don’t see because they never leave downtown. Give it an afternoon.

Two Old Hippies

401 12th Avenue South, The Gulch

The independent guitar shop and boutique in the Gulch that has been at this corner since 2008. Handmade instruments, vintage denim, leather, cowboy boots. Feels like walking through a well-curated closet of everything Americana. Even if you’re not shopping for a guitar, the browse is worth the visit.

Peter Nappi

1308 Adams Street, Germantown

Handmade Italian leather boots and bags, made in Nashville, in a Germantown workshop where you can watch them being made. Prices are what handmade leather goods cost. Quality is why people fly in for a fitting. Once you own a pair of Peter Nappis, you’ll wear them for the next twenty years.

Parnassus Books

3900 Hillsboro Pike, Green Hills

Ann Patchett’s independent bookstore, and one of the best independent bookstores in the American South. Deep literature section, thoughtful staff picks, and an author events calendar that pulls the best names in the country. Come for a book. Stay for the browse. You’ll leave with more than you meant to.

Imogene + Willie

2601 12th Avenue South, 12 South

The Nashville-born denim brand that turned into a small national one, in an old gas station on 12 South. Selvedge denim, made-to-measure fittings, and a store aesthetic that has been copied by every independent boutique in America. If you’re buying one pair of jeans in Nashville, buy them here.

Hatch Show Print

224 Rep. John Lewis Way South, Downtown

One of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America, in continuous operation since 1879. Original show posters for the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry are still being made here on the same presses. Take the tour. Buy a print. It’s a piece of American design history you can hang on a wall.