Nashville: your food & travel guide in Music City, USA

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Our travel journey starts with the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum located in the heart of the downtown district. This architectural marvel is among the top Nashville attractions, especially for fans of classic American music. The tall windows of this striking building are cleverly designed to resemble the keys of a piano. There are more than 2 million exhibits at the museum. It features a multimedia display of historical performances, costumes, instruments, gold records, and memorabilia.

Other popular highlights include a solid gold Cadillac which belonged to Elvis Presley, a massive 40-foot guitar, a replica of a tour bus, a recording booth, and the original guitar of Jimmie Rodgers. There is also a “Sing Me Back Home” exhibit that offers two floors of documentation and education on the evolution and origins of the country genre via interactive showcases. Some of the tours of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum include a visit to the historic RCA Studio B – Elvis’s favorite recording studio, and Hatch Studio – the oldest working letterpress print shop in the United States.

Situated within walking distance of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, Etch is a contemporary restaurant by award-winning chef Deb Paquette. It is the newest culinary venture of Nashville that boasts an array of global flavors with decadent desserts. The 4000-square-foot restaurant is minimalist in design, with basic elements of metal, wood, bricks, and concrete. It houses two private dining rooms, a full bar, and a chef’s table where guests are encouraged to interact with the team.

The open kitchen concept gives visitors a look into Chef Deb’s culinary prowess and cooking methods. Etch provides an eclectic menu of innovative dishes consisting of soups, appetizers, and always-changing main courses. Here, you can relish bulgogi pulled pork in a potato bun, fish tostadas in corn sauce, tempura oyster mushroom in ponzu sauce, Argentinian beef tenderloin in salsa verde sauce, grilled venison with Brussel sprouts, and Thai chili glazed confit duck leg. Etch features a full bar of hand-crafted cocktails, high-quality local beers, and a wine list with over 80 labels.

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The Grand Ole Opry has been famous in Nashville since its inception in 1925. It started as a radio show and became the longest-running music performative space in the country. In 1974, the venue moved from the Ryman Auditorium to the 4000-seat Grand Ole Opry House just northeast of downtown Nashville. Throughout its life, the talents’ hub has served as a host for numerous country music legends like Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Kline, Blake Shelton, Willie Nelson, and Keith Urban.

From radio broadcasts to a world-renowned stage show, the venue has entertained fans of country, bluegrass, gospel, old-time music, and comedy. Unlike a typical concert, the Grand Ole Opry presents six or more artists during the show, giving the audience a variety of great talents at each event. One of the best ways to experience this performance space is to purchase the guided backstage pass, where you can hear behind-the-scenes stories and peek inside hidden areas.

If you are looking to dive into food and fun in Nashville, Aquarium Restaurant inside the Opry Mills Mall across from the Grand Ole Opry House is the place for you. It is a family-friendly eatery that invites you for a unique underwater dining experience. It houses a 200,000-gallon water tank full of tropical fish, sharks, stingrays, eels, and other aquatic creatures. The moment you enter the establishment you are escorted through a glass tunnel filled with fish and corals. In the dining room, every single table provides a great view of the underwater action. The interiors are designed like a cave with dim and cozy lighting, porous rock walls, well-lit aquarium tanks, and comforting leather seating.

The menu features American classic dishes like bacon-wrapped shrimp with corn salsa, herb-crusted Atlantic salmon with asparagus, rib-eye steak with grilled vegetables, broiled lobster tail with garlic butter, fried calamari with coconut shrimp served on a bed of fries. Besides its magnificent settings, Aquarium Restaurant offers bonus programs, such as a Mermaid Show, BTS tour, Marine Biologist experience, and Education tour.

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Centennial Park is Nashville’s green refuge from bustling city life and congestion, just like San Francisco’s Golden Gate Garden. It hosts all kinds of community events, including outdoor movie screenings, music concerts, food festivals, swing dancing nights, and Shakespeare performances. Active visitors can enjoy jogging and cycling, while families can feed ducks in the lake and go on leisure walks.

The most notable feature of Centennial Park is its impressive landmark – the replica of the Parthenon. The original structure was built of wood, plaster, and brick in 1897 to commemorate the city’s reputation as “the Athens of the South”, a nickname given to it because of its many universities and flourishing art scene. The current full-scale copy of the original Greek temple is made of concrete. Inside the structure, there is a permanent art collection of 63 works by American painters, a 42-foot high model statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos covered in gold leaf, and replicas of the 5th century BC Parthenon Marbles.

Stoney River is a chain of upscale steakhouses with multiple locations all around the country. It specializes in hand-cut meats, fresh seafood selections, signature salads, and house specialties. Hidden in the West End district of Nashville, Stoney River is designed like a warm and inviting cabin complete with dark wood tables, white tablecloths, leather booths, polished light-colored walls, and a cozy fireplace that creates a comfortable atmosphere.

The restaurant’s menu features premium quality Midwestern aged beef steaks, along with several seafood and poultry alternatives. Signature specialty items include coffee-cured filet mignon, bone-in rib-eye steak, slow-roasted aged prime beef rib, Szechuan salmon, Jack Daniel’s Whiskey shrimp, and wild mushroom meatloaf with broccoli. You can also relish hand-crafted cocktails, local draft beers, and premium labels from their boutique wine list.

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Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is fun for all ages, and it houses thousands of animals from all over the world, along with a large community-built playground featuring a 35-foot tall tree house. Explore the plains of Africa, delve into the rainforests of South America, and discover the exotic animals of Asia. The zoo has more than 3000 animals from 350 species, including toucans, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, eagles, giraffes, alligators, and Baird’s tapirs.

Nashville Zoo is divided into habitats and attractions like the Alligator Cove, the Giraffe Savannah, the African Wild Dog exhibit, the Lorikeet Landing aviary, Soaring Eagle Zipline, and Wilderness Express Train. The main attraction here is the Jungle Gym, which spans more than 66,000 square feet and features a children’s playground with a vast array of slides, cargo netting, swings, and climbing structures. If you want an insider tour of the area, purchase the skip-the-line admission ticket and get to go behind the scenes to learn about animal care, behaviors, and conservation.

After a visit to the wildlife park, head over to Edessa Restaurant for an authentic Turkish and Kurdish gastronomic delight. Named after an important city throughout ancient times in Northern Mesopotamia, it has been recognized as a cornerstone in the Nashville community for its outstanding cuisine and friendly service. The exterior of the eatery may not look like much, but inside, you will find a decadent dining experience complete with polished wooden furniture, tiled flooring, brick paneled walls, and Arabic music in the background.

Edessa’s food is famous for its modern interpretations of classic dishes such as golzeme (Anatolian flatbread) with spinach and feta, beyti (grilled lamb wrapped in lavash), Adana kebab (two skewers of ground lamb) served with rice, and su boregi (hand rolled baked dough with parsley, cheese, and butter). End your decadent meal with sweet indulgences – baklava and chocolate fondue – accompanied by an after-dinner Turkish coffee.

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Lane Motor Museum is a must-visit in Nashville for automobile enthusiasts. It was opened in 2003 in a refurbished 1930s bread factory upon the personal donation from the automobile collection of Jeff Lane. Housed within 132,000 square feet of space, the museum showcases a large display of vehicles, most of which are from Europe, but also includes exhibits from Japan and the United States.

The collection consists of 580 cars of which only 150 are displayed at any given time. Some of the unique vehicles here include the tiniest French-made car with only room for one person, a DeLorean, Adler coupes from the 1930s, 1933 Dymaxion – a car that was designed to fly in the future, the rocket-powered 1948 Berger, and the world's narrowest car of the 1948 Lamar. To view some of their unseen automobiles, you should take the hidden vault tour available only on weekends.

Located in downtown Nashville a little distance from the Lane Motor Museum, The Listening Room Café is a premier spot for singers, songwriters, and great food. It offers a vibrant dining experience along with 4–5 acts of American country music or comedy. The interiors house two full bars, private dining rooms, outdoor patio space, a green room, wooden stage seating, and a 30x40 stage with full PA and HD video projectors.

The café is designed to highlight the musical event while complementing its Southern comfort foods. Patrons of the place rave about scrumptious dishes, including smoked wings in Nashville hot sauce, buffalo chicken wrap, smash burgers with classic fries, hot chicken and waffles, smoked BBQ platter, mac-n-cheese with juicy brisket, and an assorted basket of fries, pickles, and onion rings. The bar team mixes an array of signature cocktails and mocktails along with craft beers, wines, and local Tennessee whiskey. The Listening Room Café is the ideal place to be for a musical night coupled with American classic food.

The capital of Tennessee may sound like twangy country music and smell like barbecue, but it is swinging past stereotypes and fast emerging as a tourist hub of the South. Nashville is full of street art, craft breweries, farm-to-table dining, and plenty of live music. Whether you are a nature lover, car enthusiast, art appreciator, or history buff, you would be spoilt for choices here.

How would you plan your vacation in Nashville? Share your thoughts with other foodie travelers in the comment section below. And for more ideas, check out our top recipes and latest articles.