Nashville, Tennessee is a place that’s famous for its music scene, with all kinds of legendary live music venues and brilliant acts for you to enjoy.
Of course, many like to enjoy their live music with a drink or two, so it’s fortunate that Nashville is also home to a fantastic range of bars as part of its vibrant nightlife scene.
All across this capital city, there are fabulous bars where you can whet your whistle, and every bar is unique in its style and range of drinks on offer.
With so many bars on offer, however, it can be difficult narrowing the options down to find the best bar for your ideal Nashville night out.
Thankfully, we’ve done all the work for you! In our handy guide below, we’ve got a list of the very best bars in Nashville.
Whether you’re heading out for a drink after a great live musical performance, or simply going out with some friends for a drink, you’re sure to find the perfect bar with our list. Read on!
Best Bars In Nashville
Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge
We’re starting our list off with one of the most famous and beloved joints in Nashville, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.
This place has been around for decades and it’s seen all kinds of famous customers over that time, such as Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, and more.
As you can see from that list, this is a popular bar for musicians, and that’s because the venue also has regular live musical performances!
Voted number 1 honky tonk in the world, the venue has a brilliant range of up and coming bands to soundtrack your casual drinking. With that being said, you don’t have to enjoy your drink inside Tootsie’s, because they also have a hot rooftop bar!
Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge is not only a great bar but a great venue, and one that’s renowned all over Nashville and Tennessee. It’s even been featured in some movies!
Better still, they also serve a great range of food, so you can soak your drinks up with something. From burgers and sandwiches, to soups, salads, and delicious appetizers, there’s plenty to enjoy on a night at Tootsie’s.
Never Never
Our next pick is another fantastic Nashville bar, one with a great atmosphere and plenty of different drinks for you to try.
Open on weekdays between 4pm and 2am, then until 3am on Saturday and 2am on Sunday, this is a bar that’s built for late nights and good times!
Better still, the bar has made the deliberate decision to have no television screens in it, to encourage you to talk to your companions or the other friendly patrons of the place.
That doesn’t mean that there are no other noises, of course, because the venue also offers live music sometimes – making it an extra trendy place to go and one that moves to the same musical tune as the rest of Nashville.
It’s time for the all-important question, though: what drinks do they serve? For a start, they have an impressive range of beer and wine for you to enjoy.
Big name beers such as Bud, Miller, and Coors Banquet are all available, and they’re available at some of the lowest prices you’ll find in the city – just $4! Meanwhile, more niche beer brands like Montucky and Tecate are also on sale, giving you fantastic choice.
As for wine, you can enjoy a glass of house red, white, or rosé. On the other hand, brands like Seeker Cabernet and Santa Julia Malbec are also available. And if you’re feeling even fancier? You can get a glass of champagne!
Never Never is also a fantastic hotspot for cocktails, and they have a selection of delicious cocktails with all kinds of ingredients and flavors.
For example, a Prosecco (see also: What Is Prosecco?)Punch with dry sherry and grapefruit will give you a fruity kick, while a Georgia James contains a pinch of tabasco to give it a hint of spiciness, which is then balanced out by ingredients like watermelon and lime.
Whatever your drink of choice, there’s something for everyone at Nashville’s Never Never.
The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club
Speaking of great cocktails, we can’t ignore another one of Nashville’s very best bars: The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club.
With a dense menu full of delicious drinks, this is a great place to visit for a drink, and they also offer a range of “Experiences” where a senior bartender will walk you through an education in making drinks – while also giving you a few personally curated craft cocktails! Oh, and the bar also offers some food and desserts.
When it comes to the bar’s signature cocktails, you’re going to be spoiled for choice! There are so many to choose from, and there truly is something for everybody, with so many different styles and flavors on display.
For example, the Hillbilly Highball contains gin, campari, cacao, passionfruit, seltzer, beets, and byrrh. Fancy! Meanwhile, if you want something nutty then you’ll love the Maybe She’s Born With It cocktail, which contains pistachio as well as ingredients like apricot, rose, and ginger.
Of course, they also offer a range of classic cocktails, such as various versions of an Old Fashioned .
And if you want something non-alcoholic? They’ve got you covered! There’s a handful of non-alcoholic cocktails that are no less delicious, such as the fruity Bird Of Paradise.
Acme Seed & Feed
Our next pick is the brilliant Acme Seed & Feed, which is so much more than a bar. Housed in a building built all the way back in 1890, this is a place of living history, and it’s packed with things to do.
For a start, they’ve got fantastic drinks and a great selection of local craft beers, as well as an endless stream of musicians that appear on the venue’s stage (as well as on Acme Radio Live). Meanwhile, the walls of the place are covered in curated country music artifacts, reflecting Nashville’s impressive musical history.
With two floors and a rooftop area, you’ve also got a range of choice when it comes to where you enjoy your drinks and food!
The first floor has plenty of seats available, while the second floor has a lounge and craft cocktails. Meanwhile, those who want to enjoy some Tennessee air while drinking can sit in the rooftop area, where there’s also a bar.
And what about the drinks? Well, Acme offers a bit of everything, so you’ll definitely find what you want. To start with, they’ve got a selection of signature cocktails.
For example, the Something Fruity has raspberry vodka, lemonade, sprite, and cranberry in it, while the Something Spicy contains jalapeno to give it a spicy kick.
After that, there’s a few craft mixer pitchers on offer, which are great for groups to share. Meanwhile, there’s an enormous selection of draft beers and canned beers to pick from – everything from Yazoo Gerst to Miller Lite.
And for something fancier? There’s a good range of wines for sale, as well as tequila, gin, bourbon, whiskey, and more. Oh, and non-alcoholic beverages for those who don’t want to drink!
Wildhorse Saloon
Next up is the Wildhorse Saloon, a world-famous venue that offers you one of the very best nights out in Nashville.
How so? Well, it’s got 66,000 square feet of nightlife entertainment, with 3 floors packed with live music, dancing, drinks, and southern signature cuisine.
When it comes to drinks, they’ve got exactly what you need.
There’s a range of draft beers on sale, with popular brands like Bud Light and less well known (but still great!) options like Tailgate Sweet Cider. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of beers to pick from: Stella Artois, Corona, Blue Moon, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller Lite, Coors Light, and many more.
Wildhorse also has a selection of cocktails! For example, the Save A Horse contains coconut rum, midori, sour mix, soda, orange juice, and blue curacao.
On the other hand, the Honkytonk Smash has Jack Daniel’s Honey, as well as lemonade, fresh mint, and sour mix. And that’s just to name a couple of their cocktails! They’ve got plenty of different styles and flavors.
And wine? Wildhorse Saloon has you covered there, too, with a selection of fancy wines at affordable prices.
The Wildhorse Saloon is a Nashville bar that’s not to be missed, not just because of its ace range of drinks, but also all the line dancing and live music that makes it such an entertainment hotspot.
Honky Tonk Central
Found on Nashville’s iconic Honky Tonk Highway strip, Honky Tonk Central is another fantastic bar venue that’s got 3 floors full of entertainment and good times.
An ideal nightlife spot for locals and tourists alike, Honky Tonk Central offers live country music, great drinks, and traditional pub food.
When it comes to drink, Honky Tonk Central has a variety of domestic beers and imported beers for customers to enjoy. Meanwhile, they’ve also got a great range of cocktails on offer!
For example, the “Beach Bride” uses beach whiskey, island coconut, and pineapple juice to give you something fruity and tropical.
On the other hand, the “Cinnamon Toast Cruch” cocktail features cinnamon whiskey and RumChata to make a drink that’s pleasantly warming and just a hint spicy.
There’s also a fantastic menu of pub classics, with mouth watering (see also: Best 11 Chuck Steak Recipes That Will Make Your Mouth Water)appetizers, salads, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and more available.
With live music every day, great food and drink, and plenty of dancing, Honky Tonk Central is a must visit Nashville nightlife location.
Pearl Driver
Our next pick is the Pearl Driver, a brilliant Nashville bar that’s ready to show you a good time. Interestingly, while so many of our other Nashville bar picks have focused around honky tonk and the local music scene, Pearl Driver couldn’t be further from it!
This is a rum bar with a heavy Caribbean influence, offering you something exotic and tropical right in the heart of Nashville.
The owners of Pearl Driver have spent years traveling these tropical lands in order to bring you the very best exotic flavors and authentic recipes, and you can now enjoy their terrific drinks in Tennessee.
Their unique cocktails inspired by Carribean trips are divided into a few categories: sugarcane, agave, and grape & grain. There’s a range of Sugarcane cocktails to pick from.
For example, the delicious Batdance uses dark rum, coconut, and pineapple, among other ingredients. Meanwhile, the Midnight Espresso involves Chai Vanilla infused light rum, retrograde espresso, and coffee liqueur. If you like coffee, this is the cocktail for you!
On the other hand, their Agave cocktails aren’t to be missed either. Agave is sweeter than sugar, so you’re going to be enjoying some very sweet treats with these! Our recommendation is the Salad Fingers cocktail, which uses celery, mezcal, agave, fresh lime, and thai basil.
Meanwhile, their Grape & Grain cocktails are delicious too, such as the fruity Japanese Garden or the Lil’ Biscotti – which features apricot marmalade of all things!
Of course, there’s a range of classic cocktails on sale too, if you’re eager for something more established. Mai Tai, Mojito, Daiquiri, and more are all available! And if you want to go easy on the alcohol? There are no alcohol and low alcohol cocktails too.
Von Elrod’s Beer Hall & Kitchen
Now there’s a great name! Van Elrod’s Beer Hall & Kitchen is another must visit bar in Nashville and one that spins a Tennessee take on the traditional German beer garden. As a result, it’s got a range of great drinks, as well as food for brunch, lunch, and dinner.
Unsurprisingly, Von Eldrod’s Beer Garden knows a thing or two about beer. Don’t believe them? Well, they’ve got 38 taps of brilliant beers to prove it, as well as countless beer bottles from all over the world.
For a start, they have an enormous selection of different draft beers. They’ve got pilsners, lagers, darker beers (we love the Boulder Shake Chocolate Porter that has dark chocolate hints to it!), farmhouse ales, hoppy and hazy IPA’s, and much more.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of bottles and cans on sale, both alcoholic and not. They’ve got ciders and hard sodas for those who want something alcoholic, while drinks like Freewave Hazy IPA and Hell Raiser Dark Amber offer a non-alcoholic alternative.
Additionally, they’ve got cocktails! Whether it’s something like the fruity Paloma or the berry-heavy Red Berry Mint Seltzer (with both raspberries and strawberries!), Von Elrod’s has you covered. Oh, and they’ve got mimosas, house shandies, and wines too!
Bastion
This next pick is a warehouse-style venue with restored decor, making it a trendy place to enjoy all kinds of drinks.
Draft beers? Creative cocktails? Wine? Bastion offers it all, and it’s a fantastic place to spend the evening with a few friends. Careful, though, they close at midnight!
Bastion is actually split into two equally-excellent parts. One of them is the casual cocktail bar where you can enjoy all their fantastic drinks, while the other part is the 24-seat restaurant.
While the restaurant requires reservations for any visit, the cocktail bar is open to everybody, making it a must visit Nashville bar.
Known as the Big Bar, it does things big. How so? Well, they’ve got a big menu of drinks!
Naturally, they’ve got a huge selection of beers for you to choose from, with various pilsners, IPA’s, draft beers, lagers, and more. They also have plenty of bottles and cans too, as well as a handful of non-alcoholic options.
Meanwhile, Bastion also has cocktails that will have your mouth watering. Great examples include Our Color Green and the fruity Diatribe, while they also have traditional Old Fashioneds and even a Punch Of The Day one that changes each day.
Finally, Bastion offers a variety of wine, whiskey, agave spirits, rums, gins, and vodkas.
Geist Bar + Restaurant
Our final pick for the best bars in Nashville is Geist, a stylish place that offers a wealth of different drinks as well as a fantastic restaurant. It’s a must visit!
Let’s begin with the drinks – because that’s what you’re probably going to a bar for! As you’d expect from Nashville’s finest, they have a good selection.
For cocktails, they have 8 excellent drinks to choose from, each with unique flavors and ingredients. For example, the Paid Vacation contains aperol, sparkling wine, and passion fruit, while the Kalimotxo Mule uses Spanish red wine, coca cola, and ginger.
Meanwhile, there’s a fantastic selection of red and white wines, as well as “bubbles” drinks – anyone for champagne?
On top of that, they also have a pair of rosés to pick from. Admittedly, their beer selection isn’t as deep as other bars on our list, but that doesn’t mean the beers they offer aren’t good. We recommend the Tennessee Brew Works!
Of course, you can also enjoy a great meal at Geist, with exciting brunch and dinner menus available.
Final Thoughts
Nashville is home to some extraordinary bars – (see also: Baptism Soda Bar – Fiiz At Home)use our guide to find the very best!
When I gave birth to my first kid, I could no longer skip dinner, or just cook easy meals.
This is what inspired me to create EatThinkBeMerry.com.
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