Music City: Nashville, Tennessee (#16)

February 25, 2025 Off By mkelly

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved country music. If we weren’t listening to Merrill Reese, giving the play by play for the Eagles game, we were listening to the Statler Brothers and Kenny Rogers. By the early 90’s, Alan Jackson and Toby Keith became the sound track to our family summer road trips. One of my favorite memories is belting out Chattahoochee, with my brother, while camping in the back woods of Virginia.

When I first visited Nashville, back in 2010, I instantly fell in love. Live music everywhere you turn, good food and great people watching. Nashville might be one of my favorite cities to visit. When I started looking at races to run in Tennessee, and saw that the Rock and Roll Half was in Nashville, I was sold.

The race itself was on Saturday, so as per usual I arrived a day early, to get myself situated, pick up race bibs and explore a little. There was a weather event that day, causing massive flight delays. Luckily, I only had a couple hour delay, so I was in Nashville by early afternoon. My friend Lauren, was not so lucky, and wasn’t due to arrive until later that night…so I decided to do a little exploring on my own before she arrived.

The NFL Draft was also in town, so the city was quite busy. Broadway was all decked out for the occasion. I stuck around for little bit to get a sense of the vibe before heading to the race expo at The Nashville Music City Center. I picked up my bib, then took a lap around the expo to check out the merch. It was your average size expo with a good variety of tanks, tees and hats. I will note that Rock and Roll wouldn’t let me pick up Lauren’s bib, and they discourage race day pickup. So if you normally roll into town on race morning, this might not be the race for you.

Broadway

After leaving the expo, I walked around the Gulch for a bit before stopping for a late lunch/early dinner. I knew most of the places closer to the draft would be crowded so I just walked into the first place that looked like it had good vibes…and cider. I chose NashHouse Southern Spoon & Saloon – 114 8th Ave South, which is about a block away from Broadway. It had a honky-tonk/sports bar vibe, which was exactly what I needed. The food was a great mix of southern sides (read: fried green tomatoes), burgers, fried chicken and salads. I went with the Quinoa Cauliflower Burger with a side of THE BEST french fries. I also ordered a local Nashville, Diskin cider, lil’ blonde.

Being a huge football fan I decided to head back to Broadway to catch some of the draft picks live. As I was approaching the stage at the end of Broadway, the Eagles were on the clock…so obviously I had to stick around. “The Philadelphia Eagles draft, Miles Sanders, running back” (this was 2019). While Miles is no longer with the team, his number, 26, lives on in THE Saquon Barkley. I stuck around for a few more picks and then headed back to the hotel to wait for Lauren.

The Philadelphia Eagles Pick…

We stayed at the Sheraton Grand Downtown – 623 Union St. It was the perfect location for access to the start of the race. The St. Jude Rock and Roll Half Marathon started bright and early on Saturday morning. The bib pick-up went pretty smoothly considering they didn’t really offer race morning pickup as an option. The course itself was pretty cool. It starts on Broadway, then winds around through the city to some iconic neighborhoods, before returning downtown to Nissan Stadium. The music, however, left something to be desired. The race is literally named Rock and Roll, AND it’s in the country music capital, yet the music on the course was severely lacking. I think saw 2-3 bands on the entire 13 mile course. The only music/cheer station that I remember vividly wasn’t even organized by the race, but by a college frat house. I was highly disappointed.

When I travel for a race, I always do some research ahead of time, to find the places that can not be missed. One of the places on my list was Biscuit Love – 2001 Belcourt Ave. The location in the Gulch is the most well known, and incredibly popular, with lines often wrapping around the building. Lauren did some sleuthing and found another location, a little farther away, so we made the long trek to Hillsboro Village. I was really there for the Bonuts, but I just ran 13.1 miles, I was going to need a little more sustenance if I was going to make it through the rest of the day. They are known for their biscuit sandwiches, hence the name, so felt like that was the way to go. I went with the Princess Biscuit Sandwich and a sweet tea. I rarely eat meat, so I’m probably not the best judge on the sandwich itself, but the biscuit and the sweet tea were probably the best I’ve ever had. If you do ever find yourself here, I HIGHLY recommend the Bonuts. Fried Biscuit Dough tossed in sugar, topped with lemon mascarpone and served with blueberry compote. I probably could have eaten all 5 by myself, but we each ate one, and then took the rest to go.

Biscuit Love

After lunch we headed to 12 South, a popular neighborhood full of shops, coffee houses and bars. The most notable stops were Flipside (no longer open), Draper James , Reese Witherspoon’s clothing shop, and lots of murals.

Before we headed back downtown, Lauren did some more searching for other things in the area. She found this cute little donut shop on instagram, so we decided to check it out. Five Daughters Bakery – 1110 Caruthers Ave, is the home of the 100 layer donut. There had so many different flavors and toppings, literally something for everyone. I feel like the only way to truly judge a donut shop, is to have their plain donut, so I chose the Purist. A plain donut with a simple vanilla bean glaze. It was airy, light and not too greasy. Perfection!

Five Daughters Bakery All the donuts

After all the walking, we decided to hop an uber back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the Dierks Bentley concert. One of the perks of race weekend was the “after party”, a free outdoor concert on the same stage that hosted the draft earlier in the weekend. The weather was perfect, and we managed to snag a great spot. It was clearly the highlight of the day!

Dierks Bentley

We weren’t quite done with live music, so after the concert we headed to Rippy’s Honky Tonk– 429 Broadway. We had a few drinks, listened to more great music, and got in some great people watching.

Sunday morning, we had a couple hours free before I was due at the airport to head home. We started with a stop at the Frothy Monkey for a coffee, then headed toward Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Located behind the State Capitol, it includes an 11 acre park, a 200 ft granite map of Tennessee, and several monuments laying out the history of Tennessee. It was at this point that Lauren pointed out, several times, that Tennessee was the 16th state admitted to the union. It wasn’t until she said it for the 4th time that I realized she was telling me because it was also MY 16th state in my 50 Halfs in 50 States journey.

TN- 16th State

We grabbed some breakfast at Puckett’s Grocery – 500 Church Street, and by breakfast I mean biscuits and grits. If we’d had more time, I would have come back later for a real meal and some live music.

We walked around for a bit and happened upon Hatch Show Print – 224 Rep John Lewis Way S. This shop has a working letterpress that’s been used since 1879. They use a vast collection of vintage type to print iconic posters. They do a lot of live printing in the shop but only on specific dates and times. A great place to grab a souvenir.

Hatch Show Print

Our last stop was a quick walk over the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge. A beautiful truss bridge that connects downtown Nashville with East Nashville, across the Cumberland River. It provides great views of the river and the downtown skyline.