Nashville Bound | Essential Tips for Your Visit

Planning a trip to Nashville? Feeling overwhelmed on where to begin? Check out these helpful tips below to get started!

Tips for Walking Downtown:

• This one is VERY IMPORTANT: Broadway has diagonal crossing, please only go when it says to walk, please do not walk when cars have a green light

• If you plan on scootering, please do not leave your scooter in the middle of the sidewalk or roadway

• Please do not stop in the middle of the walkway to take a photo, please move to the side and be aware that other people are walking behind you

• Walk a couple blocks off Broadway either towards Church Street or Korean Vets, it will be easier to get an Uber and also may be a little bit cheaper depending on the time/events in town. (Broadway on Friday and Saturday Nights, normally is closed off to cars at certain times)

• Please be aware of your surroundings

• Don’t put your phone or anything that can easily be pick pocketed in your back pocket

Tips for Bars/Restaurants:

(Some of these are tips from myself, as a former bartender on Broadway and other bartender friends)

• Bring a valid ID, you will be carded, no matter what age you. (Yes, my grandpa at 90 got carded)

• Acceptable Tipping 15% and up (yes, bartenders may ignore you if you didn't tip on the first round)

• If you are ordering drinks for a whole group, please give the bartender all your order at once, not 1 by 1.

• Before you come to the bar, know what you are going to order

• If you say to a bartender, surprise me, you will probably get a Bud Light or a Shot of Rumple Minze

• If a bartender arrives with extra drinks you didn't order, it will be okay, they take more than 1 order at once and not all of the drinks are yours.

• Do NOT ask the bartender for a charger, some may let you if you tip them well enough, but they do not want to be responsible for your phone behind the bar

• Don’t leave your drink unattended

• Nashville does have a 15% liquor Tax with a 9.25% sales tax

• Don’t wave down or shout orders at your bartender, they see you and will get to you (especially if you are waving a bartender down for a water)

• Do NOT ask your bartender to make the drink strong, they use proper measurements/counts and a lot of the bars keep inventory

• Bars do not have a cover

• Do not touch their fruit trays to grab extra limes, just ask.
  

Tips about the Band:

• Tip them

  • $20 a song, or if you request a popular song, get ready to pay $100

  • If you don't want to request a song, feel free to tip them any amount

  • Bands make a low base pay and split the tips amongst each other

• Don’t request a slow song after 6pm, bands know what the can and cannot sing with the crowd and the vibe of the room

• Do NOT get on stage unless they say it is okay. They have very expensive equipment they don't want to get ruined.

• DO NOT DRUG THE BAND (or anyone), yes bands love to accept drinks from you, but please do not put anything in their drinks when you buy them a round.

Other Suggestions:

• Yes Broadway is fun, but also check out other areas in town too. Nashville has a lot of great neighborhoods.

  • Some Neighborhoods include: East Nashville, Midtown, Demonbreun Street, 12 South, Germantown, The Gulch and many more.

Below are some of my favorite spots:

(Blog to come soon on a list of places broken down by aesthetics):

Bars on Broadway: Whiskey Row, Friends in Low Places, Pushing Daises & Roberts Western World

Bars Not on Broadway: Ms. Kelli’s, Music City Bar and Grill, Neighbors, Tiger Bar, Doc Holidays

Restaurants: Hand Cut Chophouse, Party Fowl, Milk and Honey, Sixty Vines, Blanco, Pelato, Hampton Social, Rosepepper Cantina, Oscars Taco Shop, Edleys BBQ, Bar Taco, Barcelona

Coffee Spots: Farmers Market, Barista Parlor, Red Bicycle, Frothy Monkey

If you have a car: Loveless Cafe (Best Southern Breakfast)

Now you that you are Nashville Bound with these Essential Tips, you are ready to take on Broadway!