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Magic In Music City: The Best Ways To Spend A Weekend In Nashville

This article is more than 4 years old.

Nashville has always been a city of captivating contradictions – equal parts sedate southern charm and unbridled creativity. A place where you can find a raucous honkytonk next door to a pious place of worship. Founded over 200 years ago, the Tennessee capital is brimming with new energy and endeavors, and fast becoming one of the liveliest locales in the U.S.

Even if you only have a few days to explore Nashville, that’s still plenty to get a taste of this truly delicious destination.

Down Home in Downtown

For first-timers, downtown provides a convenient base to explore the historic city’s heritage. The 191-room Holston House opened there on Seventh Avenue in December 2017 as part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection.

It makes its home in an art deco building dating to 1929 that was originally the James Robertson Hotel before being converted into apartments. The hotel has regained its formal glory, though, thanks to the efforts of architecture firm Stonehill Taylor, whose other notable projects include the TWA Hotel at New York JFK and 40 Trinity Place in Boston.

The designers wisely left many of the building’s historical fixtures intact (it’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984), including beautiful wrought-iron railings, red-and-yellow terrazzo floors, and exposed-beam ceilings in the two-story lobby.

There are eye-catching new touches too, though. Co-working communal tables anchor the ground-floor space along with jewel-toned velvet booths and stools. A light fixture arching toward the reception desks contains a mishmash of bulbs reminiscent of the stage lights in a concert hall.

Adding to the theatricality, velvet curtains cordon off some of the smaller socializing spaces on the second floor, where you might also spot a wall comprised of vintage speakers. Overhead, meanwhile, a swirling chandelier seems to unfurl like notes of music on a page.

Vintage posters from Ryman Auditorium line the hallways leading to the hotel’s rooms, which feel more contemporary by comparison. Each has all the high-tech amenities you’d expect, like 50-inch 4K HD televisions with streaming capability, high-speed Wi-Fi, and Keurig coffeemakers, not to mention a plethora of plugs and USB ports built into the bed and other furniture to keep all your electronics charged.

Illuminated by swanky hanging lamps, the beds are dressed in crisp white linens with navy stitching, and are framed by understated leather headboards. At the foot, a velvet and leather-cushioned loveseat doubles as a lounger and a workspace thanks to the small, movable table that’s equally convenient for dining or setting up a laptop.

Room sizes and configurations may vary widely, even in the same category because of the building’s historical status. Some have facilities that are split into a WC including toilet and miniature sink on one side of the entrance, and a larger marble bathroom complete with walk-in shower and sink on the other, which can be closed off with a sliding barn-style door.

Adjoining the lobby via a short set of stairs is the hotel’s main restaurant, TENN. The menu here includes locally sourced, seasonal ingredients prepared in classic southern-inspired dishes such as crispy fried chicken with white beans and Andouille sausage, a pork shank with fregola and roasted peppers, and squash buccatini with fried sage, parmesan and black pepper.

Also adjacent to the lobby, Bar TENN features live music and classic cocktails under a gorgeous pressed-tin ceiling. The hotel’s fitness center is located in the basement while its 12th-floor rooftop bar and pool bustles both day and night during the spring, summer and early fall. The menu up here focuses on a curated selection of bourbon, whiskey, and scotch as well as small plates for sharing.

Rates at Holston House start at $219 per night or 20,000 World of Hyatt points.

Museums and Music

Whether you’re a history buff or simply someone who wants to hear some great live music, Nashville has plenty to keep you occupied.

Mere blocks from Holston House, Ryman Auditorium is famous for being the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, and hosts concerts to this day. Tours run daily from 9:00am – 4:00pm, but book your tickets in advance.

The Johnny Cash Museum and upstairs Patsy Cline Museum make for a brief, informative stop on your way to the massive Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The collection contains exhibits on both the history of country music as well as contemporary artists. The complex also houses the Hatch Show Print workshop, which has been hand-making concert bills since 1879 and offers 45-minute tours and printmaking sessions.

While downtown, be sure to take a walk on the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge over the Cumberland River for the most instagrammable views of the city skyline.

For a bit of history, you can visit the stately Belle Meade Plantation on a variety of tours including one of the mansion itself and another that includes sipping spirits in the property’s 1820s ice house, which has been converted into a bourbon-tasting room. The newest tour explores the lives and experiences of enslaved African-Americans who were first brought here in 1807.

If American history is your thing, you can’t miss the opportunity to visit Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. The historic plantation, which was home to the controversial seventh president, now hosts tours, lectures and academic discussions about the man, his times, and his influence on American history as well as the lives of his contemporaries.

The grounds of the Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek monument, provide the setting for a pleasant stroll, but if you’re still craving another little bit of culture, stop by the Frist Art Museum.

It is housed in the city’s former post office, originally built in 1933-1934, and puts on limited-engagement exhibitions. Recent shows have included a retrospective of Mexican Modernists including Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and another titled “Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s” with works by Magritte, Miró and Picasso among other luminaries.

Of course, you can’t come to Nashville and not hear live music. Check to see what’s on at the Ryman, head to the more intimate Bluebird Café in Green Hills to hear up-and-coming voices, or the Station Inn in the Gulch for soul-stirring bluegrass, and end your evening at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a good old-fashioned (if touristy) honkytonk where Opry performers used to sneak off to for a drink between shows.

Country Cooking

Almost overnight, Nashville has become one of the country’s most exciting culinary destinations. If you can’t score a reservation for a 10-12 course set dinner at the award-winning The Catbird Seat, you can at least stop in to the restaurant’s next-door bar, The Patterson House for creative, handcrafted cocktails.

Schedule an early wake up so you can beat the line up at one of the locations of baked-goods hometown haven Biscuit Love. The eatery in the Gulch neighborhood at the edge of downtown is always packed, but the one in hipster Hillsboro Village tends to be a little quieter. To start, share an order of Bonuts – fried biscuit dough tossed in sugar and topped with lemon mascarpone and blueberry compote. Then dig into the signature East Nasty, a fluffy buttermilk biscuit heaped with fried boneless chicken thigh, aged cheddar and a healthy helping of rich sausage gravy.

The other morning, make a brunch reservation at the Nashville outpost of Husk in Rutledge Hill just south of downtown. There, you might find dishes like pimento cheese with pickled Serrano peppers and flaky benne wafers; 12-month Benton’s Country ham over black pepper biscuits and pickled vegetables; or an enormous cast-iron pancake heaped with banana pudding, Kentucky maple syrup, and luscious Chantilly cream.

Venture north one evening past the state capitol and Bicentennial Park to the trendy Germantown neighborhood.

Rolf and Daughters’ menu is “small, fun, focused, seasonal.” The ambiance here is laid back, but the cooking is serious, with starter options like chicken liver laced with tangy tomatillo, springy ramps and shelling beans; and mains such as the delicate ricotta-stuffed agnolotti with pistachio and Jimmy Nardello heirloom sweet peppers.

Dubbing itself simply an “American restaurant,” the pared-down décor and contemporary flavors of Henrietta Red would not feel out of place in Brooklyn or Portland. Along with creative cocktails and natural wines, chef Julia Sullivan serves up seasonal sensations like jumbo lump crab salad with fennel, cucumber Sungold tomatoes and green goddess dressing; and smoked trout with avocado mousse, fingerling potatoes, cucumber, peanuts, mint and cilantro. End with the cherries jubilee sprinkled over crème fraiche and sumptuous almond halvah with a dollop of Sungold jam. It will make the perfect, sweet ending both to your evening and your time in Nashville.

Disclosure: I arranged all my travel to and from Nashville as well as meals and other experiences, but was a guest of Holston House for two nights. All opinions expressed are my own.

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