The Gulch is known for four things: upscale dining, the wings mural, rooftop bars, and being the most intentionally designed neighborhood in Nashville. Each of these deserves a straight description rather than hype.
The food scene is genuinely strong. The Infatuation rates Sushi Bar, an omakase spot in the Gulch, as the best raw fish in Nashville. Marsh House inside the Thompson Hotel has built a serious reputation for seafood. The 404 Kitchen remains a neighborhood anchor for Southern-inflected cooking with modern European influences. Maiz de la Vida, which started as a food truck, brought elevated Mexican to the Gulch with a proper restaurant featuring a mural made of 250,000 corn kernels. Emmy Squared serves Detroit-style pizza. Catbird, one of Nashville’s most acclaimed tasting-menu restaurants, recently moved to the Gulch. The concentration of serious restaurants per block is unusually high for a neighborhood this size.
The wings mural at 302 11th Avenue South is Nashville’s most photographed public art installation. Artist Kelsey Montague painted it in 2016 as part of her “What Lifts You” campaign. The intricate white lace wings on a black wall stand 20 feet high. There is nearly always a line on weekends. Hidden within the design are Nashville-specific details: cowboy hats, guitars, and barbecue grills worked into the wing patterns. Go before 9am or after 7pm on weekdays to avoid waiting.
Rooftop bars are a Gulch specialty. L.A. Jackson on the 12th floor of the Thompson Hotel has been voted Nashville Scene’s Best Rooftop Bar six consecutive years. The views toward downtown and over the neighborhood are the best argument for it.
The LEED certification is the institutional achievement most locals know vaguely and tourists don’t know at all. In 2009, the Gulch became the first neighborhood in the American South to earn LEED-ND Silver certification, the 13th such certified neighborhood in the world at the time. That means its development was reviewed for walkability, transit access, green building standards, and mixed-use design in a structured way that most neighborhoods never go through.
Embedded in all of this is the Station Inn, a bluegrass listening room at 402 12th Avenue South that has been operating in this neighborhood since 1978, long before any of the glass towers arrived. It is one of the most respected bluegrass venues in the world and has hosted Bill Monroe, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, and Ricky Skaggs. It looks like a dive bar from the outside. It is something else entirely on the inside.
Sources
- The Infatuation, “The 18 Best Restaurants in the Gulch,” theinfatuation.com
- explorethegulch.com
- Visit Nashville TN, The Gulch neighborhood, visitmusiccity.com
- Kelsey Montague Art, “Nashville WhatLiftsYou Wings,” kelseymontagueart.com
- American Songwriter, “Behind the Venue: The Station Inn,” americansongwriter.com
- L.A. Jackson, lajacksonbar.com