What Is Five Points in East Nashville?

February 19, 2026

Five Points is the commercial and social epicenter of East Nashville, the intersection where Woodland Street, Clearview Avenue, Forrest Avenue, and Holly Street converge into a small, chaotic, and frequently referred-to node that functions as the neighborhood’s living room.

The Geography

The name refers to the five-way intersection near where these streets meet, creating a small commercial cluster that expands outward along each spoke. The immediate Five Points area is not large: you can walk the core of it in ten minutes. But the density of what’s packed into those blocks is the reason it anchors the neighborhood’s identity.

The surrounding residential neighborhoods, Historic Edgefield to the southwest, Lockeland Springs to the east and southeast, and East End to the north, all use Five Points as their central reference point. If you live in any of these sub-neighborhoods, Five Points is where you walk to.

What Five Points Contains

The food and bar options in Five Points represent East Nashville’s greatest hits in concentrated form. Margot Cafe & Bar on Woodland Street is the neighborhood institution that’s been here since the early 2000s. Five Points Pizza at 1012 Woodland has a walk-up window for slices and a weekday lunch special. The 5 Spot music venue at 1006 Forrest Avenue books local acts most nights of the week. Dino’s at 411 Gallatin is open until 3 a.m. every night and serves burgers that the neighborhood runs on. Attaboy’s cocktail bar doesn’t have a menu; the bartenders build drinks from your preferences.

The Five Points Alley Shops on Woodland Ave cluster a dozen locally-owned retailers: Defunct Books (independent used and rare books, open since 2003), Goodbuy Girls (vintage boots and cowboy clothing), Raven & Whale (art gallery), Alegria (fine leather goods and handmade gifts), Fairytales Bookstore, and others. The Hip Zipper vintage clothing store at 1008 Forrest Avenue has been operating since 1999, predating virtually everything else that’s made Five Points famous.

The Tomato Art Fest

The Tomato Art Fest, held in Five Points each August, is the most accurate annual demonstration of what the neighborhood is actually about. The event celebrates the tomato in art form: tomato-themed art installations, live music, vendors, a Bloody Mary Garden Party, and a parade with tomato-inspired costumes. It has run for 18 of the last 19 years (2020 was skipped due to the tornado). No equivalent event in Nashville’s other neighborhoods would produce this combination of genuine community participation and total commitment to absurdist theme. Five Points invented it and keeps doing it because it’s theirs.

Five Points and the 2020 Tornado

On March 3, 2020, an EF3 tornado hit Five Points at approximately 1 a.m. The Basement East, the neighborhood’s primary music venue on Woodland Street, had its roof ripped off. Margot Cafe sustained heavy damage. Two people were killed on McFerrin Avenue when they were struck by debris leaving the Attaboy Lounge. Multiple businesses were destroyed or damaged, and the residential blocks immediately surrounding Five Points took significant structural hits.

The photo that circulated in the hours after the tornado showed the Basement East’s collapsed wall with the “I Believe in Nashville” mural intact and unscathed. That image became symbolic of the neighborhood’s identity in a way that accelerated the existing mythology around Five Points.

The Basement East rebuilt and reopened approximately one year later. Most of the businesses in Five Points recovered and continued operating. The neighborhood’s response to the tornado, rapid community mobilization, thousands of volunteers through organizations like Hands On Nashville, and a general refusal to define the event as a permanent setback, was consistent with how East Nashville has responded to every previous disaster in its history.

Why Five Points Matters

Five Points matters because it’s the node that makes East Nashville legible as a neighborhood rather than a collection of residential streets. It’s the place where the things that are specific about East Nashville, the music, the vintage stores, the food culture, the community events, compress into a walkable few blocks. Every other part of East Nashville is partially defined by its relationship to Five Points.

Sources

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