Yes, but timing is everything, and the window closes earlier than most families expect.
The All-Ages Window
Every honky-tonk on Lower Broadway opens at 10am. For roughly the first six to eight hours of the day, most venues welcome all ages. Live music starts at 10am and runs continuously, so a family showing up at 11am for lunch is walking into a fully operational honky-tonk experience: live band, full bar, booths, and cold beer for adults. The cover charge is zero at nearly every venue.
The cutoff varies by bar, but the majority transition to 21-and-over at 6pm. A handful extend later. As of late 2024:
- Robert’s Western World: all ages until 6pm
- Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge: 21+ at 7pm
- Luke Bryan’s Luke’s 32 Bridge: all ages until 8pm
- Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar: all ages until 8:30pm, rooftop 21+ Thursday-Sunday
- Ole Red (Blake Shelton’s): all ages until 9pm
- Blake Shelton’s other venue: all ages until 9pm
- Wildhorse Saloon: all ages until 10pm, free line dance lessons between sets
- Assembly Food Hall (5th + Broadway): all ages during all operating hours
Times fluctuate based on management and special events. Call ahead or check current listings at nashvilleguru.com before committing to an evening plan.
Which Venues Work Best With Kids
Robert’s Western World is the first answer, because the music is the real thing. It started as a boot store, added live music, and became the most authentically country bar on Broadway. The Recession Special (fried bologna sandwich, chips, PBR) at $6 is a running joke that locals actually order. Kids can sit at a table, hear the music, and eat lunch while adults drink beer. Nobody is bothered by children here before 6pm.
Wildhorse Saloon at 2nd Avenue North off Broadway is the single most family-appropriate option on the strip. The free line dance lessons between performances are legitimately fun for any age, the food is competent bar food, and it allows minors until 10pm. The Listening Room Cafe, while not on Broadway proper, is built for all-ages attendance at any hour: no bar atmosphere, assigned seating, dedicated listener-format songwriter shows.
Assembly Food Hall inside the 5th and Broadway development has multiple stages, around 30 food vendors, and no time-based age restriction. It lacks the street-level atmosphere of a honky-tonk but works as a family dinner option near Broadway without the 6pm deadline.
What Saturday Night Actually Looks Like
By 3pm on a Saturday, Broadway is packed with bachelorette parties. By 5pm it is loud, crowded, and beginning to tilt toward adult-only. The experience after 6pm is not appropriate for children in any practical sense, regardless of what the posted rules allow. The noise, the density of drunk adults, and the general behavior on Lower Broadway by 7pm on a Saturday is something only the most patient family will navigate without regret.
The practical advice: go before noon on a Saturday or wait until a weekday. Weekday Broadway in the mid-morning is a manageable experience. Adults can have a beer at 11am without judgment, the bands are playing the same sets, and kids can hear real live music without being shoulder-to-shoulder with a hundred bachelorettes.
The Honest Assessment
Broadway is fundamentally a bar district. Every venue on the strip is legally a bar with live music, and most have done children’s menus and daytime family access as an accommodation to tourism, not because the environment was designed for it. Parents who take kids before noon on a weekday will have a fine time. Parents who push that into Saturday evening are making a mistake they will feel in real time.
The Country Music Hall of Fame, Grand Ole Opry, Listening Room Cafe, and Wildhorse Saloon are the better choices for families who want music without the bar-district math.
Sources:
- Nashville Guru All-Ages Bar Guide (updated October 2025): nashvilleguru.com
- Notes on Nashville – Live Music Under 21: notesonnashville.com
- TripAdvisor Nashville Forum – Age for Going Into Bars: tripadvisor.com
- Hot Mama Travel – Kid-Friendly Nashville Restaurants with Live Music (April 2025): hotmamatravel.com