Your first night sets the frame for the entire trip. Get this right and you’ll understand the city. Spend it in the wrong places and you’ll spend two more days trying to recalibrate.
The Sequencing That Works
Most people arrive in the late afternoon and are in their hotel by 5 or 6 PM. That gives you a full evening. The trap is heading straight to Broadway, ordering a $14 beer in a celebrity-owned mega-bar, and spending the next several hours in a stadium-scale honky-tonk surrounded almost entirely by other tourists. That is a legitimate activity. It is not the best use of your first night.
The better approach is dinner first, Broadway second, and a legitimate music venue third.
Dinner: Do Not Eat on Broadway
The restaurants built for tourist volume on Lower Broadway are not where you should eat if you care about food. The Gulch, which is a 10-15 minute walk south, has a concentration of serious restaurants. Adele’s operates on a farm-to-table model and has maintained quality for over a decade. The Gulch also contains several cocktail bars that function as pre-dinner drinks options.
If you want to eat downtown without going to the Gulch, Merchants Restaurant on Broadway is one of the few Broadway establishments that locals actually recommend. It has been open since 1988, takes reservations, and has a full kitchen that serves food worth eating.
Broadway: Go, But Manage Expectations
Broadway is worth doing once. The honky-tonks that function best are the smaller, older ones: Robert’s Western World, Legends Corner, and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge (during off-peak hours or early in the evening before the crowds overwhelm it). These are the venues that have actual history and where musicians are performing in the traditional honky-tonk model: free admission, no cover, tip the band.
Broadway bars open as early as 10 AM and operate essentially around the clock. On a first night, arrive on Broadway between 7 and 9 PM. The energy is high, the crowds are manageable compared to midnight, and you can actually hear the music. Nashville bars close at 3 AM per city regulations, so there is no urgency.
Wear closed-toe shoes on Broadway at night. The streets accumulate broken glass, spilled drinks, and debris as the evening progresses. This is mentioned in multiple visitor guides and is practical advice, not hyperbole.
Third Stop: An Actual Music Venue
If you leave Broadway at 9 or 10 PM, the night is young. This is when first-timers should go somewhere that has meaningful music rather than background honky-tonk:
The Listening Room Cafe hosts songwriter shows in a dedicated listening room format. Shows typically run 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM. Tickets are reserved in advance and the format involves songwriters telling stories behind the songs before performing them. For anyone who wants to understand what Nashville is actually doing musically, this is the right room.
Tootsie’s has a second and third floor with smaller stages that can be more manageable than the main floor when the crowd builds.
Station Inn, over in The Gulch, is the premier bluegrass venue in Nashville. Shows start around 9 PM most nights. The room is small and serious and nothing like Broadway.
What to Skip on Night One
Skip the pedal taverns. They are expensive ($49 per person minimum for shared rides), cause traffic disruption that other Nashville visitors and locals find irritating, and deliver a mediocre experience relative to cost. Skip dinner at the Hard Rock, Margaritaville, or any chain venue visible from the honky-tonk strip. Skip the ghost tour on night one; save novelty activities for later when you’ve covered the essentials.
The Practical Part
Get a rideshare rather than drive downtown. Parking garages near Broadway cost $20-30 on weekend nights and the lots fill up. Rideshares back to your hotel at 11 PM are fast and cheap. If you’re staying in The Gulch or downtown, walking back is easy enough once Broadway quiets down.
Sources:
- Visit Nashville TN, “Nashville Nightlife”: visitmusiccity.com/things-to-do-in-nashville/music-entertainment/nightlife-nashville
- GetYourGuide, “First Time in Nashville: A Quick Guide to Must-Dos”: getyourguide.com/explorer/nashville-ttd1279/first-time-in-nashville
- Wandrly, “Things to Do in Nashville at Night”: wandrly.app/blog/things-to-do-in-nashville-at-night
- The Listening Room Cafe official site: listeningroomcafe.com
- Station Inn official site: stationinn.com