What is the best hidden gem in Germantown that most visitors miss?

February 19, 2026

The polar bears. Most visitors to Germantown find the obvious things City House, Rolf and Daughters, the Farmers Market, the Tennessee State Museum. Very few stumble onto the two concrete polar bears at 1225 6th Avenue North, near Monell’s restaurant, and that is a genuine shame because their story is one of the stranger Nashville history footnotes that has nothing to do with country music.

In the 1930s, the bears were brought to Nashville to advertise a frozen custard stand. When the custard stand went out of business, a local funeral parlor owner bought all four original bears two for the Germantown location and two for a location in the Edgehill neighborhood as decorative pieces. When the funeral parlor eventually closed, the Germantown bears were lost entirely, discovered years later covered in weeds in an abandoned yard somewhere in Nashville. They were eventually restored and placed at their current location, where they now sit outside an 1860s Victorian house without explanation or signage.

They are concrete polar bears from the 1930s parked on a residential street in Nashville’s oldest neighborhood. Nobody talks about them. They appear in exactly one list of Nashville hidden gems with any frequency, and most visitors who make it to Germantown at all are focused on getting their reservation at Henrietta Red.

The second hidden gem: Tailor

If a historical curiosity is not what you are after, the actual hidden gem most visitors miss is Tailor, the prix fixe restaurant by chef Vivek Surti at 2210 Colfax Street. It is South Asian-inspired over multiple courses with a leisurely two-and-a-half-hour timeline, and it books out weeks in advance. It is the most unusual and personal dining experience in Germantown possibly in Nashville and it gets far less attention than the James Beard-branded restaurants that dominate food coverage of the neighborhood.

The third: Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park

Visitors who come to Germantown for the food sometimes miss that a 19-acre public park with views of the State Capitol and a substantial memorial to Tennessee World War II veterans is sitting at the neighborhood’s edge, and it is completely free. The park stretches between the Tennessee State Museum and the Capitol, with historical markers, a Carillon bell tower, a rivers fountain, and wide green lawns. It is one of the nicer urban parks in Nashville and functions as a quiet counterpoint to the busy restaurant blocks nearby. Most visitors drive past it to get to parking.

Sources

Related posts:

  1. What Is Nashville Like in Fall? October is the month most locals point to when asked about the best time to visit Nashville. It hits the weather correctly (high 70s, low 40s-50s overnight, driest month of......
  2. What Areas of Nashville Are Not Walkable? The honest answer is: most of Nashville. The city's overall Walk Score is 29 out of 100, placing it 48th among large US cities. That puts Nashville below Atlanta (49),......
  3. What Is the Difference Between East Nashville and The Gulch? These two neighborhoods represent opposite answers to the question of what Nashville can be. They're about three miles apart, but the distance in character is much larger. Geography First East......
  4. How Far Is 12 South from Broadway? 12 South is about three miles south of Broadway, and the distance is significant enough that it functions as a separate destination rather than a neighborhood you visit on the......
  5. Where Is the Country Music Hall of Fame? The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is located at 222 Fifth Avenue South in Nashville's SoBro neighborhood, directly south of Lower Broadway and three blocks from the main......
  6. What Is the Best Thing to Do in The Gulch? Go to the Station Inn on a Sunday night. The specific recommendation is the Sunday night jam session at the Station Inn, 402 12th Avenue South, which has been running......
  7. What does Germantown look like architecturally compared to other Nashville neighborhoods? Walk into most Nashville neighborhoods and the built environment reads clearly: East Nashville means Victorian cottages and craftsman bungalows, The Gulch is glass-and-steel condos stacked on parking decks, 12 South......
  8. What three things is Germantown most famous for? Ask people who know Nashville and the answer comes back the same way almost every time: food, history, and walkability. These three things are not incidental to Germantown they define......
  9. What is the vibe of Germantown? Germantown is what Nashville looks like when it is not trying to perform Nashville. There are no bachelorette sashes here, no pedal taverns, no cover bands playing Florida Georgia Line......
  10. What are the best restaurants in Germantown? Germantown punches well above its weight for a neighborhood of 18 city blocks. The concentration of seriously good restaurants here (including multiple James Beard Award winners and nominees) makes it......
  11. What are the best coffee shops in Germantown? For a neighborhood with Germantown's reputation for food and drink, its coffee scene is surprisingly compact. The neighborhood does not have ten coffee shops fighting for the same customer. It......
  12. What architectural styles blend together in Germantown Nashville? The Metropolitan Historical Commission's study of Germantown in the 1970s concluded that it was "one of the most architecturally heterogeneous neighborhoods in the city." That designation has only become more......
  13. Is There Chicken That Is Not Spicy in Nashville? Yes, and Nashville has an excellent plain fried chicken tradition that exists alongside and independent of hot chicken. The city's soul food restaurants and meat-and-three establishments have been frying unseasoned......
  14. How far is Germantown from Broadway? Germantown is about 1.2 to 1.5 miles from lower Broadway, depending on exactly where you start and finish. Walking takes 20 to 25 minutes at a normal pace. By car......

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *