Now that we live in Memphis again, a quick Nashville getaway is always on the radar. My husband and I decided to take full advantage of my mom visiting and we left ALONE for a little 24 hour vacay.
Huge thanks to my friend Christine who gave me a list of some of her favorite places and who answered my texts in a hurry while I was there!
Here’s what we hit up this time and what we ordered:
Butcher and Bee: a super hipster, farm-to-table place. We came during brunch hours, so we were given a limited menu, but we ordered: whipped feta, avocado crispy rice with an egg, chicken and waffles and an almond milk latte. The whipped feta was seriously one of the best things I’ve eaten in a restaurant in a LONG time. It’s topped with honey, black pepper and chives and served with freshly grilled pita. I ate mine with a fork, straight up.
The avocado crispy rice (pictured above) was stunning, full of flavor and texture and had a kick of spice. I was a huge fan.
Hubby ordered the chicken and waffles and was actually really disappointed. The waffle tasted just plain bad and really wasn’t in balance with the flavor of the chicken. Whomp whomp. He also said their beer sucked, and I’ll just take his word on that. Eek. My latte was perfect, so I had no complaints. Win for me, lose for him.
5 Daughters Bakery: I ordered 3 of their paleo donuts to go: samoa, cookie dough and pumpkin chocolate chip. The cookie dough donut is burned in my brain…so damn good.
WestEnd Coffee Bar: this hidden coffee shop was down the street from us and in another hotel. They had oat milk AND lavender syrup, so it was a win for me!
Tavern: We sidled up to the bar here for drinks and a snack before dinner. I ordered their sangria, and after chatting to the bartender about my preferences, he customized it with extra champagne to cut the sweetness and it was pretty awesome.
We ordered their Belgian fries with ranch, jalapeno ketchup and garlic aioli. Seriously, I could’ve shoveled in ten orders of their fries. They were that good. Perfectly crispy, salty and hand-cut. The fries convinced us to come back for dinner.
We went to The Patterson House then came back. At dinner I ordered a couple short rib tacos on corn tortillas and hubby had the chimichanga. The tacos were good, not great but hubby seemed to really like his dinner. The cheese sauce on his was pretty awesome. The service was pretty shitty, so I’d say for bar fries and drinks, this place is perfect, and I’ll leave it at that.
The Patterson House: this speakeasy was the highlight of our visit! It’s very hidden (we had Google maps pulled up on my phone and wandered the neighboring parking lot in a circle for awhile before finding the entrance!) and I’m glad we got there at 5:30 on a rainy Sunday night, because it was filling up then (a Friday night would’ve been a 2 hour wait).
I’ll preface this by saying: I am NOT a drinker. I get wicked sick from hard alcohol and roll-on-the-floor drunk from two glasses of wine. So trust me when I’m telling you a bar was worth the visit. The menu is very extensive, but the bartenders are true pros.
I told my bartender “I either want something chocolatey or something with fruit notes like pears and honey that wouldn’t be too sweet.” How confusing am I? Well our bartender got working immediately and excitedly and poured me a smooth AF cocktail that was pineapple with hints of white chocolate and bitters. Like, I would’ve never thought to order that specifically. But it was SO good and I sipped it for almost an hour!
Music Row: we took the hotel shuttle down to music row, which was only a mile from our hotel. We spent a few hours walking up and down it, popping into a few bars to listen to the live bands that were playing. You really need to experience this for a night if you’re visiting Nashville. It’s so fun and you can pop in and out of dozens of live concerts. We walked back to the hotel after we had our fill.
Milk and Honey: in the morning before we left we ordered breakfast from Milk and Honey. This place was amazing inside. Super high ceilings, a lot of seating (that was packed even on a Monday), subway tiling and exposed pipe details.
We ordered 2 biscuits with homemade strawberry jam, house vanilla bean Greek yogurt with granola and honey, and an iced almond milk latte.
The biscuits were giant so hubby was happy. The vanilla yogurt was so creamy and not sweet, which was perfect. And the granola was warm and studded with a ton of different dried fruits and nuts. Super satisfying.
The iced latte was good, not sweet (which is perfect since I didn’t order a flavor so I know their milk isn’t full of sugar). I only wish I had noticed that they had oat milk before I ordered, because that’s my new obsession! Overall, I loved this spot.
We stayed at the Hilton to get points. It was nothing to write home about but it was nice enough. The lobby was bright and inviting and had a self-serve hot chocolate bar, which was great since it was a drizzly weekend. It was close to everything we wanted to visit and the free hotel shuttle was great to use instead of paying for Uber.
My only real complaint was our mini fridge was warmer than our room, even turned all the way “freezing.” I am pumping and had to fill the fridge with ice packs I made from the ice machine and plastic bags, just to keep my milk cold. If we were staying more than one night I would’ve asked them to try to find us a new fridge or a room with one that worked better (or at all).
