We’ll be in Nashville for a few days in February. We’ve never been there before and are just going to focus on visiting Ryman Auditorium, The Patsy Cline Museum, and other touristy stuff. Naturally we’re looking for restaurant recs - nothing fancy, and focusing on Southern cooking, and barbecue. We live on the northern California coast so we’re hoping to try some of both. Thanks!
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It’s pre-Covid when we were last in the city so places may have changed (or even closed) . But, assuming they are still good:–
Jack’s BBQ - on Broadway, right in the centre of things, so combine with an evening bar crawling (all have live music on pretty much all day long)
Puckett’s - casual. Southern. And just round the corner from the Ryman. We had dinner there before the show
Listening Room Cafe - a music venue with food. Acts tend to be singer songwriters. We had a nice evening . And I got to eat Nashville Hot Chicken. And, yes, it’s hot.
Mission BBQ - just across from the Opry
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I forgot to add that I’m a big John Tanner BBQ fan, so I. will definitely be consulting his blog.
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I haven’t visited since 2013, and the place I remember most is no longer in business. That said, if you like seeing a beautiful historic hotel, stop by the Hermitage Hotel to see the lobby. The restaurant inside the Hermitage that I liked (the Capitol Grille, not connected to the steakhouse chain, The Capital Grille (I’ll double check the spellings), that has a similar name) was replaced with a John Georges Vongerichten restaurant, Drusie and Darr, which I have not tried.
I wish we had tried the famous pancake place. There’s often a line.
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*Jean-Georges, my bad. 
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Was there last week, and if it’s BBQ you seek, look no further.
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We also ate at the Grille and enjoyed it.
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I too was a Pre-Pandemic visitor/tourist. I found no food in Nashville that was outstanding. Martin’s BBQ was good enough. Hattie B’s hot chicken, too, but both places were like factory assembly lines. There was a small burger joint/tavern that was recommended in the college district–the only memory I have is that literally everyone inside was chain-smoking. Jenni’s Splendid Ice Cream is quite good.
I would avoid the downtown tourist-nightclub district like the plague.
If your plans include any tour bus rides, here’s a tip and a warning: Find out IN ADVANCE where your hotel is on the pickup/dropoff list–you do NOT want to be first pickup or last dropoff. Traffic around the peripheral highways/roads, e.g. to the Hermitage and Opry can beat anything SoCal has.
I do have one positive nugget: Hatwrx hat shop is great, and one of a dwindling number of serious hat shops in America. It’s not Meyer in NOLA, but it’s worth visiting.
For anyone who’s visited Nashville recently, are those little Lime skateboards still around?
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One more.
Go to Sarabhas Creamery for homemade Indian ice cream.
Get the Shahi Gulab, and thank me later.
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(blush!) We went to Jack Cawthon’s rather than Jack’s because it was impossible to get to Lower Broadway because of all the bachelorette parties (Nashville is the #1 bachelorette destination), but I hope that won’t be a problem in February. We were able to negotiate the area one a Sunday morning when the partiers were recovering. Great music everywhere.
I had a bad experience at Peg Leg Porker, but then we went in the evening. Most barbecue places are better at lunch. And I didn’t think much of Martin’s, although I loved the one in Cahaba Heights outside Birmingham. It could have been a bad day, which happens when places are expanding to other cities.
It’s a drive, but Ramey’s in Parsons is one of the best barbecue places anywhere. There’s very limited indoor seating, though, and in February …
The Loveless Cafe has wonderful biscuits and the best preserves I’ve ever come across. IT’s a but of a drive, but you ca detour over to Franklin afterwards. Nice town.
There’s great music everywhere. The Listening Room, which Carter’s mentioned, was a lot of fun.
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I’ve been in Nashville once, in 2005. Had some great soul food at Swett’s. Loveless Cafe was totally worth the drive for those biscuits and preserves. Had some great meat-and-threes as well.
The bad part of the trip was driving to the original location of Prince’s straight from the airport and finding it closed on a Saturday. This was before Nashville hot chicken really exploded nationally and I was really excited to try it. A crowd gathered out front, also expecting the doors to open, but they never did, at least on that day.
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I was in Nashville for vacation for a few days back in February, still haven’t written that up yet. I put some places I went to in this thread:
For BBQ I liked both BBQ places I went to - Peg Leg Porker (some great ribs) and Martin’s which had some good pulled pork. For Southern cooking, the most unique place I went to was Monell’s, where meals are served family style at a big table that you share with strangers. I also had some good Southern meals at meat-and-threes - Arnold’s and Swett’s
Non-food tidbit: The Station Inn is a great place to listen to some bluegrass.
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We had a meal at Monell’s and enjoyed it as well.
As for Swett’s, I had a nice chat with the proprietor (being the loquacious type), and learned that John Madden used to get their food delivered to his hotel room. 
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I was in Nashville in March and there was already an annoying volume of bachelorette parties.
None of the bbq meats I had (Martin’s, Peg Leg Porker) were worth a return visit, and neither was the hot chicken.
I am obsessed with Jeni’s ice creams so I was happy to go to the scoop shop, but there was nothing partic Nashville about it.
The music experience I had, on the other hand, was def worth the trip alone.
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Check out the classic country night at the VFW. It’s a rocking good time.
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I sent my uncle a gift box from here a few years ago.
Loveless, mentioned above, also has an online store. (Mentioning this for people who are not visiting any time soon!)
I really enjoyed the food in Nashville. I would go back for the food and the music in a heartbeat.
