This past weekend I took a road trip to visit my summer roommate in Nashville, TN! I stayed the night with her there, then we drove together to Memphis, TN where we are going to be moving in June. Nashville is one of my all-time favorite cities, so i’ll take any opportunity to go there (even for a one day/night trip).
While I was in Nashville, I received so many requests to do a blog post on my favorite places. I have three exams this week, so naturally I am making good use of my procrastination by writing these out for you!
Frothy Monkey
When I was in High School, my Dad and I would make the four hour drive to Nashville to see the Chicago Blackhawks play the Nashville Predators (hockey… don’t worry about it) once a year. We came across The Frothy Monkey on accident, I was looking for a healthy dinner place and traffic was really bad, so we ended up in the 12 South area and came across this coffee shop! At the time, I didn’t appreciate the restaurant for all it had to offer, and was too young to even notice the great vibe that this place has. Now that I am a coffee shop enthusiast, it’s one of my all-time favorites.
The Frothy Monkey has great coffee, but they also have a great menu with the option to build your own salad. I’ve actually only been here for dinner, which has become a tradition for my Dad and I, but you could go with friends to grab coffee & a treat or go for lunch and enjoy the cool environment that this place has to offer.
Jason Aldean’s Bar & Grill
This weekend we didn’t end up going to Broadway, but my favorite bars on broadway are definitely Jason Aldean’s and Luke Bryan’s. I really like these bars 1) for the music and 2) for the atmosphere. I also never turn down the opportunity to go to a rooftop bar… ever. Last fall when UGA played Vanderbilt, my roommates and I went to Nashville for the game and we loved this bar. The drinks were more expensive than we were used to (we are spoiled by $4 drinks in Athens), but we had a really great time going to the different bars on Broadway. I always say this, it’s very important to take full advantage of city visits. Eat and drink things that you don’t usually get to do in your everyday life, it’s the best way to explore and get to know a new place!
Five Daughters Bakery
When we were driving back to Nashville from Memphis, I was looking up different healthy treat places to see where I could go before I started my drive from Nashville back to Atlanta. I discovered that Five Daughters Bakery is extremely popular, but I know we have one at Ponce City Market in Atlanta. I figured since I was already there, I might as well go there. I have always seen people on Instagram post their beautiful donuts all over social media, so I wanted to check it out. This place also has paleo donuts, so I’m sure you can guess why I was particularly interested in on this visit 😉
I went to the location in 12 South, it’s actually right next door to The Frothy Monkey! I walked in and instantly could smell all of the donuts. You walk to the back and can pick the donuts you want, if you get more than 5 they’ll put them in a very cute box, which is what I did. I think they have different flavors every day, but definitely go earlier than I did so that they aren’t out of any of their most popular choices! I got there around 3pm, so they didn’t have a few of the ones I wanted to potentially try (Boston Cream.. rip).
I ended up getting five donuts, two Triple Chocolate Paleo Donuts, one Classic Chocolate Icing with Sprinkles, The Chocolate Purist, and one of their Vanilla Cream 100 Layer donuts. Being the sweet daughter I am, I actually brought all of these home to my family! I drove 4 hours home with donuts… best daughter ever. We had a really good time taking bites of each one! The Chocolate Purist was my favorite one, I was the first one to try the donuts and it made me reconsider sharing them with my family (lol). I was very excited about the Paleo donuts, but after trying their other ones, you can tell they are Paleo. Honestly I wasn’t even planning on trying the other “normal” donuts and wanted to stick to my paleo one, but they were too pretty to resist.
The Ubran Juicer
My Memphis roommate (hi Emerald) is health conscious too, so when she texted me that she was taking me to a place called “The Urban Juicer” for dinner I was sold. After trying it that night, I asked her if we could go back for breakfast. Then I went for lunch by myself the day I left. Basically, after going three times in two days you could say that it might be my new favorite place in Nashville.
The first night when we went for dinner I got their Mediterranean Tuna salad… it was so good. It has roasted red peppers, olives, sprouts, onions, tuna, some kind of dressing, and other toppings I can’t remember! I never order tuna in restaurants, so this was a wild card pick for me and I honestly might start being open to ordering tuna from now on!
The Mediterranean Tuna Salad was good… but the Almond Butter acai bowl won my heart at the Urban Juicer. I had this twice when I was there this weekend… but who could ever say no to an acai bowl? This bowl has a normal acai base and is topped with banana slices, granola, almond butter, and cacao nibs! Oh, plus the granola has raisins and I LOVE raisins, so I definitely reached nirvana while eating this.
Cafe Roze
This is another restaurant from the fall with my roommates, but we REALLY loved it. We found this place on accident as well (I swear, that’s the best way to find restaurants/coffee shops) and I couldn’t tell you where it is exactly location-wise, but definitely go there if you can. We went for brunch, so one of my roommates ordered a chicken sandwich while I ordered eggs. Cafe Roze is definitely the most aesthetic restaurant I have eaten at in Nashville: white marble everything, plants, latte art, etc. It’s part coffee and part restaurant, there’s also a bar.
Bearded Iris Brewery & Neighbors of Germantown
When I was in Nashville this weekend, I was hanging out with people who weren’t in college, so we didn’t do a lot of “typical college bar” things. I actually have never been with friends to a sports bar before or a brewery, mostly because I am NOT a beer girl. The bartender at the Bearded Iris asked me what I wanted to drink and I asked at him what HE thought I wanted to drink. I don’t even remember what he gave me, I know it was a light beer of some kind. Honestly, not even bad. I actually drank half of it before I remembered that I actually don’t like beer at all, so someone else finished it for me. I’ll call that progress towards becoming a “beer girl” though! After that we went to a sports bar called Neighbors and I ordered my go-to drink which is a vodka soda with lime! We also got to watch the Hawks beat the Preds on TV at home in OT, which is always a good time 😉
Long story short, I had a great weekend exploring my new city (Memphis) and a favorite one (Nashville). There are so many places that I didn’t get to touch on in this blog post, most of the places I talked about in here are in the 12 South area, which is my personal favorite spot in Nash. A lot of the cool murals are in the Gulch, which is another popular spot with a lot of “Instagram Worthy” restaurants and shops!
The wings mural is in the Gulch area, keep in mind there was a line two blocks long to get a picture here. We didn’t want to wait, so please enjoy this very cute picture of random strangers that I took instead!
Amelia’s Flower Truck is another one of those “spots” that everyone takes pictures of while in Nashville, it’s also located in the Gulch area!
You’ve probably seen this mural (or at least heard of it before). The “I Believe in Nashville” mural is located in the 12 South area (shocker) right next to Bar Taco and Christie’s Cookies!
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