Memphis and Nashville

This is another buried post I found in my drafts.   It was written in November after we had a bit of a vacation.

It has been a long time since The Hubs and I have traveled just for fun.  Of course, when we travel to family events, we do have fun, but again, it seems like it’s been years (at least 18+ months) since we took time off and just traveled for the heck of it.

We recently met another couple in Nashville for a weekend of music.  On our way coming and going, we also stopped in Memphis.

I had no idea what to expect for either town.  We are live-music fans so we knew we would enjoy ourselves in both cities.  I usually research the heck out of our destinations, but I had zero time before we left so we just winged it.  I don’t think we did too poorly.

We stayed in a couple of really cool places in Memphis.  On our way to Nashville (and our first night out) we stayed at Hu.Hotel.  It was cute and the staff was friendly but we did have a parking FUBAR issue that was totally not our fault.  Here’s to the morning crew at Hu that offered to take care of the situation.

Hu has a rooftop bar that overlooks the Mississippi River and I highly suggest you visit it, whether you’re staying at the hotel or not…simply for the views.

On our way back, we stayed at Canopy.  This is a new concept hotel by Hilton.  I loved it.  I will be seeking out Canopies in whatever towns we visit.  (It was actually a pretty good value for location and vibe and hipness.)  It’s also right across from The Peabody, so we got to see the ducks.

If a friend had not recommended Printer’s Alley in Nashville to us, I doubt I would have enjoyed this leg of our trip.  We sought it out on our first night there and found two great bars/venues:  Alley Taps and Snitch.   On our second night we visited Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar first.  It had a great blues band playing but was packed with mostly Saints’ fans that were in town for the game.

We revisited Alley Taps and stayed for the rest of the night.

Really, I preferred Printer’s Alley to the humanity that was packed onto Broadway.

Before we left Nashville, we visited the Farmers Market.  Highly recommend!

On our way home, we explored Beale Street.  It was a Sunday night so there wasn’t a throng of people.  Again, an enjoyable evening.

Some of the best food of the trip was the chili-cheese fries we had at Ghost River Brewery.   (This is not a slam, these were some outstanding fries!!) 

We did make it into BB King’s where there was a fantastic band playing.  We ended the trip with a great music experience.  The food there was just meh.   As we reflected on the lack of culinary experiences, we realized we were there to listen to live music.  All of this music occurred in bars, not any food meccas.

I would return, stay longer and research more.  I know there are some fantastic places in Memphis and Nashville but it was fun and refreshing just to wing it.

As I was editing this post, I remembered Cosair distillery that we visited as we first drove into Nashville.  I highly recommend this.  Cool location, great staff, and wonderful tastings!