By: Samie

Travel Dates: July 10th-15th, 2024

Day 2

(D’Andrews Bakery & Cafe, Broadway, Assembly Food Hall, Nashville Sounds Baseball Game)

When we woke up the morning of July 11th, we were roaring to go for our first full day in Nashville! We had a wonderful evening the night prior, but we knew we had only seen and sampled very little of what this city had to offer.

We had about one big thing planned for each day that we wanted to do so that we had flexible time to explore and see things that might come up as we went. The activity we had planned for this evening was catching Nashville’s minor league baseball team, The Sounds, for a home game. That meant we had the whole day to cross a few other things off our Nashville bucket list!

Like most of our days when we take trips, we wanted some coffee and breakfast to fuel the start to our morning! We wanted to get somewhere close to downtown so that we would just be able to walk over to Broadway to do some day drinking before the wild evening crowds took over. We settled on a place called D’Andrews Bakery and Cafe on Church Street, only a few blocks away from Broadway. The executive chef/owner spent time practicing and working in New York City before bringing his experience back to his home of Nashville to open D’Andrews.

We arrived there around 10:00am. There were several tempting and delectable patties that caught our eyes and attention, but we settled on the d’onut that the cafe is known for and a strawberry fraisier classique for our sweet treats. Luke also ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. For drinks, I went all in with an iced pecan latte, and Luke kept it simple with a hot drip coffee. Everything was absolutely scrumptious. I fill up fast in the morning, but even I kept eating until our plates were clean because I couldn’t let a single crumb go to waste!

With full tummies and high spirits, we began to make the very pleasant and sunny walk over to Broadway. On the way, we passed on the other side of Nissan Stadium, which often hosts Nashville’s Titans.

We walked along the Cumberland River as we made our way over to Broadway, taking in as much of the downtown Nashville scene as we could. There were some beautiful places where one could just sit and relax along the riverfront on a nice, sunny, hot day such as this one. It would make a lovely place to sit and enjoy the sunshine in the company of friends while sipping on a cold drink.

We didn’t take a moment to stop because we had things we wanted to do, but it worked out for the best because the shaded areas made comfortable places for some homeless folk to settle in for the hot day ahead. One of them even tried to ask for the last few sips of my iced coffee, which we definitely didn’t love. However, we felt completely safe despite being approached and passing several others lying about. It was also a fairly clean and well-taken care of area, and we enjoyed our little walk.

The last time I was in Nashville was in 2018 when I joined my mom for a work conference trip. One of the evenings, we had hopped on a charter bus that dropped us off at the end of Broadway with some other fellow convention goers and picked us up to take us back to the hotel (we got EXTREMELY lucky because we had gotten put up in the Gaylord Opryland Resort, and I could write an entire post about the grandness of the hotel alone; maybe another time).

I had an idea of what we would be looking at/for, but I didn’t have high expectations that anything would look familiar. I was pleasantly surprised as we approached Broadway to immediately recognize the area the bus had dropped us off almost exactly 6 years prior! I knew where we were and that we had made it to the end of the iconic Nashville Honky-Tonk Highway!

Even though it was only about 11:00am, we were immediately greeted by the roaring sound of live music crashing out the open windows of the bars lining the entire street. It was almost overwhelming as we decided which establishment we would enter first. We knew our time here would pass quickly, so we wanted to use it wisely and hope each stop would be one worth while. We had a small list compiled of different bars we might want to stop into, mostly based on big names of the stars or celebrities that owned or established them.

Our first pick was one closer to where we had come up from so that we could hit others as we continued down the way. We ducked into Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s bar. For our first alcoholic drink of the day, we each ordered a Front Porch Sipper. It’s Deep Eddy Lemon Vodka, watermelon purée, lemonade, and fresh lime juice. It was a specialty drink that came with the option of a souvenir Ole Red glass. We of course took them up on this even though it added to our bill. We also knew this meant that we would have to leave time to stop back at our Airbnb before heading to the baseball game to drop our new glasses off, but we figured we would be making other purchases along the road, so it was fine!

Also while we were there, a singer named Charity Bowden was on stage with her band. Charity was a contestant on Season 11 of The Voice for Team Miley! Even though we were some of the only ones inside because the bar had only just recently opened, it was still very loud with the live music and difficult to hold a conversation, even with Luke and I sitting side by side at the bar.

After about half an hour at Ole Red, it was time to continue our way down the street. Our next stop was into Luke’s 32 Bridge. Despite what I’m sure you are thinking, it is Luke Bryan’s bar, not my Luke’s bar. It was still very cool seeing his name on everything! We had stayed on the ground floor in Ole Red, but we made our way up to the next level at Luke’s to enjoy a rooftop bar. I drank some water while Luke sampled a beer. He ordered a Citric Squall that came from Dogfish Head Brewery.

While there was of course still more live music, it wasn’t quite as booming as Ole Red, probably because there was open space for the sound to escape instead of being mostly stuck inside and bouncing off all four walls. We were able to take a seat at an outdoor table and enjoy a relaxing time and conversation while Luke sipped on his beer. By the time we finished up at Luke’s, it was already lunch time, and I knew I better not drink too much more on a fairly empty stomach or even the world’s most careful Uber wouldn’t be able to safely get me to the baseball game without something eventful happening. We started to make our way over to Assembly Food Hall for some food and also happened to pass the absolutely gorgeous Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, along the way.

The Assembly Food Hall is an absolutely huge multi-level culinary destination with over 30 eateries and bars to choose from! We knew we wanted to eat our way through the various hot chicken establishments of Nashville during our time there. The food hall houses a Prince’s Hot Chicken location, the original and probably most iconic hot chicken restaurant in Nashville. We didn’t know if we would have a chance to make our way to the stand-alone location or other locations around the city, so we figured this provided the perfect opportunity to try it!

To have a fair comparison, we wanted to try the mild tenders at all visited locations, especially after Luke had tried the medium heat level, and it is quite the spice jump. We ordered 4 mild tenders with sides of fries and baked beans with pork. It was quite a wait to get our food, but it gave us a good opportunity to find a table and use the bathroom.

Prince’s is obviously a very solid hot chicken, but we favored Hattie B’s just a little bit more. It could be because it’s hard to top your first real experience with Nashville hot chicken or because of the comfortable aesthetic our Hattie B experience provided or the fact that we could just walk over from our Airbnb whenever we got a hankering.

While we were walking around the hall before landing on Prince’s for lunch, we had passed a no-bake cookie dough stall which immediately had my undivided attention. I knew that as a responsible adult, I would fuel my body with a meal that actually provided sustenance before pumping it with fat and sugar, but I also knew that once we were finished eating real food, that cookie dough would absolutely be mine.

When we went to order online, there was a 4 flight option that sounded perfect so that I could sample a few different flavors. Something you should probably know about me if you don’t already is that cookie dough/cookies are arguably my absolute favorite dessert. Luke’s is ice cream, mine is cookies. That means I was hard-core pumped for this sweet treat and was going to eat it all, even if it meant my stomach filling up until it flopped over the top of my shorts. Because I was most likely going to do most of the eating, Luke let me pick our 4 flavors, but I promise I did ask for his input! We got brownie batter, Cookie Monster, s’mores, and their seasonal option, which was going to be a surprise flavor that we were excited to find out. It ended up being an amazing decision because the seasonal flavor was banana pudding, our new Nashville dessert!

All four of the flavors were heavenly, and I did in fact push through devouring them all because I wasn’t about to just stop. If I had to pick a favorite, it genuinely might have been the banana pudding because it had the sweet cookie dough taste paired with the fresh banana taste, and it was perfection! On a slightly less important note, I adored the little sample spoons they gave us to eat the cookie dough with, which only elevated the experience for me.

We needed to walk a little bit of the food off before finding our next bar to settle into and start drinking again. We made our way into a couple of the department stores that are located within the food hall as well, such as Carhart and Levi’s. Nothing struck our fancy, but that is just as well because we would have had to lug it around as we bar hopped anyway. There was a cute truck beautifully decorate with flowers, particularly some vibrant tulips where I was able to get some cute and seasonal pictures though!

Around 2:30pm our bodies were ready to continue the Broadway experience, and we made our way to the next bar. This was probably going to be one of our last bar stops if we were going to have enough time to do some souvenir shopping on Broadway and drop our things back off at our Airbnb, so we wanted to pick somewhere good! We made our way into the very classy, less country-style Twelve Thirty Club. While this bar isn’t technically owned by a celebrity, it is supported by singer Justin Timberlake.

We once again made our way to the rooftop bar. For a majority of the time we were there, we were the only ones. This made for a very relaxing and enjoyable experience for a couple of introverts trying to make their way through the busiest street in Nashville! Our server sat us right out on the edge of the rooftop patio so that we were overlooking the entire street. We were under a nice, big, yellow umbrella to shade us from the scorching sun while also casting a warm glow across our faces. Everything was just so warm and positive and cozy!

We knew we would be ordering drinks because the whole reason we were exploring the honky-tonk highway was to do some day-drinking. Luke ordered a Garden Smash G&T, strawberry kissed Sipsmith Gin, pressed mint, yuzu green tea, and sea salt. On this hot Tennessee day, I went with a refreshing strawberry frosé.

Even though we had just eaten a big meal and stuffed ourselves not too long before this, we also knew we needed to at least sample something while we were here. We figured something light and refreshing, unlike the heavier lunch we had, would be a good balance. We saw a shrimp cocktail on the menu, and we knew immediately that would make for the perfect late-afternoon snack. We treasured the minutes absently ticking by while we carelessly sipped on our cool drinks and chowed down on the biggest shrimp we’ve ever had.

The rooftop bar had a large plant backdrop with a fun neon sign that made for the perfect photo op. Normally, I’m painfully self-conscious trying to take “trendy” pictures, but there wasn’t anyone else around to see, and I was also too drunk and full to care. We made our way over, and my lovely personal photographer snapped a few photos of me in front of the wall. Some where I looked comfortable and happy and nicely posed and some where I very obviously look like someone with a low alcohol tolerance that had been drinking for the better half of the day attempting to take normal-looking pictures. Either way, we got some fun pictures that I’m ultimately glad we took!

After about an hour, we made our way back down the modern and elegantly-lit stairs, where I posed for a few more pictures and then miraculously took the steps independently without tripping or needing any additional support!

It was then time to finish our time on Broadway with some souvenir shopping! Our last few trips, I had been able to come across some nice and comfortable crew neck sweatshirts that represented the location as well as a mug to add to my collection. Luke tends to collect hats from the places we have been, and we work together to find a magnet to add to our magnetic travel board in our kitchen. This meant we had an idea of what we were looking for and hoping to find, but we wanted to be picky since prices were a little steeper in such a high-traffic area. We were’t going to pick just anything or buy something we didn’t absolutely love.

We enjoyed seeing the aesthetics and themes of all the different shops we stopped in. Some of them embraced more of the country theme, others more of the music city theme. We slowly picked up our desired souvenirs as we made our way through several stores. We found a magnet that resembled a license plate with Nashville across the middle over top a musical staff, Music City floating above, and the established year dangling below. I found a nice, deep red crew with Nashville across the chest and had a simple vintage look to it.

It was almost time to head back our Airbnb to get ready for the baseball game, but we would be remiss to leave without dessert. We broke off the main stretch of Broadway down the corridor of 2nd Avenue. Nine months into the pandemic of 2020, a man detonated a RV bomb on 2nd Avenue on Christmas Day. This explosion injured eight people (with the only fatality being that of the bomber) and caused damage to more than 60 downtown buildings. Four years later, the area is still rebuilding and recovering. Some businesses had to permanently close their doors after the destruction, but fortunately, others have persisted! We were able to stop at one such place for our delicious dessert and some more coffee to carry us through the evening!

We pushed the heavy door open that carried us into Mike’s Ice Cream. Everything looked and smelled delicious, but we had some decisions to make. For ice cream, I got a cup of roasted pistachio, and Luke got a waffle cone of the coffee flavored ice cream. Then, for drinks, Luke went with a classic iced caramel latte, and I decided to try their frozen cappuccino with caramel drizzle. I absolutely fell in love with the salty nuttiness of the pistachio ice cream, and the frozen coffee seemed like a good idea when we first came in to escape the blazing heat, but they kept the ice cream shop understandably cold, so I went from burning up to freezing real fast. It was still totally delicious and totally worth it!

The time was now around 4:30, and we needed to get from Broadway to our Airbnb, and from our Airbnb to the baseball stadium 30 minutes before the game started. Since the game started at 6:35, it was recommended we get there at 6:05, so it was time to get going.

We figured since Broadway such a popular destination, it would be easy getting an Uber. We have never been more wrong. We had to all about 4 separate Ubers because they kept getting cancelled or the driver kept seemingly getting lost and going the wrong direction on the map. It took way longer than expected to get a ride, and we had now fallen behind schedule. Upon arrival at our Airbnb, we quickly dropped off our items and changed as needed because we had been sweating in our outfits all day since we had spent very little time in air conditioning. Also, we wanted to dress for the occasion, and the downtown scene and the ball game scene are different vibes.

We then called an Uber to get to the First Horizon Park baseball stadium. Because we were running late, our expected 6:05 time came and went. I am, to my regret, an extremely anxious person, so not arriving at the time we were supposed to be there by flooded stress through my entire body. To make things even more stressful, it started to rain as we were getting out of our Uber, and we were in no way dressed or prepared for rain.

Luckily, getting through security and scanning tickets was extremely swift and effortless. The rain also delayed the game, so we went from being 5 minutes late, to about 20 minutes early! We now had time to visit the stadium gift shop and get some recognizable ball game snacks.

Neither of us are necessarily huge baseball fanatics, so we weren’t expecting to find anything in the merch store. For the second time that day, we couldn’t have been more wrong. Luke found an incredibly cool Sounds jersey that he really liked and would be able to sport for the game. He said he didn’t know when else he would wear it, but we both agreed that we were on vacation and that he should treat himself. We doubted he would regret getting it, but he might regret it if he didn’t! I also found a nice 3/4 sleeve vintage Sounds shirt on the clearance wrack that I liked a lot, so we had some very successful pre-game shopping!

For snacks, we loaded up on garlic fries, popcorn, and a classic ball game hotdog. I also knew that I would be getting some Dippin’ Dots in a mini helmet later because I have only been to a few baseball games in my life, but that has always been a staple for me. However, it would be a little while before I was ready for that. We also made sure to be able to crack open a few more drinks to close out our cycle of day-drinking. Luke had a few beers throughout the night, and I enjoyed a can of Jack Daniel’s Peach.

We then got to sit in really awesome seats right above the home team dugout and take in a full evening of minor league baseball! The team’s mascot came by us often and engaged the crowd around us. We watched enthusiastic game-goers flash across the guitar-shaped scoreboard (no, we never made it), and we cheered and laughed and hollered through the evening. At one point, there was even a Country Legends Race where four famous mascot-versions of Nashville celebrities (Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Johnny Cash, and George Jones)ran around the outside of the field with oversized heads. Johnny Cash took the win the night we were there.

Before the night was over, we found a stand that sold my Dippin’ Dots in a mini helmet. I went with brownie batter flavor. Luke was somehow able to catch a photo of me in absolute bliss as I enjoyed my stupid little cryogenically frozen ice cream beads. To make things even better, the Sounds got to take home the win, 10-4!

We weren’t in any particular hurry to get out of there, so we watched the players exit the field and the crowds disperse before taking a few final pictures with the empty field. Then we walked over to the designated vehicle pickup area and called an Uber, which true to fashion of the day, took a while to find us and get to us.

Once safely back in our air-conditioned Airbnb in our cozy pajamas, we watched some Kitchen Nightmares on TV and enjoyed Nashville’s famous GooGoo cluster candy that we had picked up from a GooGoo Cluster store we stopped into during our time on Broadway. There was an option to customize your own cluster, but we just bought an assortment of three of their best-selling flavors. We went with the original flavor first and can confirm it is a tasty treat and can understand why it had maintained popularity since 1912.

It was an extremely full and hot day that left us ready to crawl into bed and get a good night’s rest. However, it didn’t prevent us from being excited to do it all again tomorrow and experience more of the many great things Nashville has to offer!