Nashville beckons with a burgeoning hotel portfolio, beloved music attractions, and a new focus on fashion and design. To get the most out of Nashville, venture outside the ballrooms to savor the flavors of its distinctive neighborhoods.
“It’s intriguing to see what else makes our city Nashville,” says Kay Witt, chief sales officer at the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation (NCVC). “You’ll see something different in each area. There’s different personalities in different parts of town.”
Downtown/SoBro
Bustling Downtown Nashville continues to add more meeting properties and attractions. Downtown, which includes South of Broadway (SoBro), is popular with tourists and locals alike on the weekends with its concentration of music venues and music-related attractions.
“It’s really morphed since we opened up the new convention center downtown,” says Witt. “It’s put the focus on the hospitality industry. No other city has a lot of new products. Our convention center is one of the newest centers to be built, and it’s brought a lot of attention on us.”
Music City Center opened in 2013 with a 350,000-square-foot exhibition hall and 90,000 square feet of meeting rooms. The center is advantageously positioned adjacent to the 20,000-seat Bridgestone Arena and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which offers a variety of event spaces for groups, including its 10,000-square-foot Event Hall.
Some of the largest meeting hotels anchoring the area currently include Renaissance Nashville Hotel, Hilton Nashville Downtown and Omni Nashville Hotel. During the next two years, downtown will add a JW Marriott, Westin Nashville, Cambria Suites and a 21c Museum Hotels.
Apart from its hefty complement of venues, attractions old and new present a powerful draw to downtown Nashville. Football and hockey games, live music at the world-famous honky-tonks along Broadway, riverfront green space, museums and galleries are thick on the ground.
Park development is bringing excitement to the riverfront. Earlier this year, Ascend Amphitheater opened on the Cumberland River, surrounded by ornamental gardens and a 1.5-acre event lawn. As the project continues, it will add more park space and a walking/biking loop. Nearby, the Music City Walk of Fame Park completed a $2.5 million makeover in June 2015 and added Nashville Music Garden.
Fresh from a $14 million expansion and renovation project, the historic Ryman Auditorium added a 110-seat restaurant. The 2,362-seat venue is available for rentals. Another outstanding performance venue, Tennessee Performing Arts Center presents opera, ballet and Broadway shows. The center offers four separate theaters for private events.
Fans have been making pilgrimages to Nashville to visit the Johnny Cash Museum since it opened in 2013. Now country music fans can also look forward to the George Jones Museum, which opened its doors in April 2015. The facility features a 40-seat—all rocking chair—theater showing film clips from the star’s life as well as a moonshine tasting bar. The 44,000-square-foot museum is available for private rentals, as is the Johnny Cash Museum.
The NCVC can arrange a private crawl of the art galleries along 5th Avenue. Kick off the evening at the nearby Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and stop at each gallery for wine and a chat with the gallery owner.
The Gulch
Heading downhill from downtown, you enter the energetic neighborhood known as the Gulch.
“The Gulch is a very cool, hip area with a lot of residential,” says Witt. “It’s an urban neighborhood, popular for young people and Millennials, and very active right on the street.”
Wow groups with dinner at one of the Gulch’s edgy eateries. Chauhan Ale & Masala House, Chef Maneet Chauhan’s Indian-inspired gastropub, opened in 2015 and welcomes groups, while the lux Watermark, lauded for its “elevated Southern” fare, has three private dining rooms. Prima serves up contemporary European cuisine beneath a spectacular modern chandelier. A restaurant buyout can seat 130 for dinner or 300 for receptions.
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Opryland/Music Valley
The Opryland and Music Valley neighborhood boasts not only one of the largest meeting hotels in town – Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center – but one of country music’s most beloved attractions in the Grand Ole Opry House. The legendary 4,400-seat venue offers group ticket blocks, voucher programs for attendees and backstage tours.
Other nearby attractions include dinner theaters, shopping at Opry Mills, the Willie Nelson and Friends Museum and river cruises with live entertainment aboard the 1,100-passenger General Jackson Showboat.
West End/Midtown/Vanderbilt
Curving out to the west and south from the Gulch, the West End, Midtown and Vanderbilt University provide groups with many choices for meeting space and after-hours entertainment.
In the midst of Midtown, Hutton Hotel offers 247 guest rooms and 13,600 square feet of meeting space. The property is Nashville’s only Forbes Four Star property and one of its few eco-friendly hotels. Meeting hotels near the school include Loews Vanderbilt Hotel and Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University.
In 2017, the Midtown portfolio is getting a substantial bump. The $100 million, 600,000-square-foot Buckingham Midtown project is slated for development at the intersection of 21st Avenue South, Broadway, and Division Street. Built with LEED standards in mind, the project will include a Kimpton Hotel, a restaurant and bar, retail, apartments, and parking.
Centennial Park in West End is a sight not to be missed. The green space is home to the world’s only life-size model of the Parthenon. Throughout the summer, live music, festivals and food trucks abound.
The music scene is hopping here, and groups can catch live music at restaurants like Two Boots Pizza and Noshville or at late-night venues such as dive bars Losers and Winners (next door to each other on Division) or Red Door Saloon-Midtown. Die-hard music fans will appreciate an outing to a songwriters’ night. This Nashville tradition gave stars like Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings their big breaks. The Commodore Grille at the Holiday Inn Nashville Vanderbilt hosts one of the best-known songwriters’ events every night but Tuesday.
12South
A little out of the way but worth the jaunt, the 12South corridor represents the future of creativity in Nashville.
“Our whole big brand is music, and we’ve broadened into food, and now we’re broadening into fashion,” says Witt. “The big buzz about Nashville is creativity. We’ve got these different genres with chefs and designers moving here. It’s a welcoming city for entrepreneurs and creators.”
Among 12South’s growing number of trendy boutiques, Imogene + Willie offers custom denim that’s proved popular with some of music’s and film’s brightest stars. Other hip shopping opportunities include MODA, Judith Bright and The Label Nashville.
12South also attracts chefs on the bleeding edge of cuisine. Josephine, launched by Chef Andrew Little in 2013, presents “refined American farmhouse” fare. Josephine can welcome 24 for private dining.
Germantown
A little edgy, a lot hip, gentrifying Germantown offers food and fashion north of downtown.
Treat your feet to some Peter Nappi shoes, crafted in Italy, or score some homegrown accessories made right in Nashville. Otis James crafts neckwear and custom caps, while Emil Erwin makes high-end leather satchels, belts, and wallets, both at their studios in Germantown.
At 5th and Taylor, award-winning chef Daniel Lindley focuses on the quintessential experience of Sunday dinner. His American menu is designed to evoke a sense of community by sharing a meal. The restaurant offers private dining for groups as large as 55 and receptions for 70.
Nashville Farmers’ Market is a food-lover’s paradise. Housing 16 restaurants and artisanal shops as well as farmers selling produce, the facility also rents indoor and outdoor space suitable for group larger than 1,000. The market is open year-round.
