Layla's Honky Tonk holds an intimate room at 418 Broadway and ranks among the oldest bars on the strip. Nashville Guru calls it a Nashville classic, founded by Layla Vartanian in 1997 and run since as the only female, independently owned bar on Lower Broadway.
The bar suits anyone who wants a roots music room with history rather than a new multi floor build. People after a polished cocktail program or a rooftop should look elsewhere on the strip. The draw here is the lineage, the small stage and a song list that runs deeper than mainstream country.
The single narrow room keeps the band close to the floor, with the stage up front and a bar down the side. The booking leans into country, rockabilly, western, Americana, bluegrass and newgrass rather than only the radio hits. That range is the reason musicians and roots fans single it out among the Broadway rooms.
The drink to order is a cold domestic or a longneck, since the taps are priced for Broadway and the music carries the room. There is no cover charge, so the house bands play for tips across the day and night. Most regulars come for a specific style of band rather than a drink menu.
Daytime brings a mix of tourists and music fans who came for the roots booking, while late weekend sets pull a fuller, louder crowd. A weekday afternoon is the easiest window for a seat near the stage and a clear line on the band.
Yelp and Tripadvisor reviewers, read across the recent pattern, return to a few notes. The bands, the history and the independent feel draw the warmest comments, the narrow room reads as authentic to first timers, and the main complaint is the squeeze on busy nights. Reviewers point roots fans here over the larger celebrity rooms nearby.
It suits a music fan chasing rockabilly and bluegrass, anyone after a room with real Broadway history, and visitors who want the band close. Pair it with Tootsie's Orchid Lounge in Nashville or Robert's Western World in Nashville, and see where it lands in our guide to the best live music bars in Nashville.
The independence is the story here. Nashville Guru notes it as the only female, independently owned bar on Lower Broadway, which has kept the booking closer to roots music than the celebrity rooms that arrived later. Musicians name it as a room that still books for the song.
The age shows in the room rather than the fittings. As one of the oldest bars on the strip, it carries a worn, lived in feel that newer multi floor builds spend money trying to copy. The single room keeps the band close to the floor.
The booking range is wider than the radio. Country, rockabilly, western, Americana, bluegrass and newgrass all rotate through the stage, which is why roots fans single it out. A weekday set is the easiest way to hear a strong band without the weekend crush.
The crowd skews toward music fans and players rather than the party traffic that fills the larger rooms. That mix keeps the listening room feel intact even as the rest of the strip turns toward spectacle.
For a fuller picture of the block, the bar sits among the oldest addresses on Lower Broadway, a stretch that anchored the honky tonk scene long before the celebrity builds arrived. Its survival as an independent room is part of why guides keep naming it.
Sources: Layla's Honky Tonk official site (2026); Nashville Guru profile; Visit Music City listing; Yelp reviews (n=275+); Tripadvisor reviews.