Editorial
Nashville's serious cocktail scene exists in pockets across the city — none on Broadway. The Patterson House opened in 2009 and gave Music City its first serious cocktail bar. The 10 below show how Tennessee whiskey and modern cocktailing combine. Most are in East Nashville or Germantown.
The Patterson House gave Nashville its first serious cocktail bar in 2009, and in May 2025 it moved to the fifth floor of the Bill Voorhees Building in the Gulch with a three-sided bar and over 100 seats. The long menu now runs past 150 drinks. Order off the short list for the new stuff, go on a weeknight, and skip the worst of the wait.
Skull's Rainbow Room has anchored Printers Alley since 1948, a basement room with craft cocktails, jazz, and burlesque under one low ceiling. It pulls tourists, but the drinks hold up and the live music is real. Book a table for a burlesque set, order a classic, and come for the show as much as the bar.
Pinewood Social packs a cocktail bar, a coffee counter, a bowling alley, and a kitchen into a Trolley Barns space off Peabody Street. It works all day, which is the point. Order a well-made classic, grab a lane with friends in the evening, and use the patio when the weather cooperates. Daytime is calmer if you actually want to talk.
Merchants holds the corner of Broadway and Fourth, a longtime downtown fixture with a serious bar above the restaurant. It is between remodels in 2026 and due back soon, so check before you walk over. When it is open, head upstairs for the cocktails and a quieter room than the honky-tonks outside.
Corsair was Nashville's first legal craft distillery since Prohibition, and the Marathon Village taproom pours its own gin, whiskey, and smoked malt straight from the source. This is a distillery bar, not a cocktail temple, so order a flight and a spirit-forward pour. Go in the afternoon for a tour, then stay for a drink made with what they distilled out back.
Old Glory hides in the old boiler room of a former dry cleaner on Villa Place, a tall industrial room you enter through an unmarked door in Edgehill. The cocktails are sharp and the space does the heavy lifting on atmosphere. Order a seasonal drink, come before 9 PM to find a seat, and let the room impress your out-of-town guests.
The downstairs bar at Husk on Rutledge Hill runs more than 200 spirits, including Husk's own single-barrel whiskey, under Sean Brock's Southern kitchen. This is a restaurant bar, not a standalone, but the program is serious and the cocktails lean regional. Order a whiskey you cannot get elsewhere, post up before dinner, and let the bar do the talking.
Attaboy's East Nashville room has run the no-menu model since 2017, the same flat-rate, off-the-cuff approach as the New York original. You name a spirit or a mood and the bartender builds to it over block ice. There is no list to study at 8 McFerrin, which is the appeal. Come with an open mind, tip well, and trust the pour.
The Fox Bar and Cocktail Club sits off the beaten path in East Nashville on Gallatin Pike, and it has pushed local mixology since 2017, earning a Food and Wine best-bars nod. The drinks are inventive without being precious. Order off the seasonal menu, go on a weeknight for elbow room, and let the bartenders run an experiment past you.
The Standard at the Smith House works out of an 1843 mansion downtown on Rosa Parks Boulevard, an old-school steakhouse and private club with a full bar that has run since 2006. Expect dark wood, a dressed-up crowd, and classic cocktails poured straight. Come for a martini before dinner, not for anything trendy. The cigar club upstairs is members only.
Tennessee whiskey is the backbone spirit at Patterson House and Husk alike. The 10 above are the rooms doing serious work, and none of them sit on Broadway. Most peak between 10 PM and midnight.
The Patterson House gets the nod for opening the city's serious cocktail scene in 2009 and still running one of the deepest menus from its new Gulch home. Attaboy and The Fox push the experimental edge in East Nashville.
East Nashville and the Gulch, mostly. Attaboy, The Fox, and Old Glory all sit well off the honky-tonk strip, and none of them are on Broadway. That is by design.
Attaboy runs a no-menu, off-the-cuff format where you describe what you want. The Patterson House and Husk take walk-ins but fill up, so a weeknight or an early arrival helps.
Most run busiest between 10 PM and midnight. Come earlier if you want a seat at the bar and a bartender with time to build you something custom.
James Harlow is a former bartender who grades a room from its worst seat and writes about which bars actually deserve their reputations.