Nashville vs. Memphis

Hi All-

I am taking an impromptu, short vacation in a few days and am trying to decide between Memphis or Nashville.

I have not been to either, and they seem to be the only remaining cities I have any interest in, that could still be considered Midwestern.

I have found one thread on each city so far:

Memphis: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=31238&p=368938&hilit=memphis#p368938

Nashville: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2765&p=379818&hilit=nashville#p379818

Which do you folks think would be a better city for grub?

Or for that matter, also a better city just for things to do, music venues, museums, cultural attractions, etc.

I can say I am leaning towards Nashville, just because it sounds like it would be a little more tourist-friendly, have more to do, and I like the look of the Nashville thread much more than I do the Memphis thread.

All suggestions are appreciated!

You can get great food in Nashville and in Memphis.

Personally, I would choose Nashville as it offers far more to do as a tourist destination, offers NUMEROUS opportunities for meals, with live entertainment, and has a lot more areas where you can safely walk through.

I would STRONGLY recommend that you search this website as there are any number of threads on Nashville.

Nashville, without question. Much greater diversity, more depth.

Geo

Well Memphis has one thing that Nashville doesn’t: Graceland. If you have never been, then you got to go to Memphis. I know what some are going to say about this, but well I was moved. Of course if you were never a fan of the King, then don’t go. It was a very moving experience for me. I also went to Sun Records for an overpriced tour, but once again you have to do it.

I am sure you can find decent food in both places.

D.

Nashville. Great food, friendly locals and tourists and a beautiful symphony concert hall. The downtown is a bit touristy but fun for a day. Shopping is fine too-especially if you are looking for new cowboy boots, old vinyl albums and country music items. West Nashville has a great BBQ scene too and the Walgreens off the interstate has a GREAT selection of bourbons.

Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone! I bit the bullet and booked a hotel room just outside Nashville - it definitely sounds like Nashville will overall provide a lot more for me to do over a 6 day vacation.

dodger wrote:Well Memphis has one thing that Nashville doesn’t: Graceland. If you have never been, then you got to go to Memphis. I know what some are going to say about this, but well I was moved. Of course if you were never a fan of the King, then don’t go. It was a very moving experience for me. I also went to Sun Records for an overpriced tour, but once again you have to do it.

I am sure you can find decent food in both places.

D.

I'm too young to have been a fan of Elvis when he was alive (since I wasn't). While I appreciate his music and contribution to history, I'm not a huge fan and I think I can stomach missing Graceland. Though, if I were ever in Memphis I would definitely check it out.

Elfin wrote:West Nashville has a great BBQ scene too and the Walgreens off the interstate has a GREAT selection of bourbons.

This is also really good to know...it as one of my next questions. I am excited to go to Nashville, but I did feel a little pang of doubt when I saw all the amazing bbq photos on LTH, and almost every one of them seems to have been in or around Memphis. Even though I'm not going to Memphis, bbq will still be high on my list of priorities.

I'll be doing a little more search around here, but do you have any suggestions of specific bbq joint to check out while I'm there? Either in Nashville, or even a reasonable drive in any direction I would definitely consider.


Thanks!

We had two great meals at Hawkins BBQ 510 N Missouri West Memphis. The BBQ was really good plenty of smoke and chew on the ribs. The original recipe for BBQ egg rolls are to die for-seriously. Uber friendly folks. It is off 57 on Missouri about 3 miles in the direction of the Walgreens. Check out the Beyond Chicagoland Forum for other posters' road trips in this area-there are a few. Stay away from Triple E BBQ in Ullin and Mt. Vernon.
.

Here are three places that are must visits (sorry, no url's bcz I'm tooo lame on my iPad)

Farmer's Market--lots of interesting stalls and restos, including a good bbq.

Arnold's resto on S. 8th. One of the best meat&three anywhere. This is REAL Southern food.

Finally, there are a couple of catfish restos in town--the names escape me--which are wonderful.

Geo

While it's not BBQ, I would recommend the Patterson House for a drink and light meal. It's what I would call a 'swanky' sort of place that is known for their unique drinks that the bartenders take extra care in making.

There is a long list of drinks to choose from - almost too long for me to make a choice. So, I told the bartender what I liked and he made me two different drinks - both of which were very good. I couldn't tell you what they were, but it was very cool to watch them make them.

You definitely need to get food while there as the drinks are very strong. After two of them, I was definitely feeling it. We started with the goat cheese balls - which if you like goat cheese is fabulous. My husband got the Elvis Panini - which is bacon, peanut butter and banana - though you couldn't taste the banana much. It was the best sandwich I ever had! I was leery about trying a bite b/c of the odd combination, but I wish I had ordered it myself! I got the grilled four cheese Panini with tomato soup - it was very good, but certainly not in the league of the Elvis Panini!

Made a trip down to Nashville last fall and two places stood out food wise - the venerable Rotier's for burgers just off Vanderbilt's campus, and the more upscale Sunset Grill. Sunset Grill is also open late.

Well thanks for the replies, folks. It has really been helpful giving me some places to focus on.

One more question...I'll be driving straight from Chicago to Nashville.

Any idea of where I could stop for lunch? Frankly, I don't even really know exactly what I'll be driving through (planning isn't my strong suit...). But if anyone has any idea...really any type of food and budget.

Anything noteworthy.


Thanks again!

It doesn't get any better than theMoonlite bbq in Owensboro, which actually isn't out of you way, if you cleverly design it.

Geo

DClose wrote:Well thanks for the replies, folks. It has really been helpful giving me some places to focus on.

One more question...I'll be driving straight from Chicago to Nashville.

Anything noteworthy.

You are going through Indianapolis and Louisville, both cities with long threads on this board.

My brother always swears by the Hot Brown Sandwiches at the Brown Hotel in Louisville.
http://www.brownhotel.com/dining-hot-brown.htm

I am partial to Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria in Greenwood, IN, just south of Indianapolis.
http://www.jonathanbyrds.com/

If you're driving straight from Chicago to Nashville, 55 to 57 to 24 is probably the best way to go. The most direct route, albeit boring.

There's a 17th street BBQ in Marion that's pretty darned good (2700 17th Street, Marion, IL 62959; Conveniently located off Interstate 57, exit 54B. That's one place we stop when we drive back to Chicago (from Jackson, TN area).

http://www.17thstreetbarbecue.com/Home.aspx

Other than that, I got nothing. Sorry.

dees_1 wrote:If you're driving straight from Chicago to Nashville, 55 to 57 to 24 is probably the best way to go. The most direct route, albeit boring.

That is almost 40 miles further than going down 65 (through Indy and Louisville).

dees_1 wrote:If you're driving straight from Chicago to Nashville, 55 to 57 to 24 is probably the best way to go. The most direct route, albeit boring.

There's a 17th street BBQ in Marion that's pretty darned good (2700 17th Street, Marion, IL 62959; Conveniently located off Interstate 57, exit 54B. That's one place we stop when we drive back to Chicago (from Jackson, TN area).

http://www.17thstreetbarbecue.com/Home.aspx

Other than that, I got nothing. Sorry.

Making the trip to Atlanta in a few days and thinknig about driving out of the way so I can finally try 17th St BBQ - is the Marion one any different than the originally in Murphysboro?

ziggy, the route may be 40 miles longer but I think it's worth bypassing Indy and Louisville just from a traffic perspective. I'm all about avoiding other people on the road.

Commbrkdwn, I've not been to the Murphysboro location but we enjoy the one in Marion!

I'm going to be in Fayetteville, Arkansas next July for a long weekend and after that we were trying to decide where to go to next. It looks like we're going to Memphis and northern Mississippi for a few days and after that we might stop in Nashville. I've been to Nashville many times and I absolutely love it. I've never been to Memphis, so I'm excited to check out the BBQ mecca along with Graceland. I also want to check out the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, MS and my girlfriend wants to hit a casino or two in Tunica, MS.

I've driven I-57 to I-24 to Nashville almost everytime and yes, it's pretty boring. I've been told that the 17th St BBQ in Murphysboro is MUCH better than the Marion one, but I never had either. Obviously why would you want to travel out of your way when you are already right next to the Marion one? It's up to you.

One place that I always tried to stop at on the way is in Urbana IL at Timpone's Restaurant for one of my absolute favorite super thin crust pizzas anywhere. All my friend and family beg me to bring it home when I go there. It's strange because it's really a fancy Italian restaurant that just happens to have pizza on the menu. I miss it all the time. Call ahead!

Timpone's Restaurant
710 S Goodwin Ave
Urbana IL
217-344-7619
http://www.timpones-urbana.com/

Ram4 wrote:I'm going to be in Fayetteville, Arkansas next July for a long weekend

Can't help much with your trip to Memphis, but there's this thread about Fayetteville and the immediate area. I haven't been there in a few years, so some of this may be dated. One thing for sure, don't miss A.Q. for over the coals fried chicken.

Ram4 wrote:I'm going to be in Fayetteville, Arkansas next July for a long weekend and after that we were trying to decide where to go to next. It looks like we're going to Memphis and northern Mississippi for a few days and after that we might stop in Nashville...

Not sure if Da Beef's fantastic Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale thread will help, but it's a fun read.

jlawrence01 wrote:You can get great food in Nashville and in Memphis.

Personally, I would choose Nashville as it offers far more to do as a tourist destination, offers NUMEROUS opportunities for meals, with live entertainment, and has a lot more areas where you can safely walk through.

I would STRONGLY recommend that you search this website as there are any number of threads on Nashville.

Geo wrote:Nashville, without question. Much greater diversity, more depth.

Geo

Having just returned from Memphis and Nashville, I'm not sure I'd answer the question of one vs the other so definantively. I'd have a hard time, right now at least, picking one.

First let me say, that based on very short stays, I found a bit opposite of Geo. Memphis seemed more diverse, more depth, I mean it was older, a city. It had Jews, which I believe Calvin Trillin or someone, claims as necessary for sophistication To me, Memphis is a spruced up Detroit. Detroit in 10 or 15 years.

Attraction-wise, I surely enjoyed the Country Music Hall of Fame, but Memphis with the Stax Museum and the whole Graceland complex was just as good, and I cannot even speak to the Civil Right's museum because we used up too much time at Stax. Still, in both cities it is not just the exhibits but a real, huge, palatable, sense of history. It seemed really heavy wandering around Ernest Tubb's record store, where country music gelled, but then you go to Memphis and stand right in the courtyard where Martin Luther King was shot down and you almost cannot help but break down. There's that famous picture of Andrew Young and Jessie Jackson pointing at the window where the shot came from and you can stand nearly right there and you feel like you are in the picture, especially because they've parked duplicates of the two cars parked there at the time.

Both places express a hospitality long called "southern". I'm not sure how much of it came from us opening our mouths. We often felt like exhibits to them, being constantly asked "where you from" and engaged heavily.

As noted, you'll eat very well.

I'll have to go again to tell you which is a better city to visit.

But wha'd you EAT, Vital??!!

Geo
PS. And btw did you go to the Farmers' Market in Nashvuhl?

I did write about where we ate in a Nashville thread.

We really did not have a bad meal in either city.

Nashville: Nashville Biscuit House, Arnolds, Hattie B's (brand new hot fried chicken, incredibly good place); Pancake Pantry, Puckett's, City House

Memphis: A&R BBQ, Blue Plate Cafe, Four Way, Dyers, Arcade

Between the two cities, we had planned on having brunch at Beacon Light Tea Room, but I did not pay attention to the fact (or failed to notice) that they are only open for breakfast on weekends. Instead we ate a so-so place called Rusty Hook on US 421 in Lyndon, TN.

Did visit the Nashville Farmer's Market. Now, I love all farmer's markets, and it had some cool stuff, especially pea shelling machines--it's field pea season right now, but it's not the best market I've seen. Also, I think there's more vendors on the weekend. Still, the whole complex, including five or six restaurants that looked great, makes me wish we had something like that here.

We also visited the Memphis Farmer's Market at the "Agricenter", which featured even more pea shellers and more types of peas, as well as muscadine grapes, but was a little smaller. We did kick ourselves because there's another market on South Main in Memphis that seems a bit more Green City Market like that we could have gone to on Saturday.

Which reminds me, another thing I liked about Memphis were those street cars. I mean people would pay a dollar and just ride in circles for hours (or so it seemed).

Vital Information wrote:Having just returned from Memphis and Nashville, I'm not sure I'd answer the question of one vs the other so definantively. I'd have a hard time, right now at least, picking one.

First let me say, that based on very short stays, I found a bit opposite of Geo. Memphis seemed more diverse, more depth, I mean it was older, a city. It had Jews, which I believe Calvin Trillin or someone, claims as necessary for sophistication To me, Memphis is a spruced up Detroit. Detroit in 10 or 15 years.

Most cities in the Deep South have a Jewish community as they represented the merchant class. Here is a brief history:
http://www.jewishnashville.org/page.aspx?id=75712

If you had a lot of problem locating a lot of diverse cultural experiences in Nashville, spend more time there. Each time I am there, I am finding a wide diversity of music (beyond the country music stereotype) and a lot of history. More importantly, I am finding some interesting people from throughout the south who are making Nashville their home.

Personally, I find Nashville more interesting, but I like the food in Memphis better. But that's specifically barbecue. Cozy Corner, Germantown Commissary, Payne's, Morris Grocery (in Eads, east of Memphis). Really, you can't beat it. (And, personally, I thought Rendezvous was worth it, too, as much as that seems to be a love-hate thing among ribs afficianados. They have a unique product, one that I happen to think is very good. Kinda like how Cincinnati chili is to mainstream chili.) And Beale Street is fun in that mini-French Quarter fratboy sort of way, if that makes any sense.

Having visited Nashville for a few days in 2011, and then spent a few days in Memphis last month, I guess this is as good a place as any to weigh in on the debate and report on my dining experiences.

I would happily go back to Memphis any time, but see no point in going back to Nashville.

In Nashville, I enjoyed the Country Music Hall of Fame a lot, but found the music otherwise pretty disappointing, very commercial and mainstream, not terribly country. The people were very conformist - literally everyone wearing blue jeans, mostly white, same shirts, caps, etc. And not that friendly.

Food was marginally better - I had a fun time on the hot fried chicken track one night. Princes was a greasy mountain of chicken sitting on some bread, dusted with hot pepper and hot sauce. To be fair, I carried this out, so it might have been a bit better right out of the fryer, but it was still good, just not great. OTOH, I loved Bolton's chicken. Cooked perfectly (I found Prince's a bit dry) and the seasoning just snapped for me. Right up there with the best fried chicken I have enjoyed.

Went to Loveless Cafe later. Very good biscuits, food was respectable overall. The whole experience was a bit on the slick, prepackaged side for me, but I really have no beef with the food.

Memphis just seemed a lot friendlier, a lot more diverse, and I loved the music. Blues mostly for me, with a big, friendly crowd. Also visited the Soul Museum (the former Stax studio, rebuilt as a sort of Disneyesque destination). Grew up loving that music, so it touched me. Strange that Graceland with all its slick organization and marketing is so much more real in every way. Was never a great Elvis fan despite having lobbied the Bride to elope to Las Vegas and tie the knot with Elvis officiating (she relented on our 10th anniversary and we renewed our vows with the King, though she vetoed my choice of Heartbreak Hotel first, Suspicious Minds was my second choice, in favor of the musically inferior Hawaiian Love Song). But I found Graceland on a cold Tuesday morning sort of charming and real, felt like I got Elvis in a way I never had before.

Also drove a few miles out into the country one evening to see this delightfully awfully hillbilly comedienne whose name escapes me.

As for food - Gus's Famous Chicken was delicious, hot, crispy, spot on. I did add some hot sauce. Fried dills on the side completed it. Excellent. At the other end of the spectrum, I tried out Payne's BBQ and it was a disaster. On the plus side, the chopped pork had lots of crispy, burnt ends mixed in, seemed to have decent smoke flavor, but the sauce was a cloyingly sweet disaster (and I asked for the hot sauce) only slightly offset by the chow chow topping. After a couple of bites my palate got used to the sweetness and I could taste the other notes, but despite a great homey/seedy atmosphere, I will never go back.

The best thing about it was that Elmwood Cemetery was nearby, so I went and walked off my lunch and cleared my head among the graves.

Somewhat better was Corky's BBQ. Tried a slab, half dry, half wet. Pretty well cooked, nice pull, good beans on the side. Seasoning and smoke did not quite work for me as well as most other styles, but that was more a matter of taste for me than any flaw in the ribs. I would go with the dry rub next time.

Lastly, I enjoyed two massive breakfasts at Blue Plate Cafe. Fried eggs, country ham, biscuits (gravy at your option), pancakes or potatoes. Truly gut busting, if deliciously irresistible. It was a relief to leave town and be away from that temptation. One or two more and I do believe I would have exploded.

And maybe it was my attitude during the visit, but I made a lot of new friends in Memphis.

Not adding the addresses here as all of these places are pretty easy to Google.

I wanted to go to Memphis (and Nashville) last summer after going to Fayetteville, AR, but the trip was canceled. I've been to Nashville 5 times at least and I love it there. But I do like the old country music (don't care for the new stuff) as well as bluegrass/newgrass, and I am a musician so there is a bit more appeal to me. Food wise, Nashville to me was nothing special except some of the fast food chains I can't get up here (Mrs. Winner's Fried Chicken, Zaxby's, etc). I am looking forward to Memphis soon. Maybe this year, don't know yet.

On my drive back from New Orleans to Chicago, I got an early start and stopped in Memphis for lunch. First thought was to return to visit Gus' Chicken again, but upon further consideration, I stopped in at Neely's Interstate Barbecue. Mostly because it was more convenient to the Interstate, but also to try some more barbecue, and a new place.

Really not worth a trip. I had the sampler, which included beef ribs (decent), pork ribs (mushy), chopped brisket and pulled pork (which were almost indistinguishable, do I need to say more?) and a beef, hot link, which was not bad. The whole, incredible pile of meat was bathed in a sweetish sauce, which was entirely my fault since I did not request sauce on the side. Even so, the sogginess and mushiness of all the meats except the sausage told the story. Minimal smoke flavor, not a whole lot of meat flavor either. The cole slaw and excess of the thing had some charm, but if I went back I would order the sausage, maybe a beef rib since it held up best to the abuse (it was around 1, so I was at the tail end of the lunch rush, and the meat had clearly been held for a while). Mostly I would not go back.

Dick,

You are exactly right, word for word.

After eating I was amazed to see the USA Today kudos posted on the wall.

Geo

I spent the last weekend in Memphis with friends and really enjoyed the city. They live across the street from Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo in Midtown Memphis. Although we mostly dined in, on Sunday night we went to Hog & Hominy for a memorable meal. It is about 15 minutes east of Midtown in sububurban area filled with typical chain offerings. The plates were all shareable and around 10 dollars. We had the poutine: great fries covered in neckbone gravy, chili oil and caputo cheese curds; Romaine salad with pecorino cheese and crispy chicken skins; fritatta of pork belly, crispy shitakes, and oysters; and a pizza from the wood burning oven of smoked mozzarella, garlic, mushrooms and arugula. Every dish was fantatstic and I really wish I had tried everything, it all sounded wonderful. I highly recommend this place if you find yourself in Memphis.

http://www.hogandhominy.com/