Nashville-Themed Bars Are Taking Over The Industry

Nashville, Tennessee, is the Country Music Capital of the United States, but going hand-in-hand with that rural sound is a southern style of cuisine to match. The city has some of Tennessee's best food and drink, frequently accompanied by live music. Food-wise, we're talking Nashville hot chicken served with bread and pickles, low-and-slow barbecue, plus meat-and-three, which is simply meat with a trio of side dishes (usually veggies). That's not all, though. Like any big city, Nashville also offers options that fit diners' budgetary needs, dietary restrictions, logistical concerns, and cultural preferences.

That's natural for a metropolis, but this variety also speaks to Nashville's increasing popularity among all sorts of visitors. It's become such a tourist trap that, by the start of the 2020s, Nashville became the country's latest and greatest bachelorette capital, earning it another nickname: NashVegas. And what's one thing such celebratory visitors love to do? Drink, of course.

As with food, there's a lot of variety in Nashville when it comes to drinks, but one type of Nashville bar emblematic of the city is the honky-tonk.. Plainly put, it's a bar where country music is played. More specifically, it's an entire flavor of bar, where rural aesthetics meet southern sound, frequently the live variety; an Irish pub playing "Red Solo Cup," for instance, would not somehow make it a honky-tonk.

Due to the musical nature of these bars, the mid-20th-century term "honky-tonk" also refers to an entire twangy, rhythmic musical genre of the same origin. Both types of honky-tonk flourished in Nashville during their early days. Even now, honky-tonks are easy to find there, especially in the so-called honky-tonk highway part of the city.

The thing is, it's not exclusively on Lower Broadway that you can find honky-tonks. As Nashville becomes increasingly popular, honky-tonk bars are spreading nationwide. The problem is, from an appropriation standpoint, such bars rarely represent the authentic honky-tonk tradition. So, for better or worse, these bars offer visitors a rough approximation of the style to profit off it, not necessarily honor it. Some worry this generally represents the commercial gentrification of Nashville, though one could argue that it's simply bar owners giving the customer what they want.

As the 2020s fully swing into gear, plenty of noticeable trends are gaining traction in the bar industry. Customers are looking for more variety, from unique flavors, new spirits, and creative mocktails to relatively niche products like kombucha and cannabis-infused beverages. However, one thing that may be overlooked is the theming customers prefer.

If you want to experience honky-tonk for yourself, it's probably advisable to visit (or live in) Nashville. Of course, that isn't strictly necessary, depending on your tolerance for arguably inauthentic ambiance. "Yankee-tonk" is now widespread in the northeast, exemplified in one instance by Skinny Dennis, a live-music-and-drink venue self-described as "New York City's premier honky tonk bar." In other major U.S. cities like Chicago, you can find places such as the aptly named Honky Tonk BBQ. This is a coast-to-coast affair, too; more westerly, Los Angeles has the Cowboy Palace Saloon, which describes itself as "the last real honky tonk" in Los Angeles.

So, is honky-tonk already in a city near you? Probably. Maybe the real question is: Should it be?