The closest I’ve ever felt to holding the Holy Grail was once I was handed a 12-ounce bottle of Miller Excessive Life at Duke’s in East Nashville earlier this yr. Let me clarify.
I like a crisp white wine, a snooty craft beer or an extravagant cocktail as a lot as anybody. However on the finish of the day, I’ve to return to my roots — an inexpensive, chilly beer. Underneath the suitable circumstances, it’s each completely unremarkable and one of the best factor I’ve ever tasted.
A part of the enchantment of an inexpensive beer is the surroundings you’re in. For me, that’s oftentimes a dirty, dimly lit dive bar with sticky flooring and graffiti on the lavatory partitions. A spot the place hazy cigarette smoke clouds the patio and the sound of clinking billiard balls echoes inside; the place the decor largely contains dart boards and beer memorabilia. (I say this as somebody who proudly has a Miller Excessive Life mirror mounted in my kitchen.)
As a latest Nashville transplant, I’ve spent a fair proportion of my previous six months making an attempt out varied pubs and dive bars. And now it has develop into my private mission — and my project for the Scene’s Consuming Subject — to go to as many native watering holes as doable, and to study one of the best spots to crack open a chilly one among its glory.
Beginning in East Nashville, the aforementioned Scene favourite Duke’s is the primary bar in Nashville that served me a bottled Miller Excessive Life (the premium and most delectable technique to benefit from the beverage, in my most humble opinion). This was only a few months following my transfer to Tennessee, and was my signal from the all-knowing religious beer entities that all the pieces was going to be all proper.
Just some blocks away on Woodland Avenue at Lakeside Lounge, I loved the $3 “frosty” particular, a glass mug stuffed to the brim with Genesee Gentle. (Although in the event you’re ordering a frosty, you in all probability don’t care what it comprises.) Frosties are simply $2 throughout Lakeside’s glad hour, which is seven days per week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Whereas a bit extra refined and newer to the East Nashville bar scene, Schulman’s Neighborhood Bar presents bottled PBRs, 7-ounce Excessive Life pony bottles and — in order for you a little bit of novelty — a 40-ounce bottle of Excessive Life for $15. (For an additional $10, they’ll serve it to you in a Champagne bucket with a facet of Aperol, although which may be antithetical to a budget beer enjoyer’s ethos.) In case you’re a fan of enormous parts, Fran’s Eastside — one other longtime Scene fave, which relocated to Dickerson Pike just a few years again — presents low-cost buckets of home beer.
Whereas Mickey’s Tavern doesn’t provide bottled beers, it’s a stable spot to take pleasure in tall boys, priced decently, whereas illuminated by purple temper lighting that may both be cozy or ominous, relying on the place you need your night time to go.
The tried-and-true Dino’s nearer to 5 Factors has you lined in the event you’re looking for a easy beer and a few animal-style fries to soak it up. In case you’re wanting a chilly beer and reside music, Cobra has some pleasant bartenders and PBR on draft.
Heading throughout the river, I encountered a bar which may simply be the epitome of an ice-cold-beer cling: Batter’s Field on Hermitage Avenue, a small however mighty institution with a grand view of the twinkling Nashville skyline from its entrance patio.
In case you really feel like tackling the beast that’s Decrease Broadway, Robert’s Western World presents among the best offers on the town — $2.50 for a Excessive Life. You can even enterprise right down to Printers Alley for some brews at Fleet Avenue Pub.
West Nashville’s Springwater Supper Membership — the oldest operational bar in Tennessee and one other longtime Scene fave — is a pleasant cash-only joint a stone’s throw from Centennial Park. A spot the place classic music movies and old-school films play on scattered nook televisions and an American flag acts because the divider between back- and front-of-house.
As I neared the top of my monthlong tour of Nashville’s finest bars for chilly beers, a wrench was thrown into my plans. I examined constructive for COVID-19. That is the place I questioned whether or not chugging beers within the title of “analysis” each weekend was one of the best factor for my immune system.
That left me with solely half the story. A well-rounded piece would discover extra of Nashville’s neighborhoods. Sources and Scene staffers inform me to move to The Villager Tavern in Hillsboro Village and Betty’s Grill on the West Facet, Bobby’s Idle Hour in Midtown, Rosie’s Twin Kegs in South Nashville and legendary karaoke spot Santa’s Pub by the fairgrounds.
I suppose I’ve acquired extra analysis to do.
