By: LC

To know Nashville is to love Nashville. It’s easy to see why, right? With some of the nation’s best dining, world-renowned entertainment and nightlife, and trendy neighborhoods like Germantown and 12 South scattered throughout the city, this big little town has it all.

Nashville has seen its fair share of growth over the years and we’re pretty proud of how far we’ve come, but we want to stop and tip our hats to some of the local folks who helped make Nashville what it is today. From coffee shops and boutiques to specialty stores and street art, here are some of our favorites, born and raised right here in Music City.

Photo: @baristaparlor

Barista Parlor, Andy Mumma
Noted by Epicurious as one of America’s 25 best coffee shops, Barista Parlor certainly lives up to its expectations. Barista’s coffees are made from small-batch and seasonal beans from growers all over the world, and they employ quality control experts at each of their three locations to ensure you’re getting the finest product available. This meticulous attention to detail and relentless pursuit for quality all came from the mind of owner and founder Andy Mumma.

This guy is Tennessean to the nth degree (he’s lived in East Nashville for the last decade), and that translates to even the smallest of details in his coffee shops. For his Germantown location, Mumma sought the help of artist Bryce McCloud of Isle of Printing to create the custom logo, as well as calling on locals from Holler Design, Sideshow Sign Company and Southern Lights Electric. Even the furniture is made from various types of wood, all from Tennessee - so the interior might be just as good as the coffee.

Photo: @dcxvindustries

You can’t go too far in this city without running into one of the vibrant “I Believe in Nashville” murals. And you can’t scroll too far in your Instagram feed without seeing someone posed in front of them. It’s all for good reason. These stunning examples of high-quality street art were conceptualized and painted by Nashville native Adrien Saporiti, and they quickly became some of the most iconic in town.

Before the mural was even a blip on his radar, Saporiti started creating clothes that Nashvillians would be proud to wear. He felt the apparel available at the time was too touristy and not representative of the people who call Nashville home, so he did what any bright-minded entrepreneur would do: he created his own. The apparel line was a hit and Saporiti opened his first brick and mortar before painting the original “I Believe in Nashville” mural in 2012. If you (somehow) haven’t seen one, yet, that’s a good place to check it out. Just head to 2700 12th Ave S. and take a camera. You’ll want an Instagram-worthy pic of your own.

Photo: @whitesmercantile

White’s Mercantile, Holly Williams
Don’t let her parentage skew your vision of what White’s Mercantile might offer - you won’t find any rhinestone-studded cowboy boots at Holly Williams’ 12 South boutique. The daughter of legendary country music artist Hank Williams Jr., Holly’s carefully curated collection is a far departure from traditional country. Touted as a “general store for the modern-day tastemaker,” White’s Mercantile is one of the trendiest shops in all of Nashville.

Williams operates on the belief that quality trumps quantity every time, and she’s stocked her shops with items that will stand the test of time. We especially love the quirky home decor and children’s accessories (two words: baby sunglasses). Better yet, White’s Mercantile is pet friendly, so you and your pooch can experience its charm together. Visit them in person or check them out on Instagram and you’ll see what all the fuss is about.

Photo: @laspaletasnashville

Las Paletas, Norma & Irma Paz
While you’re in the neighborhood, do yourself a favor and pop into Las Paletas. Located inside an adorable shop right off 12th Ave S., this specialty store offers cream and fruit paletas (traditional Mexican frozen treat) made with only the freshest, ripest fruits and vegetables and locally-sourced ingredients. Sisters Norma and Irma Paz are the brilliant minds behind Las Paletas, and boy are we glad they chose to bring their talents to Nashville. In 2001, the sisters opened their first shop in 12 South with a desire to share part of their culture with the city. Lucky us. Their ice pops are worth writing home about, including flavors like lime with mint, mexican caramel, tamarind, and so many others we couldn’t possibly list here.

When you step through the doors, you’ll be greeted by tons of natural light and a large chalkboard menu showcasing the flavors of the day. Pay attention to the latter. The paletas are so popular that the menu is likely to change throughout the day. Actually, just do yourself a favor and get there early in the day. That way you have your pick of nearly any flavor you can think of. Pro tip: grab your treat and take a seat outside. The charming ambiance extends onto their front porch and side patio.

Well, there you have it. A beginner’s guide to experiencing some of Nashville’s finest shops from people who love this city as much as you do. Next time you’re making your weekend plans or simply getting to know more about your town, jot down these names and support local. We’ll be right there with you.

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Britt is a Content Marketing Manager for Lifestyle Communities (LC), who enjoys sharing the stories of cities and neighborhoods. With communities throughout Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky and Nashville - Germantown, Mt. Juliet, Murfreesboro and SoBro (coming soon) - LC is committed to bringing people together to form meaningful connections. It’s not about building apartments, restaurants, pools and gyms - it’s about building places for people to engage, to connect, and to be themselves. It’s about building a place to call home. Learn more at LifestyleCommunities.com or on Instagram, @lifestylecommunities.

By: Heather Brown

Catchy country tunes serve as Music City’s theme songs, and love ballads are inherently included on the playlist. Nashville offers exciting restaurants and venues perfect for enjoying the city and spending time with loved ones. The capital is also the ideal scenery for a romantic rendezvous this February that will give Paris a run for its money as the “City of Love.” While dinner and a movie is always a solid option for Valentine’s Day, here are some unique date ideas to try this year.

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day with a significant other, your family, or friends, Nashville offers a plethora of activities to spread the affection. This year, Cupid’s holiday falls on a Wednesday, so it’s the perfect excuse to keep the celebrations going all week long. Here are the perfect date ideas in the city that will inspire you to write a love song of your own.

Photo: Franklin Farmers Market

Food is the way to anyone’s heart. Although Nashville offers an endless supply of amazing restaurants and cuisine, a fun date idea is to shop at the Franklin Farmers Market, then create a meal together. During the winter months, Franklin Farmers Market operates on Saturdays from 9:00-noon. You can shop for local produce then head home for an intimate home cooked meal. Don’t forget the most important ingredient when cooking:  love.

Photos: Jackalope Brewery and Yazoo Brewing Company

Vineyard trips are always romantic, pairing great wine with a beautiful backdrop. A great alternative to this date in the winter months is a brewery tour. You can learn about local breweries, support local businesses, and snuggle up with your loved one while sipping on some suds. Jackalope Brewery and Yazoo Brewing Company offer tours. Want to try more than one? You can even partake in Music City Brew Bus Tours on Fridays and Saturdays.

Nashville is inundated with exceptional art. Murals and statues can be found in virtually every neighborhood. Looking for a creative date? Complete a mural scavenger hunt through a neighborhood or even across the city and take pictures.  The murals will function as amazing backgrounds. Murals like the floral collage at Green Pea Salon in 12^th South even feature a “Place to Kiss” spot. The pictures will serve as lasting memories and you’ll experience new areas of the city together.  Afterwards you can head to a local coffee shop to warm up.

Photo: Nashville Symphony

If you are searching for some culture this Valentine’s Day, you can catch a show at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC). The venue features ballet, theater, and opera shows. Check out the website for upcoming events. Additionally, you could visit the Nashville Symphony for a night of enchanting music. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center is jam packed with concerts.

Sucker for a good love song? Head out to a songwriter’s night to croon along with the city’s finest local artists. There are options throughout the week. On Monday nights, there’s the iconic Bluebird Open Mic Night and Whiskey Jam in midtown (which has extended to Thursdays). You can head over to Douglas Corner on Tuesdays. Lightning 100’s open mic night happens on Wednesdays at Family Wash in East Nashville. Thursdays feature songwriter shows at the Listening Room. Any night of the week, you’ll never be starved for live music in Nashville.

Still itching for a movie night? For those that want to keep the love going, Stardust Drive-In Movies starts back up in March. Pack up the car with blankets and snacks and head to Watertown for a fun movie viewing experience. It’s a date that will take you back in time.

Valentine’s Day often comes with a lot of pressure, but it can be the perfect opportunity to spend time with those you care about and try something new. Take advantage of Nashville’s adventure options this February. It is time to break out of hibernation mode and create an experience that’s perfect material for your own love story.

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Hailing from the Old Dominion, I've easily adapted my "Virginia is for Lovers" slogan to the "Nashville is for Music Lovers" lifestyle. After moving to Music City from Oklahoma City, I've explored middle Tennessee through the lens of artists' paintbrushes and urban canvasses.  I've enjoyed eating, sipping, and dancing my way through Tennessee's capital, while pausing periodically to strike a pose throughout the journey.
Blog: https://muralmission.blogspot.com/
Instagram: @hab6m
Email: hab6m11@gmail.com

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By: Stephanie Lee

dessert [dəˈzərt] NOUN : a sweet concoction that makes your heart smile and your taste buds dance

Okay, maybe that’s not Merriam-Webster’s official definition. It is, however, the way I experience this beautiful thing known as dessert.

Over the past year, I’ve scooped, sipped, and slurped my way through Nashville’s dessert scene. And let’s just say my taste buds were dancin’ as I uncovered the city’s most splurge-worthy, lip-smacking, melt-in-your-mouth morsels of yum

So if you’re ready for the ultimate sugar rush, Music City style, read on.

Bonuts - Biscuit Love
Fun to say and even more fun to eat, the bonut is an original creation from Biscuit Love in The Gulch. This masterpiece of southern fried perfection could be called a cross between a donut and a biscuit, but trust me - it’s so much more than that. The bonut starts off with Biscuit Love’s signature flakey buttery biscuit, fried to an oh-so-satisfying golden brown. Each piping hot bonut is rolled in sugar and served with blueberry compote and dreamy lemon curd mascarpone. The bright, tart punch of fruit paired with the decadence of a fried biscuit base is dessert perfection. In fact, my only qualm with bonuts is that they’re listed under the “To Share” category of Biscuit Love’s menu. I have never shared, nor do I intend to share, my order of bonuts. So if you’re dining with me, make sure you get your own :)
Photo: Biscuit Love

For me, sweet potatoes bring to mind the warm flavors of fall and sweet moments spent sharing Thanksgiving meals with the people I love. Somehow, The Cupcake Collection has managed to mix all of that nostalgic goodness into a cupcake.

Their sweet homage to a southern staple is dense and satisfying, yet every bite has the delicate crumb that epitomizes a good cupcake. That alone is enough to draw me to this cupcake heaven, which is inside an adorable purple brick house in Germantown. Yet the true siren call of The Cupcake Collection’s sweet potato cupcake is its flavor. There’s a hint of fall spice and just enough sweetness to allow the cupcake’s namesake to shine through. For me, the crowning glory of this dessert is a generous helping of cream cheese frosting (which I could eat by the bucketful!). So the next time you’re in Germantown don’t walk, run, to The Cupcake Collection for your own piece of southern pride.
Photo: The Cupcake Collection

Craft Cookie Dough - Sam T. Spoonlicker’s World Famous Cookie Dough & Other Curious Confections
It’s a good thing that Sam T. Spoonlicker’s wasn’t around when the cookie was invented- there wouldn’t have been an ounce of dough left for the baking sheet. After you’ve had your first bite of their delectable cookie dough creations, you’ll understand what I mean.

Each of Sam T. Spoonlicker’s craft cookie dough flavors is loaded with irresistible, buttery goodness that makes licking the bowl an absolute necessity. While their most popular flavor “Grandma T’s Original Spoonlickin’ Chocolate Chip” definitely lives up to its name, my particular order for a double scoop of yum includes S’more Than A Feeling and Like a Vegan in their signature pink waffle cone. S’more than a Feeling makes my dessert-heart melt with campfire-toasted marshmallow, crushed graham crackers, and chunky chocolate chips stirred into a cookie dough base that’s dense, decadent, and delightful in every way. Like a Vegan is a chocolatey rush that’s completely different, yet equally amazing. The chocolate brownie batter cookie dough melts in your mouth as swirls of rich bourbon caramel beckon you to another soul-satisfying spoonful.

Sam T. Spoonlicker’s is right on point when they describe their cookie dough as a “heaping’ helping’ of sweet, buttery goodness;” but I’d also call it a heapin’ helpin’ of pure happiness.
Photo: Sam T. Spoonlicker

The Bang Candy Co. is a sublime candy shop that has turned coloring outside the lines into a tantalizing, tasty art form. From setting up shop in the old Marathon Motor Works building to creating marshmallows in flavors like Rose Cardamom and Maple Bacon Bourbon, nothing about this artisanal candy shop is ordinary. This is especially true of their toasted-to-order s’mores. Each ooey-gooey marshmallow sandwich starts with dark Belgian chocolate and homemade shortbread cookies. Then they layer in crave-worthy, extraordinarily fluffy marshmallows. And if that wasn’t enough, The Bang Candy Co. team carefully toasts the marshmallow until it reaches a state of caramelized euphoria. While Chocolate Chili and Vanilla are superb mallow choices, I usually go with Toasted Almond Coconut. The combination of toasted coconut, chocolate, and shortbread never fails to make my inner child a happy camper.
Photo: The Bang Candy Co.

There are milkshakes and then there are milkshakes. And these are the latter. Every milkshake at The Grilled Cheeserie is a creamy, dreamy concoction that’s nostalgic, comforting, and full of homespun pride. With locally sourced milk and decadent ice cream from Nashville’s Pied Piper Creamery, this kind of milkshake magic can literally only be made in Nashville. And I love that.

With so many amazing flavors to choose from, it’s almost enough to give you brain freeze. While I love The Peanut Butter Cup and Frozen Mexican Hot Chocolate, my go-to shake is The Hopscotch. Fresh bananas, housemate butterscotch, and brown sugar caramelized bananas join forces with vanilla ice cream to create a milkshake that makes saving room for dessert non-negotiable.
Photo: The Grilled Cheeserie

So if you’re not in the mood to scavenge through The Three Bears’ belongings, swing by Sweet Creations Bakery to find a pie that’s “just right” in every way.

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Stephanie Lee is the Chief Sweet Officer and owner of Sweeten the Day. When she’s not designing new gift sets or scoping out Nashville’s best desserts, you can usually find her hiking through Percy Warner, sipping a really strong cup of coffee, or getting lost in a foreign country. Get a taste of sweet inspiration on Instagram @Sweeten_the_Day or check out SweetenTheDay.com.

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By: Camille Barron

South Nashville has a new gym, but it’s not the kind to facilitate a typical workout. The Crag is a climbing gym, that is, it emulates the experience of rock climbing.

I went there for the first time on a Friday evening, shortly after it had opened. Michael Kidder, one of the gym’s owners and cofounders, was there to walk me through the climbing process and explain some of the techniques and nuances of skilled climbing.

Camille Barron: What are the three most important rules of rock climbing?

Michael Kidder: First, have fun. Climbing can provide a very deep connection between the mind and body as you learn how to control your (somewhat natural) fear of falling, but if you’re not having fun, you won’t keep doing it, so always remember to keep it enjoyable. Second, find a great community of others to help get through the learning curve and keep you safe as you learn the ropes (pun intended). Finally, but not necessarily immediately, you will have a better experience when gear and clothing is matched to your activity (you don’t run in your work shoes!) so make sure you understand and get the right stuff.

CB: You already own and operate a successful climbing gym in Franklin. Why did you expand to a second location, and what made you choose South Nashville?

MK: We have lived and worked in Nashville for 20+ years (as an ownership group). We built a community in Franklin that was thriving, but wanted to extend that community to both serve those who were traveling to get to us as well as expand the facilities and services we offered. We wanted to grow our presence in Nashville because we knew what we were doing would work there too. We built the biggest climbing gym in the city and I think our newest location serves both current customers and our new neighbors alike.

CB: Outside of the known physical & mental health benefits of exercise - Why is rock climbing good for a city like Nashville? 

MK: Climbing has been exploding as a sport. It will be in the Olympics in 2 years! Tennessee has great outdoor resources for climbing, and I think gym climbing is a gateway to outdoor experiences. I think that diversity in urban recreation opportunities is good for a city like Nashville and good for the sport. I also believe The Crag has a great history of inclusion in our community. We have always tried to make what can be an intimidating sport approachable.

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Besides the mock-rocks to climb, The Crag also offer familiar equipment you might see in a standard gym or weight room, so that one may pursue alternate workouts before or after their climb. They also offer yoga, HIIT, and bootcamp classes, thus making a nicely rounded out one-stop workout shop.

The Crag is a great place for beginners (like me). Yes, the steep facades are a little intimidating, but the friendliness of the gym is welcoming. Shouts of groups of strangers encouraging and guiding each other are echoed across the cavernous room. There is lots of hands-on training available. Being here is, as Michael puts it, a gateway experience into the climbing world. And I have to say, despite the fact that my hands were quick to tire, I was determined to come back and overcome some of the walls I wasn’t quite able to conquer (or even start). As we were leaving, my group was already talking about when we could go back.

Photos: @cragnashville
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Camille Barron is a 25-year-old Nashville transplant from New York. By day, she works as a Social Media Consultant at Nashville-based social marketing startup JumpCrew. By day, she also blogs about minimalist, classic fashion on her personal blog serialoutfitrepeater.com and writes local restaurant reviews at musiccityhighway.com.  Follow her on Instagram @SerialOutfitRepeater. 

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