If you have been following my trip, you know that Sunday was a big day for us. It started with a trip to The Hermitage, then lunch at the Opryland Resort, and finally ended with a bang at a little place on Lower Broadway called Layla's. This wasn't our first visit to Layla's, but it was definitely our most memorable as you will soon see.
The evening didn't start there though, so let me explain how we ended up at this most magnificent place!
When 
We started from our hotel and headed down Printer's Alley. It is a pretty famous area of Nashville that has some pretty cool off the beaten path places. I figured I should get a picture of the Fleet Street Pub for my friends who live across the pond. We didn't visit the pub though, sorry folks.
As we made our way down to Lower Broadway, we came across one of these pedal trolley's. If you haven't seen one, it is basically a bar on wheels. You get a bunch of friends to sit around the bar in the middle and you all pedal the pedals under your feet to make it move around the town. There is a bartender that serves you and I think steers the thing. They are all over down in Nashville. Personally, I like to do as little work as possible when I am drinking. It is more of a singular focus for me, so I've never participated in one of these. Plus I don't think I have enough friends to fill the whole thing anyway!
Eventually, my wife and I made our way to a place called Famous Nashville. It was pretty cool and they had some decent music way at the back that we could still hear up front where the TV's were. We bellied up to the bar and enjoyed some of the NCAA tournament games while having some beverages. I stuck with Maker's Mark on the rocks and my wife was drinking Tito's (vodka) and lemonade.
The Famous is a pretty cool place and I would definitely come back here again. They have a rooftop bar we didn't visit, but it sounds pretty cool. I will have to check it out some day.
They had this pretty cool mosaic of Willie Nelson on the wall that I had to get a picture of. It was pretty cool.
As the games were finishing up, we were in contact with our friends about what they might like to do for the rest of the evening. They had spent a bit more time at the Gaylord Resort that we did because their kids wanted to play in the arcade. It was soon decided that we would all meet at Acme Feed and Seed, so
As you can see, things were starting to pick up a little on the rest of Lower Broadway.
Acme Feed and Seed is one of my most favorite places in Nashville. It has three stories with an additional rooftop bar. Each level has a different cuisine and different music from the other ones.
The ground floor is a BBQ joint that I have actually never eaten at if you can believe that. At this point in the day and after our huge lunch at Gaylord Resort, food was actually the furthest thing from our minds.
There was a pretty cool band playing called Jody & The Grind. They were doing some jazz/funk covers of popular tunes. Stuff from Britney Spears to Nirvana. It was pretty cool. The lead buy played a mean saxophone and he wasn't that bad on the flute either.
We grabbed some drinks and before long our friends showed up and we ended up watching the whole set.
Eventually, the kids got a little hungry so we grabbed some fries that everyone noshed on. They were actually pretty good and to date are the only food I have eaten at Acme Feed and Seed. I should point out that Acme also broadcasts their shows after a certain time each weekend, so if you want to listen in sometime, head to their web page and check it out.
After Jody & The Grind finished up, we decided to move along. The Hard Rock is right across the street from Acme. I have never been in there (a bit too commercial and "chainy" for me), but I did take this photo of the carriages out front because it was kind of cool.
We started to head back up Broadway to check out some more of the live music. You can see one of Nashville's homeless population in the center of this photo. Sadly, like any big city, there are a lot of homeless people in Nashville.
By now, it was about six or seven o'clock PM and we figured we would still have a bit of time before we needed to get the kids back to the hotel. We couldn't have been more wrong. Pretty much every place we tried to get in at this point was asking for ID, so much to the children's dismay, we were going to have to call it a night for them.
Our friends caught an Uber back to their hotel and told my wife and I (since we don't have kids) to let us know where we ended up and they would meet back up with us.
My wife and I were standing on a corner trying to figure out what to do when I saw the sign for Layla's and the draw was just too strong to resist.
This wasn't our first visit to Layla's. Layla's sits smack in the middle of a block that caters to fans of older country music. Where the bars closer to the Cumberland River might have artists covering today's latest country hits, places like Layla's and Roberts Western World right next to it are more likely to have people covering artists like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard.
It's probably one of my favorite era's of country music and there is something about it that I find very comforting.
If I said the place was packed, that would be a gross understatement. It was absolutely packed. My wife and I aren't fans of huge crowds, so I had a feeling she was going to want to bolt, but we snaked our way through and found a little corner of the bar to call our own for a while.
We didn't find out until we were home after my wife did some Internet sleuthing that lead singer of this band was named Nick Cross. I don't know if his backing band had a name, but they were absolutely fantastic. We ended up staying for his entire set as you will soon see.
We were standing at the bar enjoying the music but keeping an eye on the crowd to see if we could snag an open table. Eventually, a group of ladies on a girls weekend at the table in front of us decided to move along and they generously offered us their table. My wife and I quickly grabbed two of the stools and put our legs on the other two to save for our friends when they made it back.
Eventually, they found us and that is when things went off the rails in the most spectacular memorable way.
Past this point, the pictures are likely going to be blurry. I apologize. It was kind of dark and there were other factors involved. Use your imagination...
The gang's all here!
At one point, I was watching some of the people dancing on the "dance floor" (it's really just any place you can find the room to move around), when suddenly I realized something pretty magical was about to happen. I quickly grabbed my phone and started taking some shots.
Yep, right there in front of us and the rest of the bar this happy couple got engaged. When my wife realized what I was talking about she shoved her friend and told her to start video recording. After the fact, her friend talked to the couple and shared the video as well as some of the pictures I took with them.
Imagine our surprise when the next day we found our video and photos spread all over the Layla's Instagram page and some of the Nashville news sites. Of course we didn't get the credit, but it was still cool.
They seemed like a really happy and cute couple, I wish them all the best.
As you will see, this was the night that we really let loose and savored Nashville for all it has to offer.
My buddy and I might have had a bit of bourbon...
My wife took this next photo on her way back to the restrooms at one point. She said that the pictures were like holograms and as you walked past them they changed from regular portraits to the more scary photos you see here. Kind of cool!
My wife and her friend hanging with the lead singer!
And the bouncer!
It was probably a good five to six hours that we spent at Layla's before the band finished up and we decided that it was probably time to call it a night. We were all a bit hungry and we wanted to try and find some food.
I promised our friends daughter that I would get some pictures of the lights on Lower Broadway at night since she wasn't able to experience it herself.
As you can see, even at this late hour, Broadway was still pretty packed and definitely jumping. I think the bars stay open until 2 in the morning which is pretty typical around the US. At least on the weekends before the pandemic it was.
Oddly enough, as many places were open, pretty much none of them had food available at this late hour. We were directed to the famous Sun Diner, but it seems everyone else had the same idea. It was standing room only waiting to get a table and they were wrapped outside the building. I took this quick photo of the lights they have hanging over one of the eating counters because I thought they were pretty cool.
Unfortunately, we were hungry right now, so we needed to find something else.
Much to my wife's dismay, all we could find was a hot dog food truck. Since she is not a huge fan of beef or pork hotdogs (she usually gets turkey hotdogs), she settled for a walking taco without the beef (so basically just Frito chips and cheese), and I got this tasty chili dog.
I'm not sure if I was just starving after all of the partying or if it was really that good, but I scarfed the thing down in record time. God bless late night food trucks!
We said goodnight to our friends and started walking back to our hotel while they waited for a Lyft to take them to theirs.
I snagged this final shot of the CMT (Country Music Television) building all lit up on our way back to the hotel.
It was an awesome amazing night, and I have a feeling we will reminisce fondly about it for decades to come!
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or