Best-of list · City Guide
Our editors rank the best honky tonk bars nashville broadway has to offer — separating the legends from the tourist traps on Lower Broad. Updated 2026.
The short answer
10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Lower Broadway is where Nashville's music legend lives, and finding the best honky tonk bars nashville broadway offers means knowing which rooms still carry that weight versus which ones sold it. We have walked this strip in every season and at every hour, separating the honky tonks that deliver a genuine experience from those that deliver a souvenir. This is our honest ranking of the best honky tonk bars on Broadway in Nashville.
Broadway's legendary honky tonks have something the newer multi-story venues cannot replicate: history that accumulated naturally rather than being installed by a designer. The best ones have hosted musicians who went on to change country music. They smell like the right amount of beer and sawdust. And they still book live music six days a week without a ticket or a cover.