Ole Red Nashville

Blake Shelton opened Ole Red on Broadway in 2018, part of a small chain that started in his hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma. The Nashville flagship is built for volume — four floors, multiple bars, and The Lookout, a rooftop bar that's the tallest on the strip and looks straight down Broadway's neon corridor toward the river. It's a bigger, more produced experience than the century-old joints a few doors down, closer to a concert venue with a full kitchen attached than a dive bar, but the talent booked here is consistently strong and the sound systems are better than most of the competition's.

The kitchen turns out scratch-made bar food with a few standouts worth ordering on purpose: a bacon cheeseburger topped with a fried egg, Nashville hot chicken, and a cherry limeade spiked with moonshine that's become something of a house signature. Weekend brunch on the rooftop, served Saturday and Sunday mornings, is a genuinely good option if you want the view without the nighttime crowd — though the bar does go 21-and-up after 9pm, so it clears out families and the younger end of the bachelorette crowd later in the evening.

It's a solid pick for anyone who wants live country music without wading through the rowdiest parts of Broadway, and The Lookout in particular works well for a group that wants a rooftop cocktail with a view but isn't trying to shout over a band to do it.