Nashville, the music metropolis, is unsurprisingly home to the greatest country music in America. Besides from sightseeing and music, you can also eat their renowned hot chicken here.
Nashville may not be Memphis in terms of barbecue, but that’s OK. Downtown Nashville offers smoked meat delicacies from each of the three main interstate highways that intersect within a mile of each other: St. Louis-style ribs, smoked chicken in Alabama white sauce, North Carolina vinegar-based sauces, and, yes, Memphis-style ribs. Having said that, where is the greatest Barbecue in Nashville?
It’s time to start packing for your trip to Nashville. It’s the city with the world’s greatest country music, amazing cuisine, and incredibly spicy chicken.
Before you start drooling on your computer, let me tell you about the top BBQ joints in Nashville.
Visiting other places in Tennessee? Check out our other tasty guide:
- 8 Best Knoxville Restaurants
Top 10 Barbecue Restaurants in Nashville
Edley’s Barbecue
Nashville, +161595329512706 12th Ave. S.
Edleys, with three locations in 12th South, East Nashville, and Sylvan Park, is the ideal blend of barbeque and southern history.
If you like pork tacos with slaw and pico de gallo, the Tuck Special, a brisket sandwich with spicy pimento cheese, an over-easy egg, and red and white sauce, is a good choice.
Edleys Nashville Hot BBQ exists, and if you thought there was nothing new in the world of food, you were mistaken! Edleys has worked tirelessly to make their novel Nashville Hot Barbecue a reality. Every day, there are eight to ten secret family recipes to choose from.
The Stick of Gambling
Nashville, TN +16155219742501 Gallatin Ave.
The Gambling Stick is a modest food truck and canvas tent tucked inside the parking lot of Porter Road Butchers. Barbecue places are famed for their modesty, but The Gambling Stick is the most low-key in town.
The things they’re cooking up in that little trailer are incredible! Try the pigsket sandwich for a flavor and texture unlike any other pulled shoulder sandwich you’ve ever tasted.
Nothing like the sweet and spicy baked beans seasoned with burned ends at any local BBQ place.
BBQ Peg Leg Porker
Gleaves St., Nashville, +16158296023903
This indoor-outdoor restaurant takes its name from its peg-legged and very proud owner, Carey Bringle, who lost a leg to cancer as a youngster, and doesnt take itself too seriously, except when it comes to its Memphis-style smoked pork.
Peg Leg Porker has been producing some of the greatest BBQ in Nashville since its inception in 2013, and it has now grown to include extra eating space in the Pig Pen. He also intends to establish Bringles Smoking Oasis in The Nations and another location near the airport.
I suggest starting with their Memphis Sushi, sausage and cheese plate on saltines, or barbecue nachos, then moving on to the dry ribs, pulled pork platter, or yardbird in a tangy white sauce with a pickle on the side.
Shotgun Willies Barbecue
+161594291884000 Suite B, Gallatin Pike, Nashville
Beef brisket was formerly an afterthought at Nashville barbecue places, infrequently made and mainly accepted as a change of pace from the regular pig food.
Local barbecue enthusiast Bill Laviolette learned what they had been missing when he began importing Texas Prime brisket and sausages and cooked them in his big smoker.
As a consequence, he has established himself as the proprietor of Shotgun Willies BBQ, Nashville’s uncontested smoked beef king, and a welcome addition to the local barbecue scene.
Shotgun Willies cuisine is built on Angus beef, including high quality brisket from Braveheart Farms, the country’s best Angus program.
Their menu features succulent Tennessee Style pulled pork shoulder and Texas Size salt and pepper pork ribs.
Martins Bar and Grill
Nashville, +16152880880410 4th Ave. S.
Martins Bar-B-Q has many sites around Tennessee, so you know it’s a must-visit at least once. With nine distinct sites, it’s difficult to go wrong. Alabama and South Carolina each have one.
When the majority of the South decides it’s time for another barbecue establishment, you know it’s got to be fantastic, and Martins certainly that.
Our restaurant has a totally fresh cuisine that is prepared every day, so you may enjoy home-cooked meals even if you are not at home.
Martins isn’t a location where people gather to have fun; they come to eat. Any diet will fail in the face of the aromas drifting from the smoker pit in the main area.
Because of the Televisions, terrace, Biergarten, and upper floor with games, it is a favorite hangout during football season. Martins smoked pulled pork and dry ribs, on the other hand, keep it busy all year.
This level of deliciousness can only be found in the southern states. Bring only those who are willing to let you select from their plates! It’s no surprise that it’s been rated one of Nashville’s greatest BBQ joints!
Jack’s Barbecue
Nashville, +16152545715416 Broadway
The godfather of Nashville barbecue, Jack Cawthon, built this restaurant overlooking the river in 1976. Here’s why it’s Nashville’s greatest barbecue joint.
Jack is a good ol’ guy, but his style is all Tennessee. Oak and hickory-smoked chicken, hog shoulder, chops, ribs, and hot links are served on grills reminiscent of vintage gas stations.
By slathering some sauce on it and picking up some sides, you can make one of the tastiest lunches in any city.
Now, there are three sites, with the first being only a few streets up from Tootsies. Therefore, don’t forget to stop by this enticing BBQ place!
Downtown Nashville’s Pucketts Grocery & Restaurant
Nashville, +16157702772500 Church St.
Pucketts is a genuine smoker’s pleasure with its cherry wood-smoked meats, and there are many outstanding BBQ joints around Nashville.
Chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, and meat and three platters are among Puckett’s many southern staples, but its cherry wood-smoked barbecue is one of the finest in the region.
There are several ways to serve pulled pork, brisket, ribs, or chicken, which may be served in a pan, on a plate with greens and smoked Gouda mac n cheese, in a sandwich like the Tennessee Philly or the Mojo Burger, or in a tortilla as the Redneck Burrito.
Bar-B-Cutie
Donelson Pike, Nashville, +16158720207501
Founded in 1940 as a downtown pie truck, Bar-B-Cutie grew into a carhop in the 1950s, then into a smokehouse business with sites across Middle Tennessee and beyond.
This iconic Tennessee BBQ establishment is full with memories and is worth its weight in side dishes alone. Its Texan toast and Thanksgiving turkeys make it a popular fast-food establishment in a hectic setting.
Cornbread dressing, fried okra, turnip greens, and stuffed potatoes are among their flavorful sides.
Therefore, whether you’re on a brief lunch break, a low-key date, or just passing through Nashville, this is the place to be.
Swetts
Nashville, +161532944182725 Clifton Ave.
The restaurant, which opened in a converted petrol station in 2006, set out to provide the greatest BBQ in town.
Music City is teeming with great restaurants, and none are better than Swetts. For lighter meals, the restaurant provides basic comfort dishes like as meat and three, catfish, and chicken. Rib tips, a Chicago delicacy, are excellent for the robust diner searching for a spicy meal.
There’s something for everyone on the menu, including meat alternatives and sides. Make sure you don’t leave without trying Swett’s legendary cobblers, which are rich with nostalgia that your taste buds will cherish all year.
HoneyFire Grill
Sawyer Brown Road #304, Nashville, +161573961218127
taste combination on high heat. There are many different varieties of barbecue sauce available at grocery shops, but the majority of sales come from bottles with a sweet flavor.
HoneyFire Barbeque has swiftly established itself as a hotspot for outstanding barbecue. The restaurant is recognized for smoking all of their meats using apple wood and hickory, as well as locally sourced products.
Nothing beats smoked chicken wings dipped in sauce or smoky ribs wrapped in a sweet, sticky glaze.
HoneyFire also serves outrageous sandwiches like the Southern Shine, which is loaded with pulled pork, fried green tomatoes, pimento cheese, and candied bacon.
Synopsis of the Best Barbecue in Nashville
Barbecue is a religion in the American South, and Nashville is unmistakably Southern.
Because of its unique geographic location, Tennessee alone features cuisine from many different regions of the deep South: Memphis dry-rub ribs (a dry rub cooking method pioneered there), East Tennessee’s world-renowned sausage, Central Kentucky BBQ sauce, and the famous Western Kentucky Hill Country barbecue.
Thus, whether you like dry or moist ribs, Eastern-style or Western, you won’t be disappointed in Music City.