Question re: Memphis or Nashville?

Recent Transplant to Nashville here from san diego. Only drove through memphis and stopped for lunch so my vote will be Nashville by default. Some good bottle stores are Craft Brewed, Frugal Mcdougal and Midtown Liquor. Those are the ones i frequent the most. I would recommend leaning to stouts and porters from the area. The ipas are getting better but the darker beers are def better.
Some food spots i recommend are Acme feed & seed , The Southern, The Sutler , The Sinema, and Urban grub.All of these carry craft beer and craft cocktails. Also you gotta try the hot chicken that nashville is famous for. Any of Princes hot chicken, Hattie Bs or Pepperfire should be on your list. And the bbq depends on what you are looking for. Ribs i say go to Peg leg porker. Brisket hit edleys for lunch as it wont last till dinner, Martins does a redneck taco which is awesome and Jacks downtown is really good too. Hope you enjoy whatever city you pick, but you probably dont wanna miss downtown NashVegas during the holidays with all the peeps visiting. Thats a sight all in its own!!

 

Beer: Nashville > Memphis

Nashville has better beer distribution but the bars and overall scene leave much to be desired, same as Memphis. My favorites are 12 South, Cool Springs Brewery, and Yazoo. Stores: Midtown Wines & Liquor on Church and Craft Brewed. Alot of hype over The Pharmacy but I found the patrons and staff to be pretentious and I don't even know why, the tap list isn't the best and expect a lengthy wait. If you choose Memphis over Nashville, Wiseacre (arguably best brewery in the state) and High Cotton taprooms are great. Flying Saucer(either location) best beer bar. Stores: Busters or Joes (high gravity) Cost Saver on Madison (low grav) Tennessee only allows store bought beers above 6.5 ABV to be sold in liquor stores. But again Nashville has Memphis beat at better beer on the shelves.

Food: Memphis > Nashville

Memphis has reasonably priced and IMO better food. Doesn't get any better than Memphis BBQ : Central is the best all around. Three locations and they carry all the local craft brews. Commissary, the BBQ Shop, Memphis Barbeque Co in Horn Lake, Cozy Corner are great. A random place called Tom's on Getwell is good. I tell visitors to avoid "tourist bbq" such as Rendezvous, Corky's, and Tops you probably won't catch locals eating there.
Other food: Stone Soup or Brother Junipers for breakfast/brunch (I recommend SS, not many people know about it so it doesn't stay crowded like BJ), Las Delicias on park (mex), Gus's (hot chicken), Huey's (burgers), Hog & Hominy, Old Venice, Rock'n Dough, Memphis Pizza Cafe, Garibahldis (Italian & Pizza)
Tons of eating on Overton Square & Cooper Young area: Babalu, LBOE, Second Line, Slider Inn, Bayou

Born and raised Tennessean, message me if you got any questions

 

I will disagree on food being better in Memphis. Central is awesome for sure. But Nashville has some very good BBQ as well plus it is, right now, a hot bed for foodies. And as Memphis is known for BBQ, Nashville is the home of hot chicken. I'm born and raised here also. Years ago, for sure Memphis was better food, but Nashville has passed it for overall choices. Can't go wrong either way in the food area though, so it comes down to beer and right now, Nashville gets better distribution overall and more breweries (although Memphis is doing a bang up job with Wiseacre)

 

Native memphian here. Gotta agree with @memphischas on pretty much every respect there.

Distribution wise, Nashville has much better bottle selection. Like not even close better. Brewery wise though I will confirm that Wiseacre is the best in the state. Great tap room. High cotton is also good. Memphis Made just opened one also. Biggest upside for Memphis made is that they are right there in cooper-young district, with a ton of great restaurants around. For Nashville, there is always Yazoo (never been to breweries in Nashville, but have been around the town a bit, so that is my caveat). TN Brew works has some good stuff too.

For food, Memphis wins. Commissary and Central are must haves for good BBQ. Huey's for burgers (also usually have a decent local tap selection). Memphis Pizza and Gus's round out my suggestions. A few other places in Overton square area... Babalu, Schweinhaus, Local Gastropub and a few others. Flying saucer for taps and selection.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your time in TN. Let me know what ends up happening. Love to grab a pint with a few more BA's at Wiseacre.

 

I would say with Yazoo and their ETF series, they are pumping out some world class stuff

 

Nashville in a heartbeat for me as I am about halfway between them. For beer, it's Nashville and it's not particularly close. Better distribution and better breweries although I have to agree that Wiseacre may be the best in the state, but the rest of the Memphis breweries I don't care for. As far as food goes, I'd lean Memphis only because I have more experience there. Central BBQ and Felicia Suzanne's are my favorite spots to hit. I need to do some fine dining in Nashville, but most of the time I get caught up in ML Rose Burgers and beers.

 

Foodwise, Husk in Nashville is expensive but I thought quite good. I also like Wild Cow for something nice casual and affordable meal. Its a vegetarian spot, fwiw. Neither impresses me with their beer lists but they do have a handful of bottles to choose from.

Beer scene in Nashville is alright, IMO. To me the best Nashville breweries are the ones right outside town, Turtle Anarchy and Cool Springs.. The ******ed abv laws TN has in place really seems to hold a lot of the breweries back. I love lower abv beers but it can often feel that being forced to brew only low abv beers limits some of these guys creativity to a degree. i think Yazoo is one of the only ones to offer some higher abv beers. Could be wrong about that though. Best nashville beer i have yet to try is Yazoo's Sue, but much of Yazoo's beer I find to be quite boring. Almost like they are trying to cater to the New Belgium drinker but the product isnt even as good as New belgiums stuff, which like yazoo I only like a few offerings of and the rest is underwhelming.

Not from TN, but I'd recommend checking out some Good People beers if you come across them.

 

You clearly haven't had any of the Yazoo Sours.

And I agree with Harper on Cool Springs. Not sure about Turtle Anarchy since the head brewer left.

 

I've only had one of the Yazoo sours myself. It wasn't even a true sour, but its base was Onward, so they billed it as a sour stout. Was not impressed. The rest of their sours are highly rated though, I'd love to try them. But I agree with much of their stuff being fairly mainstream. Not a bad thing, but nothing stands out as a great take on a style. Some of the hop projects are good. And Sue is a great smoked porter.

Agree with the ML Rose on burgers and beers in Nashville though. Great place.

Also Wiseacre has just started to release their barrel aged stuff. All on draft at the tap room. They release one new one or so a weekend.

 

The first real sour they released was Fortuitous(sp) which was solid. Since then, they have started their ETF series which is stellar. The Cherry Deux Rouges just medaled at GABF.

 

No, haven't had Yazoo sours. If I come across one, I'll give it a try.

I did have their brett saison last time I was at their taproom and thought it was terrible though. Not really a sour I guess, but wild.

 

I guess I should say the Yazoo ETF series, which includes wilds and sours. Very well received.

 

I'm going to say this as someone who lives near Nashville and hasn't been to Memphis in at least four years, but I would choose Nashville.

I think everyone would agree Nashville gets better beer distribution and there are plenty of suggestions above so I won't repeat them all.

Some top places to eat in Nashville that are top notch, I'll just give names and provide links as I'm sure you can look up reviews all over the internet:

Husk http://www.husknashville.com/

Germantown Café http://germantowncafe.com/

The Southern http://thesouthernnashville.com/menu/

Pinewood Social http://pinewoodsocial.com/

For more casual places:

Brown's Diner http://www.brownsdiner.com/ don't expect good beer

Broadway Brewhouse (Midtown location) http://midtown.broadwaybrewhouse.net/

Hattie B's for Hot Chicken http://www.hattieb.com/

BBQ:

Peg Leg Porker http://peglegporker.com/

Martin's BBQ http://www.martinsbbqjoint.com/

 

Love the sours coming from Yazoo. Embrace the Funk bottles and kegs are gone pretty quick after their release. Pair a Yazoo Sue or Wiseacre Got To Get Up To Get Down with some southern BBQ. Wiseacre is starting to get into more serious barrel aging and the brewery is only a year old.

 

Rating the BA beers I've had at Wiseacre the last 2 weeks:
1. BA Snowbeard- OMG type fantastic


2. Astronaught Status

3. BA Kerfluffel





4. BA Holy Candy

 

I just got back in town and haven't gotten the chance to try the bottles of Astronaut Status my buddy grabbed me, or the BA Snowbeard. Heard good things. They still have Snowbeard on tap though, so I will be there tomorrow to try it.

 

I'll be there tomorrow as well

 

BA Snowbeard is the best BA beer I've had from TN. Also Kung Fu Representative is one of the best brown ales I've ever had. Phenomenal beer.

I know it's a little off topic, but felt like I needed to say that.

So on topic for the thread...food-wise I'm still going with Memphis. Better BBQ. 'Nuff said. Beer-wise is a different thing. Bottles are better in Nashville. Local beer is better in Memphis, just my opinion. Wiseacre has cemented themselves as the best brewery in TN. Not that I had many doubts.

 

Better bbq in Memphis, although Nashville has some very good bbq as well. If you want something other than bbq, I think Nashville tops. As far as best brewery, that's hard to say. I think as a whole, Nashville has the better beer scene. Wiseacre is great (distributing in Nashville btw), but with yazoo etf, cool springs brewery, black Abbey and now corsair high gravity project, there are some great things going on. And bottle distribution is much better. But obviously we are all biased to where we live