52 Nashville Restaurants, Bars & Shops We Love

This article is part of 52Cities, a column where we share editor-curated and community-loved recommendations for visiting our favorite places.

Nashville has it all: live music, great food, and an easy way of life that’s delightful to dip into for a …

This article is part of 52Cities, a column where we share editor-curated and community-loved recommendations for visiting our favorite places.


Nashville has it all: live music, great food, and an easy way of life that’s delightful to dip into for a weekend (or longer). While many tourists come here for the tunes and honky-tonks that make up so much of the local economy, the so-called Music City has also become a destination for incredible food over the last decade. While you could easily spend a week here eating nothing but hot chicken and barbecue, you can also find innovative, local-leaning restaurants, world-class bakeries, and thrilling cocktail bars. Balance all of that with thoughtfully curated home goods shops and a bookstore run by an award-winning novelist, and you have one of the country’s most exciting travel destinations, whether you’re bringing your family or heading out for a solo trip.

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52 Places to Dine, Drink, Shop & Stay in Austin

This article is part of 52Cities, a column where we share editor-curated and community-loved recommendations for visiting our favorite places.
If you’ve spent any time in Austin, Texas, you’ve probably heard the city’s motto: “Keep Austin Weird.” It r…

This article is part of 52Cities, a column where we share editor-curated and community-loved recommendations for visiting our favorite places.

If you’ve spent any time in Austin, Texas, you’ve probably heard the city’s motto: “Keep Austin Weird.” It reflects the locals’ desire to hold on to the city’s rich tradition of creativity and artistic production, as evidenced by its famous murals, live music, and inventive food scene. While ravenous real estate development has slightly decreased the city’s weird factor over the past two decades, it’s still a place full of zany nooks and crannies (take, for example, the Cathedral of Junk). And it’s also the perfect place to spend a weekend (or longer) eating, drinking, and exploring.

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Here’s How to Emulsify Anything

A creamy hollandaise sauce drizzled over eggs Benedict. A rich, herby bearnaise sauce served on the side of a pan-seared steak. A rich dressing tossed over crunchy lettuce and juicy tomatoes. These silky, luxurious sauces all get their body via a proce…

A creamy hollandaise sauce drizzled over eggs Benedict. A rich, herby bearnaise sauce served on the side of a pan-seared steak. A rich dressing tossed over crunchy lettuce and juicy tomatoes. These silky, luxurious sauces all get their body via a process called emulsification. To understand emulsification—aka the process that happens when oil and water mix to create stable substances like mayonnaise, salad dressing, and even milk—we are going to have to talk science for a minute.

We promise that there will be no atomic diagrams, no Latin, and no, Bill Nye won’t be standing by your side in the kitchen. And if you hang on until the end, you’ll be rewarded with creamy aiolis, mayonnaise that won’t break, and vinaigrettes that hold together for days in the fridge. 

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How to Make Salsa That’ll Make You Wanna Double Dip

So you’d like to DIY your salsa for Game Day or summer barbecues but you’re staunchly opposed to the purchase or consumption of out-of-season tomatoes? Fear not—these two things are not mutually exclusive. There is a happy medium here, and it relies on…

So you'd like to DIY your salsa for Game Day or summer barbecues but you're staunchly opposed to the purchase or consumption of out-of-season tomatoes? Fear not—these two things are not mutually exclusive. There is a happy medium here, and it relies on a can.

Good salsa does not necessarily depend on perfect, fresh tomatoes, the kind you want to eat like an apple on a hot day in July. This is a good thing, since perfectly plump, juicy tomatoes aren’t always available (especially when you want to make salsa in the dead of winter). It depends instead on the right bells and whistles that will spruce up a party-sized can of diced tomatoes like baubles and bulbs on a Christmas tree. (In fact, you could serve this at Christmas! It's red and green! But I digress.)

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How to Be the Guest That Gets Invited to Every Dinner

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you’ve forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert take…

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you've forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert takes on questions from our community and deftly puts fears to rest, suggesting all the ways in which we can all get back to hosting safely—and confidently. It is (almost) the holidays after all!


One of my greatest, most embarrassing desires in life is to be well-liked, and one of my greatest fears is that the people I revere the most detest me. I have been told this isn’t the case (yet!), but I’ve also developed some opinions on how to be the sort of guest people want to have around. I have distilled them into four rules.

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How to Keep Your Cool While Playing Host (It’s Possible)

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you’ve forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert take…

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you've forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert takes on questions from our community and deftly puts fears to rest, suggesting all the ways in which we can all get back to hosting safely—and confidently. It is (almost) the holidays after all!


A few years back, I invited a handful of friends over for polenta and short ribs, the coziest meal I could think of on that chilly late-fall night. One of them asked if their then-girlfriend could come, and I said of course, the more the merrier, and then they told me that it was actually her birthday, and I said we’ll have a toast, and then she showed up, and let me know that actually, she was a vegetarian—so she wouldn’t be eating the main course that I’d been cooking for three hours, and I didn’t have an alternative planned. I was embarrassed and flustered—I should have asked! I’m a horrible host! And why didn’t she tell me! But her eyes got wide at the pot of bubbling, cheesy polenta on my stove, which she indicated would be her birthday present. We all ate well; the vegetarian and my friend are now happily married.

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How to Get Guests Outta Your Kitchen (Please)

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you’ve forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert take…

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you've forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert takes on questions from our community and deftly puts fears to rest, suggesting all the ways in which we can all get back to hosting safely—and confidently. It is (almost) the holidays after all!


Dinner parties: They’re back! We’ve missed them so much! We can’t wait to throw them again! All we want to do is feed more than two people at once, especially if they’re not people we list as dependents on our tax returns! And don’t even get me started about Thanksgiving—think of all the starches we’ll be smothering in fat! Will this be the greatest holiday entertaining season ever? Will 2022 be lined with tasteful glassware and French oak serving boards? We can’t WAIT to find out, one heaping serving of pasta at a time!

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How to Plan a Gathering—& Stay Calm Doing It

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you’ve forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert take…

Should you ask your guests to bring something? How do you keep people out of the kitchen? How do you serve everything at the right temp? Feel like you've forgotten how to be a good host? (Same.) In our latest series, Be My Guest, a friendly expert takes on questions from our community and deftly puts fears to rest, suggesting all the ways in which we can all get back to hosting safely—and confidently. It is (almost) the holidays after all!


If you’re anything like me, you’ve had a handful of parties on hold for anywhere from six to 18 months. (I’ve never been one to whimper at the prospect of aging, but I still maintain that I haven’t turned 32 yet, since the corresponding celebration hasn’t happened.) Some of us have spent hours—days! weeks!—of the pandemic daydreaming about little bowls of Ruffles potato chips set about the apartment, halls decked with mistletoe, Lambrusco in ice buckets, dance party playlists, and long tables lit with tall candles that cast a glow on the unmasked faces we love best.

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23 Mediterranean Diet Recipes For A Plate That Pops

Many of our food and travel fantasies center around crystal seas, sunny days, and simple meals enjoyed while languishing on the coasts of Greece and Italy, those Mediterranean Shangri-Las whose residents seem to have mastered the art of living. And now…

Many of our food and travel fantasies center around crystal seas, sunny days, and simple meals enjoyed while languishing on the coasts of Greece and Italy, those Mediterranean Shangri-Las whose residents seem to have mastered the art of living. And now, we have science to back us up. 

Researchers have now proven that the Mediterranean diet—full of fish, olive oil, beans, nuts, and fresh produce—is ideal for our hearts and taste buds alike. In celebration, we've compiled a list of simple, flavorful recipes that feature healthy fats, fish, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. And in honor of Italy's passion for dessert, there's even olive oil gelato. Ciao, bella.

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The Very Best Ways to Store Fresh Bread

Let’s start off with the bad news: If there’s a loaf of lean bread on your counter—meaning a loaf without added fat or sugar, such as a sourdough boule, ciabatta, or a baguette—it’s only at its best for a few days after baking. After 48 hou…

Let's start off with the bad news: If there's a loaf of lean bread on your counter—meaning a loaf without added fat or sugar, such as a sourdough boule, ciabatta, or a baguette—it's only at its best for a few days after baking. After 48 hours or so, the bread loses flavor and becomes harder and dryer.

This puts you in a predicament. Either you eat an entire loaf of bread in two days (not easy for even the hungriest of single people), or you watch something beautiful die. Or mold. Or stale. 

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