Best of Elliston Place: Diner Lore, Music History, and Daily Life

You can walk every commercial block of Elliston Place in about ten minutes, which is exactly the kind of place that fools you. It looks like there's nothing to eat here. Then you find out the diner on the corner has been making pie since before your grandparents were born, there's a 1934 steakhouse hiding in a mansion three doors down, and the original Hattie B's is a short hop away. The strip does some of its eating next door, sure. But the things that are actually on it have been here for decades, and they earned it. This is the honest list of what to eat, where, and what to actually order once you sit down.

One fair warning before you build a weekend around an old blog post: this strip has lost a couple of legends recently, and a few famous spots people still associate with Elliston Place have moved across town. I'll be straight about all of it, because there's nothing worse than driving over for a cheeseburger that closed in 2021. Let's eat.

Where to Eat

Elliston Place Soda Shop

This is the keystone, the one true survivor on the strip, and the reason a food piece about Elliston Place can exist at all. It started in 1939 inside the old Elliston Pharmacy soda fountain, and after a recent renovation it's still here at 2105 Elliston Place doing the exact thing it has always done. On the savory side it's a genuine meat-and-three: southern-fried chicken, chicken and biscuits, and a patty melt on griddled sourdough that regulars will quietly tell you is one of the best in town. Order the patty melt, let it sit there leaking butter and grilled onions, and try to feel superior about your life choices. You won't.

But the milkshakes are why you cross town. They're hand-dipped, thick enough to embarrass a straw, and the chocolate one tastes like someone melted a candy bar into cold cream and didn't apologize. They also still make old-fashioned phosphates and malts, which is a sentence you don't get to write about many places anymore. Get a chocolate or hot-fudge shake. If you're with someone, get the super-sized banana split and pretend you'll share it.

Jimmy Kelly's Steakhouse

Here's the spot the internet keeps forgetting, and it's a genuine institution: a 1934 steakhouse set inside a grand old Southern mansion, actually on Elliston Place, white tablecloths and all. The thing everybody remembers isn't even the steak. It's the silver-dollar corn cakes — little hot, crisp-edged, sweet-savory rounds that show up at your table automatically, free with the meal, and disappear before you've finished deciding what to order. They are the most-loved detail in the building, and they will ruin your appetite if you let them. Let them a little.

Then the steak. Get a porterhouse or the Bootlegger's Ribeye, and split Kate's Potatoes and the creamed corn brulee — yes, brulee, a torched-sugar take on creamed corn that has no business being as good as it is. Not a steak person? The crab-stuffed Chilean sea bass holds its own. And if you just want to perch at the bar, the lounge runs dollar oysters and Wagyu beef empanadas, which is a very civilized way to spend a Tuesday.

Hattie B's Hot Chicken (Midtown — the original)

This is the one your out-of-town friends will demand, and for once the hype is earned: the original Hattie B's opened at 112 19th Avenue South in 2012, a genuine short hop from Elliston Place, and it's now Michelin-listed. The move is tenders at Medium or Hot with a side of pimento mac and crinkle-cut fries. 'Hot' is the true-blue Nashville hot — a deep, cayenne-red burn that builds; the meat underneath is juicy and the crust shatters. The sandwich is a fried breast on white bread with pickles, slaw, and comeback sauce, that tangy honey-mayo that exists to talk the heat down off the ledge.

A public service announcement about the heat ladder, because people get brave and regret it: Southern is no heat, Mild and Medium are friendly, Hot is the real one. Damn Hot brings habanero. Shut the Cluck Up adds ghost pepper and runs about three times hotter than Damn Hot, and ordering it to impress someone is how you end up not tasting chicken for two days. There's no prize. The chicken is the prize, and you can taste it at Hot.

Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint (Belmont — short drive)

This one's a short drive, not a walk — it sits over on Belmont Boulevard near Lipscomb — but it's worth the five minutes. Pitmaster Pat Martin runs the West Tennessee whole-hog tradition the hard, honest way: a 200-pound hog roasted whole for 24 hours over hickory, then pulled by hand. Order the pulled pork and you're tasting that — smoky, a little crackly at the edges, not drowned in sauce. The signature move, though, is the Redneck Taco: pulled pork piled onto a griddled hoecake, which is somehow both ridiculous and exactly right.

Round it out with smoked wings and the BBQ nachos, and don't skip the sides — they're scratch-made daily, and the mac and cheese and broccoli salad pull more weight than sides usually do. There's a full bar and a dog-friendly patio, so it's a neighborhood hang as much as a barbecue run. Come hungry; the whole hog does not believe in small portions.

Coffee

Honest note first: the on-strip coffee scene thinned out badly when Cafe Coco closed in late 2023. Right now there isn't a great sit-down independent coffeehouse directly on Elliston Place itself, so the nearby flagship below is your move — just know it's a drive, not a stroll.

Bongo Java (flagship on Belmont Blvd)

Bongo Java is Nashville's oldest coffeehouse — it opened in 1993 and earned a strange slice of fame in 1996 when a cinnamon bun there allegedly resembled a certain late nun. The flagship is at 2007 Belmont Boulevard across from Belmont University, roughly an 8-to-10-minute drive from Elliston Place, so file it under 'nearby destination,' not 'corner spot.' The signature pour is the Local Latte, sweetened with honey and cinnamon, and the mocha is made with real Omanhene chocolate, which you can taste. It's an all-day breakfast place too: get the Egg McBongo or the breakfast burrito, grab a porch table, and watch students pretend to study.

Drinks

The Patterson House (now in SoBro)

Update your map before you go looking for this one near Elliston Place — the Patterson House moved in May 2025 from its longtime Division Street home to the fifth floor of 700 8th Avenue South in SoBro. Worth the trip. This is the cocktail temple that taught Nashville to care about hand-cut ice and a 150-deep pre-Prohibition list, and the house legend is still the Bacon Old Fashioned: Four Roses bourbon fat-washed with Benton's bacon, balanced with maple and coffee-pecan bitters. It drinks smoky and savory and grown-up, not sticky-sweet — bacon as an idea, not a garnish. The refreshed menu adds a Mango Negroni and a Jasmine Sage Smash if you want something brighter. It's mostly walk-in and first-come, with an opening food menu from Catbird Seat alumni, so go early or go patient.

Dessert

You don't need a separate dessert stop on Elliston Place, because the Soda Shop double-duties as the best one. The pie program is the real reason — it's been run for decades by Linda Melton, the longtime 'Pie Lady,' and it is not a garnish on the menu, it's the headline.

• •The coconut meringue pie, piled mile-high — order this first if you order one thing.
• •Chocolate chess pie: dense, fudgy, almost brownie-adjacent, the kind of sweet that needs a glass of milk standing by.
• •Lemon icebox pie, cold and tart, the antidote to a hot-chicken lunch.
• •Banana pudding that gets called outstanding by people who don't hand that word out.
• •A super-sized banana split or a hot fudge sundae if you've still got room, which you don't, but go ahead.

If you specifically want warm cookies or a glazed-doughnut sugar hit on the strip, Tiff's Treats and Krispy Kreme are right there as chains — fine in a pinch. But the pie is the local answer, and it's not close.

The Music, So You Can Say You Knew

Not food, but it's why this strip is called the Rock Block, and you'll want to know what's real. Exit/In has been running shows at 2208 Elliston Place since 1971 and is open with a packed calendar — that's the anchor. The End, a long-running small club at 2219 Elliston Place, still has shows booked, but its owners launched a fundraiser in early 2026 after a hard year, so check before you build a night around it. Grab dinner, then catch a show; that's the most Elliston Place a night can get.

If You're Moving Here From Out of State

A few things that will save you confusion in the first month. First, Elliston Place is small, so think of your dining radius as a short circle that includes Midtown and the edge of Hillsboro Village, not just the strip — locals borrow those blocks constantly and don't think twice. Second, 'Nashville hot' chicken is a real heat scale, not a marketing word; start at Medium or Hot and respect the ladder. Third, a couple of the famous names you may have read about have either closed or relocated, so trust current hours over old lists.

• •The Soda Shop keeps daytime diner hours (roughly morning to late afternoon), so it's a breakfast-and-lunch play, not a dinner one.
• •Jimmy Kelly's and the Patterson House are evening spots — Patterson House is now in SoBro, a real drive from here.
• •Bongo Java and Martin's are quick drives, not walks; budget the car.
• •Vanderbilt sets the rhythm nearby, so the strip is busier in semester and quieter in summer — your wait times will follow that.

Recently Closed (So You Don't Drive Over for Nothing)

• •Rotier's Restaurant — closed for good in March 2021 after a 75-year run when the lease wasn't renewed. Its cheeseburger on French bread is genuine Nashville lore, and you'll still see it on old lists, but you cannot eat there. Pour one out and go to the Soda Shop instead.
• •Cafe Coco — closed permanently in late November 2023. It was the strip's 24-hour coffee and late-night anchor, and its absence is the main reason the on-strip coffee and late-night scene feels thin today. Don't plan a midnight around it.

What's Missing (Honestly)

• •A great independent coffeehouse directly on the strip — that gap opened when Cafe Coco closed, and nothing has fully replaced it on Elliston Place itself yet.
• •Real late-night food and drink on the strip — the Rock Block trades partly on a reputation it earned a couple of decades ago, so verify current hours before you build a midnight around it.
• •A dense, walkable restaurant row inside the neighborhood — most of the eating happens on the strip's handful of institutions plus borrowed Midtown blocks.
• •Grocery — you'll drive to a Whole Foods or Publix; there's no full-size grocery in walking distance.

Quick Questions

What's the single best restaurant on Elliston Place?

For sit-down dinner, Jimmy Kelly's Steakhouse — it's been on the strip since 1934, the free silver-dollar corn cakes are the local handshake, and the steaks back it up. For an only-in-Nashville meal you'll talk about later, the Elliston Place Soda Shop, which doubles as the best dessert in the area.

Where should I take out-of-town guests?

Walk them through the original Hattie B's in Midtown for hot chicken (tenders at Hot, pimento mac on the side), then finish at the Soda Shop for a hand-dipped chocolate shake and a slice of coconut meringue pie. That's the Nashville rite of passage in two stops.

What's the most kid-friendly spot?

The Elliston Place Soda Shop, easily — it's a classic diner with milkshakes, banana splits, and an unpretentious meat-and-three menu, and nobody blinks at a kid ordering dessert first. Martin's Bar-B-Que is the other easy call: casual, a patio, and pulled pork that kids actually eat.

Is there good barbecue near Elliston Place?

Yes — Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint on Belmont Boulevard, a short five-minute drive. Get the pulled pork from the whole hog or the Redneck Taco (pulled pork on a hoecake), add smoked wings, and don't skip the scratch-made sides.

Where's the best dessert?

The Soda Shop, no contest. The pie program — coconut meringue, chocolate chess, lemon icebox — has been run for decades by the longtime 'Pie Lady,' and the banana pudding and hand-dipped milkshakes are the supporting cast.

Read Next

• •Living in Elliston Place — the honest local's guide to daily life, trade-offs, and rhythm near Vanderbilt.
• •Buying on Elliston Place — what different price points actually get you, plus the mechanicals, permit, and HOA gotchas that catch first-time buyers off guard.