Best of Melrose: The Sutler, Franklin Pike, and Where Locals Actually Spend Saturdays

First, let's fix the address everybody gets wrong, including the version of this article that used to live here. The strip is 8th Avenue South. Not Franklin Pike. Franklin Pike is the road 8th Ave turns into a little farther down, and somewhere along the way somebody decided the two were interchangeable. They are not. If you tell a local you're meeting them on Franklin Pike for burgers, they will drive right past you. So: 8th Ave South, the Melrose stretch, roughly between Wedgewood and Berry Hill. That's where we're eating today.

Here's the honest framing, because it sets your expectations the right way: Melrose is a strip, not a district. It does not have the restaurant density of 12 South next door. What it has instead is a small, tight run of places that each happen to be genuinely good at the one thing they do — the best Thai in town by a lot of people's count, the second-ever Hattie B's, a diner that takes its coffee seriously, a burger pub that's been the neighborhood living room since 2008. You're not navigating forty options. You're learning maybe seven, and then you're set for years. We walk a lot of buyers down this stretch, and the food is part of why they fall for it, so here, plate by plate, is where the locals actually go and what to order when you get there.

If You're Moving Here From Out of State

Here's the orientation, because a list only helps if you can picture where things sit. Almost everything worth eating is on 8th Ave South itself, strung along a walkable mile or so. Coming from the Wedgewood end, you hit Baked on 8th first (1512), then 8th & Roast across from the comedy club (2108), the Smiling Elephant (2213) and Hattie B's (2222) almost facing each other, M.L.Rose a bit farther up (2535), and Fenwick's 300 in the old Melrose building on the Berry Hill side (2600). You could park once and walk the whole thing, though most locals don't — they drive to the one they came for and grab the spot out front.

Two scheduling gotchas are worth burning into memory now, because they're the difference between dinner and a locked door. The Smiling Elephant, the best food on the strip, is closed Sunday and Monday — lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday, dinner only on Saturday. And Fenwick's 300, the brunch pick, is a morning place: roughly 7am to 2pm on weekdays, 7am to 3pm weekends, and then it's done for the day. Plan a Saturday-night dinner around either of those without checking and you'll be improvising in the car. Ask me how I know.

Where to Eat

The Smiling Elephant

The one I send people to first is the Smiling Elephant, a family-owned hole-in-the-wall at 2213 8th Ave S that locals will quietly tell you is the best Thai in Nashville and then watch your face to make sure you understood. The menu leads with the Pad Thai and it earns the placement, but the move regulars make is the curry of the day, which changes daily, paired with the Pad See Ew — those wide rice noodles come out almost melt-in-your-mouth, soft and a little smoky from the wok. The Massaman curry and the Pad Thai with duck both draw their own followings, the cooking is done in light olive oil with no MSG, and the portions are generous enough that ordering family-style across a couple plates leaves you with lunch tomorrow. Close with the hot coconut custard — warm, eggy, just sweet enough. It's walk-in and takeout only, no reservations, and again: closed Sunday and Monday.

Hattie B's Hot Chicken

If you're new to Nashville, this is the one you've already heard of without knowing it's right here: Hattie B's at 2222 8th Ave S is the second location of the place that became the benchmark for Nashville hot chicken, sitting almost directly across from the Smiling Elephant. The whole experience is built around a heat ladder — pick a cut (breast, tenders, or wings), then pick a level, running Southern (no heat), Mild, Medium, Hot, Damn Hot, and Shut the Cluck Up, that last one a 500,000-plus-Scoville wall of ghost pepper and habanero. Medium is the crowd-pleaser, Hot is where the regulars actually live, and the chicken underneath the burn is the point: crispy outside, juicy inside, the cayenne-paste crust soaked in just enough to glow. The non-negotiable side is the pimento mac and cheese, gooey with a little pepper kick, with the cool red-skin potato salad as the counterweight; white bread and pickles come standard to tame things. It's counter service with a near-constant line and a big patio, so go in knowing you'll wait a few minutes for it.

Fenwick's 300

For a seven-days-a-week breakfast or brunch, Fenwick's 300 sits in the Melrose building at 2600 8th Ave S on the Berry Hill side — a modern diner concept (inspired partly by the movie Diner) and a Bongo Java spot, so the coffee is legit, with a separate coffee bar pouring real lattes while you wait. The Melrose burger gets the to-die-for reviews, but the sleeper order is the corned beef Kimchi Reuben, which locals call as good as any Reuben in town — the kimchi adds a bright, funky bite the classic version never had. For breakfast, skip the obvious and get the hash or the bacon-and-egg fried rice, the two sleeper picks, then round it out with the mascarpone French toast or the whipped goat cheese with biscuits and house jams. The bar is built from a salvaged lane out of the old Melrose bowling alley that used to be in that basement, which is the detail you'll point at every single time you bring someone new. Just remember it's a morning place — roughly 7am to 2pm weekdays, to 3pm on weekends — and then it's closed.

Coffee

8th & Roast

8th & Roast at 2108 8th Ave S is the original location of the local roaster, sitting right across from Zanies, and it's the daily-driver stop on the strip — a calm, quiet room with community tables and bar seating that doesn't blast music at you while you're trying to read an inspection report. That last part is me; the room is just quiet, and that's a feature. Because they've been roasting since 2009, the honest move is to order it black or as a pour-over and taste why people rate the beans, though the vanilla latte is the one reviewers single out as rich and balanced if you want milk in it. The fun play is the seasonal house-syrup drinks — a pistachio brown-sugar latte finished with flaky sea salt, a peach-cobbler-syrup chai — and the food is made in-house, so pair it with a cheddar-bacon-chive scone or the bacon-egg-cheese croissant. Open seven days, roughly 7am to 6pm.

Drinks

M.L.Rose Neighborhood Pub

The signature locals' hangout is M.L.Rose at 2535 8th Ave S, the flagship of the little local pub group and on this strip since 2008 — recently rebranded from 'Craft Beer & Burgers' to 'Neighborhood Pub,' same place, same address, don't let the new sign throw you. The burger to order is the signature smash: two thin patties griddled crisp, American cheese, onions caramelized in bacon fat, iceberg, tomato, pickles, and awesome sauce, the kind of burger that's better than the sum of its parts. Spice-seekers go for the Five-Alarm — house hot sauce, jalapenos, cheddar — and either one comes alongside the waffle fries the place is genuinely known for, crisp-edged and built for the Thicc Ranch that arrives with the fried pickle chips you should start with. There are 36-plus rotating local and regional taps, a big covered and heated patio with a fire pit, it's dog-friendly, and the happy hour (3 to 6pm daily) runs 2-for-1 beer and half-price classic cheeseburgers and tenders. Weekend brunch runs 2-for-1 cocktails, which is either a great idea or a terrible one depending on what you had planned for the rest of your Saturday. I've made both choices.

Dessert

Baked on 8th

The strip's dessert anchor is Baked on 8th, a sweet-Southern bakery at 1512 8th Ave S down on the Wedgewood end, and it's the one to know when you need to bring something or just end the day right. Go for the thick signature cookies first — the chocolate chip is the standout, dense and a little underbaked in the best way — then the Southern bars, the Chess Bar and the Hello Dolly, which are exactly the kind of buttery, gooey squares Nashville grandmothers have been making forever. The indulgent picks are the millionaire shortbread, a cookie-dough-like shortbread base under a layer of creamy caramel, and the galaxy brownie, while the peach bourbon pie gets called flat-out delicious. They also do genuinely strong gluten-free cakes (German chocolate, strawberry) and full custom celebration cakes for birthdays and showers, so it doubles as the neighborhood cake shop. Open Monday through Saturday 8am to 7pm, Sunday 10am to 4pm.

Beyond the Plate

Two non-food anchors round out a day on the strip, and they're worth knowing. Zanies Comedy Night Club at 2025 8th Ave S has been booking stand-up since 1983 — a small room, which is the whole appeal, because you're close enough that the comedian can see you not laughing, so you'd better laugh. And for daylight, walk or drive east toward 12 South and you hit Sevier Park, about twenty acres around the historic Sunnyside mansion at 3000 Granny White Pike, with a paved walking path, playgrounds, tennis and pickleball, and grounds that are friendly to a dog with opinions. Brown's Creek Greenway threads from the 8th Ave area over to the park, so on a good-weather Saturday you can string coffee, a walk, and lunch together without getting back in the car.

Recently Closed (So You Don't Go Looking)

A quick honesty pass, because the internet hasn't caught up and nothing makes you look more out-of-touch than recommending a place that locked its doors two years ago. If a 'top things to do in Melrose' page sends you to any of these, you'll be standing in front of a closed building wondering if you have the wrong address. You don't. The place is just gone.

• •Craft Brewed at 2502 8th Ave S — the bottle-shop and taproom with the 32 craft taps and the covered patio — closed around 2023. It still surfaces on some Melrose and 8th Avenue listicles (Culture Trip among them) as an open craft-beer spot, but Yelp shows it closed as of 2026. For that kind of night now, M.L.Rose up the block is your answer.
• •Sinema, the upscale restaurant in the restored 1942 Melrose Theater space, closed August 31, 2024 after a ten-year run. Aggregators still list it; it is not open.
• •The Sutler Saloon — the live-music anchor that the old version of this very guide led with — closed back in March 2022. Also still floating around on travel sites as 'open.' It isn't.

What's Missing (Honestly)

Melrose eats well for its size, but it isn't trying to be everything, and you should know the gaps before you move in expecting them filled. None of this is a knock — it's just the honest shape of a strip that does a few things very well rather than everything at once.

• •Restaurant density at the level of 12 South — Melrose is a strip, not a district. For twenty cuisines in walking distance you'll be driving to 12 South, the Gulch, or West End for some of them.
• •A walkable grocery run; most errands here mean a short drive.
• •A live-music anchor on the strip itself since The Sutler went dark, though Zanies still carries the nighttime energy.
• •A late-night scene — the kitchens here close at neighborhood hours, not bar-district hours, and two of the best spots (the Smiling Elephant's Sunday/Monday dark days, Fenwick's morning-only hours) need checking before you build a plan around them.

Quick Questions People Actually Ask

What's the best restaurant in Melrose?

For the food a lot of locals would put first, it's the Smiling Elephant — order the curry of the day with the Pad See Ew, and the Pad Thai if it's your first time. For the Nashville-bucket-list answer, it's Hattie B's hot chicken at Medium or Hot with the pimento mac and cheese. The two sit almost across from each other on 8th Ave S, so you really can't lose.

Where's the best brunch?

Fenwick's 300 in the Melrose building is the strip's brunch pick — get the Melrose burger or the corned beef Kimchi Reuben, or for breakfast the hash or the bacon-and-egg fried rice, with a Bongo Java latte from the coffee bar. Just go in the morning: it runs roughly 7am to 2pm weekdays and to 3pm on weekends, then closes.

What's the most kid-friendly spot?

A few work. M.L.Rose has a big covered patio, waffle fries, chicken tenders, and is dog-friendly, so it handles a family easily. Baked on 8th is a cookie-and-cake bakery, which is to say it's catnip for kids. And Sevier Park a few minutes east has playgrounds and open grounds to run off the sugar afterward.

Best coffee in Melrose?

8th & Roast at 2108 8th Ave S, no real debate — it's the original location of the local roaster, across from Zanies, with a quiet room you can actually sit in. Order it black or as a pour-over to taste the beans, or get the vanilla latte, and pair it with a cheddar-bacon-chive scone. Fenwick's coffee bar (Bongo Java) is the other strong cup on the strip if you're there for breakfast.

Where do locals go for a drink?

M.L.Rose at 2535 8th Ave S — the signature pub on the corridor since 2008, with 36-plus rotating craft taps, a fire-pit patio, and a 3-to-6pm happy hour running 2-for-1 beer and half-price cheeseburgers and tenders. It rebranded from 'Craft Beer & Burgers' to 'Neighborhood Pub,' but it's the same place.

Where's the best dessert or bakery?

Baked on 8th at 1512 8th Ave S on the Wedgewood end. Get the thick chocolate chip cookie and a Southern bar (the Chess Bar or Hello Dolly); the millionaire shortbread and peach bourbon pie are the indulgent picks. They also do strong gluten-free cakes and full custom celebration cakes.

Read Next

• •Living in Melrose: An Honest Local's Guide — daily life on and around 8th Ave South, who thrives here, and the trade-offs worth knowing before you write an offer.
• •Buying in Melrose: What Different Price Points Actually Get You — the housing stock, the older-home realities, and the nearby developments a local expert on our team will pull the permits on before you sign anything.