Best New Bar/Club (opened since January 2002): Mercy Lounge Chark Kinsolving (also my vote for “Best Name”) and Brent Woodard finally opened the Mercy Lounge on Cannery Row in January of this year after what seemed like eons of jumping through code and license hoops. Whereas some bars have one great feature—pool tables, a great deck, a great music venue or cool vibe—Mercy Lounge combines them all. There’s a strong lineup of local and national rock acts; but what makes the venue so appealing is that when you’re tired of having 110 decibels pelting your eardrums, you can head to the back pool room or out to the deck. In just the first eight months of business, the bar has survived a lightning strike that tore off the building’s roof, followed shortly thereafter by a burglary. But, as Kinsolving and Woodard can attest, what doesn’t kill you makes you drunker.

—Jack Silverman

Best Country-Western Club: The Station Inn Take an out-of-towner to The Station Inn, and you’ll make ’em a Nashvillian for life. Going on 30 years of stone country music, J.T. Gray’s historic 12th Avenue hole-in-the-wall has hosted most every bluegrass giant and star-in-the-making in a warm picnic-pavilion of a room whose friendly, down-home vibe suggests a church social with beer. The crowds holler, the players sometimes holler back and even the acoustic jams are electric (especially when the Time Jumpers are hot-footing some Western swing). Plus, you’ve gotta love the “Bluegrass Police” T-shirts.

—Jim Ridley

Best place to take out-of-town guests: Downtown Traffic can be nightmarish, parking expensive and Second Avenue full of daring teenagers ignoring the cruising restrictions. These worries may keep Nashville residents from heading downtown, even when they’ve got company to show around. Too bad. The Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, Fort Nashboro and the shops on Broadway are all obvious tourist destinations. Taken in conjunction with the recently completed Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge (with its wonderful views of the stadium, the river and the skyline), the Arena, B.B. King’s new club and even the construction site for the symphony hall, Nashville’s downtown has all the characteristics of a vibrant and interesting city center. It feels and looks like a place where people can enjoy themselves.

—MiChelle Jones

Best Lesbian Bar: Lipstick Lounge As a single young male, there’s nothing better than walking into a bar full of women. At East Nashville’s Lipstick Lounge, many of the women come in pairs, but hey, no big deal—these gals are fun. Owners Ronda Landers, Jonda Valentine and Christa Suppan, who opened the neighborhood lounge a year ago, insist that their club isn’t a “lesbian bar.” Most nights, though, you’ll be imbibing with a lot of woman-loving women. But in the mix you’ll find plenty of straight couples, former Metro councilmen, prominent East Nashvillians, the occasional Scene staffer and anyone else who enjoys loud music and lively company. Everyone at the Lounge is interesting, and most are pretty good dancers too. Check out Ronda and Jonda’s rollicking Friday-night show; drop in and sing Karaoke one of many other nights; or get a taste of local talent on a Sunday writer’s night. Be sure to save time to relax on the comfy sofas or play free pool upstairs. In my experience, the evening possibilities at this nightspot are as diverse as the clientele.

—John Spragens

Best Jukebox: H. Cue’s Too often, a jukebox becomes a test in endurance when out with friends. You’ll find yourself slogging through other people’s crap while you wait for “your songs.” Fortunately, you sometimes find a jukebox where every song feels like your song. Any setup that encompasses The Pixies, Guns N’ Roses and A Tribe Called Quest has definitely got its priorities straight. The ideal moment: my friend Callie sinking a ball just at the “here we go!” in “Stop!” by Jane’s Addiction. Any resourceful music fan can find something worthwhile on any jukebox, but you can’t beat H. Cue’s for maximum appeal in minimum space.

—Jason Shawhan

Best Music Venue to Throw Darts: The Boardroom Sure, other Music City dart galleries are larger than this cozy pincushion not far from the Hermitage Cafe on First Avenue. But no other place offers a game of darts and weekend multi-band bills as the Boardroom does at its relaxed, popular Sunday-afternoon porch parties. Listeners chill on the wooden deck, taking in twilight sets by Lady Cop, The Clutters and other Nashville up-and-comers. As the evening closes, the din of three-chord rock gives way to the steady thwock! thwock! thwock! of metal stinging cork. On weeknights, the soundtrack is supplied by the jukebox, where Will Hoge, the White Stripes and the Repo Man soundtrack bump up against David Allan Coe and Bob Seger. Novices should steer clear on Wednesdays—that’s the night for Greater Nashville Darting Association matches, when the Long Shafts and the Veranda Thugs do battle with the likes of the Richard Craniums.

—Jim Ridley

Best Place To Shoot Pool: Chandler’s Billiards Once part of an entertainment complex that included the still operating Melrose Lanes (see below) and the long defunct Melrose movie theater, this downstairs pool hall has the look that newfangled “retro” places only dream of. Go through its neon-lit doorway, down the curving terrazzo staircase to the art deco bar, and you’ll feel like you walked back into 1942—which is when the complex was built. Boasting 11 regulation pool tables, a snooker table, Ping-Pong and shuffleboard—not to mention food from the Sportsman’s Grille—this pleasant neighborhood joint deserves to be lovingly patronized.

—Paul Griffith

Best Bowling Alley: Melrose Lanes At any given moment, Melrose Lanes is the best available microcosm of Nashville. Rich, poor, white, black, thin, fat, drunk, sober, young, old, Jew, gentile, carnivore or vegan, you’ll find them all within the walls of Franklin Road’s venerable pin parlor. You won’t find better fuzzy navels anywhere in the city, and the drink prices are deliciously low. I love Melrose Lanes because you always feel welcome there, even if you can’t bowl to save your life. And if you like fried things, the snack bar cannot be beat. Come for the joy of watching Nashville strive to succeed. Stay for the schadenfreude when it fails. Strikes and gutter balls in abundance with your fellow man.

—Jason Shawhan

Best Place to Dance: Connection Size isn’t always everything, but the expansive dance floor at Connection can alternately be as packed as a rock show or as intimate and tribally cathartic as a revival service. That’s a lot of latitude for a disco that used to be a canning plant. A dance floor is like a canvas, and the Connection can be a multicolored pointillist collage of sound and vision, or it can be a haphazard Jackson Pollock portrait of randomness. The lighting is inadequate, and the sound needs some serious calibration, but there is simply no other choice in the city for a place to go dance and have a meaningful moment with the music. Do straight dance clubs even have hands-in-the-air anthem moments? —Jason Shawhan

Best Karaoke: Tuesdays and Thursdays at The Chute No one orchestrates a karaoke evening in Nashville better than Steve Mogck. And his resident nights at The Chute on Franklin Road promise three things: a great and supportive crowd, a varied and comprehensive menu of choices and the strong possibility that you’ll hear someone who happens to be really good. Eighties pop, show tunes, country hits, the occasional dance anthem—they all play nicely together at Mogck’s nights. Where else can you experience the fine line between interpretive singing and performance art with reasonably priced drinks as well?

—Jason Shawhan

Best Place to Get Sober: Hermitage Cafe The finest thing about drinking may be that it gives you freedom to consume gratuitous calories at odd hours. If you’re craving such a post-drinking ritual, skip the Waffle House and go directly to the real thing: the Hermitage Cafe. Owner Patricia Taylor opened the downtown diner on Hermitage Avenue in May 1990 and has since dished out breakfast and meat-and-three fare to everyone from truck drivers to songwriters. A recent midnight excursion to Hermitage Cafe found my friends and me huddled over coffee at the bar, wishing for once that we were smokers. The biscuits and gravy were sublime; the eggs and bacon were restorative. And just as we were leaving the diner, we ran into a worn-looking man walking away from Broadway, carrying a guitar and a bucket. We asked if we could exchange a beer for a song, and he agreed. He turned over his bucket, sat down and played through “Ring of Fire.” Then he kindly took his beer and wandered off. Hermitage Cafe had delivered us once again. (Hermitage Cafe is currently open 10 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., closing in the late afternoon and early evening, but will return to 24-hour service in the near future.)

—Erin Edwards

Best Movie Theater: The Belcourt Theatre The Belcourt isn’t Nashville’s best movie theater just because it runs independent, foreign and semi-obscure films you won’t see anywhere else in town. It isn’t the best theater just because you can enjoy an adult beverage at a fair price while taking in the flick (or concert or play or post-film panel discussion). It’s not the best just because you can debrief the film afterward over dinner or drinks at any of several non-chain restaurants, bars and coffeehouses within walking distance of the theater. And it’s not the best just because it occupies a building whose rich history of film, music and theater dates back to the Coolidge administration (including three years as home of the Grand Ole Opry during the mid-1930s). But put it all together, and you’ve got a nonprofit community treasure that leaves the stadium seats, ear-splitting sounds and extortionate concessions over at your local umpteenplex in the dust.

—Bruce Barry

Best New Movie Theater: Stardust Drive-In Theatre, Watertown The opening of a new “ozoner” (that’s Variety speak for drive-in) flies in the face of megaplex Darwinism. In scientific terms, imagine the birth next week of a bouncing baby brontosaurus. But the blockbuster turnout for Tennessee’s 15th outdoor movie theater, located about 40 minutes east of Nashville off I-40 in Watertown, shows that blacktop cinephilia may be in for a revival. Even with a wave of opening-night snafus—backward reels, burning film, a concession-stand grill still sitting in its crate—the sellout crowd ate it up. Families drove from as far away as Ohio for the double bill of Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean. Kids stopped playing catch just long enough for “The Star-Spangled Banner” to echo across the lot from every FM-radio speaker. If you grew up in the era of dusk-to-dawn quadruple bills, your misspent adolescence will flash before your eyes. If you didn’t, grab a Philly cheese steak, an Alien Glow Pop and a jumbo Hi-C Fruit Punch, roll down the windows, and watch the edges of the screen fade into the sky of God’s screening room. See www.stardustdrivein.com for directions, movies and show times, or call (615) 237-0077.

—Jim Ridley

Best Place for a Cheap Date: Watkins College of Art & Design Watkins Film School’s free Friday-night screenings are still the cheapest movie date in town, even with a dollar box of popcorn from the lobby. This week, the school launches an ambitious schedule of unreleased American indies to be projected on film in Watkins’ fine new screening room. But movies aren’t the only cheap date in town. Go on a weekend-night gallery crawl through the city’s many art openings, almost all of which are free and have receptions (including the Watkins gallery, which boasts some of the best free food you’ll find anywhere on the art-opening circuit). Walk the impressive new Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge at night when the lights over the water offer about as romantic a view of the city as you’ll find. Share a steaming cup of coffee on the porch at Bongo Java, then browse at Book Discoveries and Spun Music and Movies. There are cities where a lack of money would drive me mental—New York and San Francisco—but Nashville isn’t one of them. “Dreaming,” as Blondie said, “is free.”

—Jim Ridley

Best Day Trip: Dickson Tennessee had more than 100 drive-in movie theaters in the 1950s, most of which are long gone. One that survives is the delightful Broadway Drive-In on Highway 70 East in Dickson County, a bit beyond White Bluff and about 20 miles past Bellevue. This roadside delight, family-operated since 1950, screens first-run family-hospitable films on weekend evenings with good burgers and other fare available, all at popular prices. Consider a stop en route at Carl’s Perfect Pig (on Highway 70 in White Bluff) for seriously terrific Tennessee barbecue. Get a slab of pork ribs to go. A furtive glance is all it takes to extract meat from bone. Chow down at the drive-in while the kids roam the grassy area under the screen, waiting for dusk and show time. Extend the excursion with an overnight billet at the inn at Montgomery Bell State Park (or a cabin or campsite), just a mile or two east of the Broadway. There’s no hooch license at the inn, so tote your own. Be prepared to tie on the feedbag at the above-average country breakfast buffet the next morning before heading back to the 21st century. —Bruce Barry

Best Golf Course: Shelby Don’t walk it, because the hills would challenge a marathoner. From the get-go, you’re teeing off from a massive overlook, and from that point forward, you’re traveling over hill and dale. This 18-hole gem, smack in the heart of East Nashville, is a quaint little place and is as far from country club living as you can get. But it’s had its share of celebrities play there—Bill Boner, for instance.

—Bruce Dobie

Best Charitable Event: Artrageous On Nov. 8, Artrageous will celebrate its 16th year as Nashville CARES’ major fund-raising event and Nashville’s biggest, flashiest, gaudiest, most colorful, most inclusive and, of course, most outrageous party. What began as a cocktail party and tour of the city’s art galleries has grown into a series of events that nets more than $175,000 annually for the AIDS aid nonprofit. Every year is themed (immeasurably helpful to the drag queens agonizing over what in the world to wear to top last year’s costume), and 2003’s Pop Artrageous will celebrate soup cans and celebrity icons with the early-evening tour of eight galleries (well-stocked with food and libations donated by the city’s most popular restaurants and distributors) before moving on to the circus-like late party at The Nashville Arena, the only place in town big enough to host. Though major sponsors and host patrons at various levels account for much of the big bucks raised, the price of a single ticket is well within anyone’s budget and buys a priceless evening of entertainment.

—Kay West

Best Holiday Celebration: Independence Day Celebration I don’t have an American flag decal on my car, and Lee Greenwood’s anthem to America doesn’t usually get me choked up. But this year’s Independence Day Celebration on the banks of the Cumberland was moving. With a national audience watching on A&E, Nashville met the challenge with an impressive Fourth of July show that culminated in our most impressive (and probably expensive) fireworks show to date. Watching from an East Nashville vista, I recall regretting that we weren’t able to hear the Nashville Symphony’s live soundtrack to the show. But once a symphony of “oohs” and “ahhs” by folks sitting all around me began, I’ll admit it, I got a lump in my throat. It will be a hard act to follow.

—Erin Edwards

Best Local Pro Sports Team: Tennessee Titans The Predators and Sounds have games. The Titans host events. You go on Sunday morning, don’t come back until it’s almost Sunday night, and begin conversations throughout the rest of the week talking about either how the Titans fared or how they’ll do next time out. No other sports outfit has ever exerted such a hold upon our collective imagination. They’re not Nashville’s team. That would imply we own them, rather than the other way around.

—Randy Horick

Best Local Sports Celebrity: Steve McNair In an era when we expect glamour and flash from pro sports stars, McNair is unrepentantly old-school. We celebrate his un-celebrity. He’s not brash. He doesn’t project arrogance or attitude. He’s polite. You’re as likely to see him at his kids’ soccer games as out on the town. We were surprised when he was arrested for DUI, but not when next he did something unexpected by the standards of pro footballers: He publicly apologized. John Lennon’s old lyric sounds as if it were written specifically for him: A working-class hero is something to be.

—Randy Horick

Best Quotable Pro Athlete: Keith Bulluck Almost all pro athletes quickly learn the locker-room interview drill: Say nothing controversial, incite no opponents with bulletin-board fodder, be blander than chicken soup. Against this backdrop, Bulluck stands out like an electric-green suit in a corporate finance department. Knowing that everything he says can and will be used against him by opponents, Keith fires away undaunted. A diplomat he ain’t—which is why reporters flock to him, pens and microphones ready. He decides. We report.

—Randy Horick

Best Regular Guest on Sports Talk Radio: John McLain McLain is that rarest of commodities: a knowledgeable voice in the vast wilderness of pap, otherwise known as talk radio. And he doesn’t even have his own show. Instead, the droll McLain, a columnist for the Houston Chronicle who covered the Oilers for years, regularly serves via cell phone as an oracle for all questions about the NFL. On not just one but now two call-in shows, he’s the one must-listen guest for pro football fans, and listeners can’t get enough. If anyone knows more about the NFL, we don’t want to meet him. That would be scary.

—Randy Horick

Best Sports Ticket Bargain: Cheap Seats at Predators Games Last year, depressed attendance drove the Preds to discount their cheapest tickets deeply. Their misfortune was our gain. With a Tennessean coupon on Thursday nights, you could score an upper-level seat for a measly 7 bucks. Even at the full price of $17, those seats were an excellent bargain, considering the rafter rats are generally the most vocal (and knowledgeable) hockey fans in the house.

—Randy Horick

Best Play-by-Play Announcer: Pete Weber In a hockey game, five different players might touch the puck during a 10-second span. No game is more demanding for an announcer to call. The pace is faster, with fewer breaks than even basketball. Weber makes it sound easy with a fluid style that’s both urgent and reassuring all at once. One of the few pleasures of driving in Nashville on a wet, wintry night is hearing Weber’s voice on the radio calling the play-by-play of a Predators game. In his case, hearing is better than seeing. It’s not often you can say that.

—Randy Horick