For roughly four decades, come Best of Nashville season, we at the Scene have asked our readers to participate in our biggest annual issue by voting for their favorite local restaurants, bars, businesses, media figures, musicians, athletes and more. Thank heavens we don’t have to count ballots by hand anymore, as we did in the early days. Now you guys can simply punch in all your favorites at this handy link.
With readers’ poll voting open until Aug. 26 — and our writers and editors currently deliberating on what should receive this year’s writers’ choice honors — we thought now would be an excellent time to look back at past winners of both the writers’ choices and readers’ poll. And so why not dip back a decade? To a time before COVID and the Trump era and the proliferation of generative AI — all the way back to 2016. Below find 10 of our 2016 writers’ choices, followed by a roundup of some notable readers’ poll winners. Many of them have picked up a lot of … lets’s say, baggage in the decade since their wins. Others don’t exist anymore. Some may win again.
Bonus: At the bottom of this post you’ll also find some ancient Best of Nashville results — culled from the 1989 BON issue (published in January 1990), which we recently unearthed from our print archives. D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Some notable 2016 writers’ choice winners
From Christmas Eve until late July, Nashville’s longstanding and resilient arthouse, the Belcourt Theatre, closed its doors for massive and so…
Best Good News: The Belcourt Reopens
2016 was a tough year for a lot of reasons — chief among them was the sudden death of Scene editor-in-chief Jim Ridley. A silver lining? When Jim’s beloved Belcourt Theatre reopened following extensive renovations, it had named its sleek new lobby after Jim. D. PATRICK RODGERS
Before high-rise developments loomed all across the skyline, the West End Summit was set to be one of our city’s largest. The two-building con…
Best Accidental Lake: Lake Palmer
Due to stalled development in Midtown, an unintended body of water — the result of a blast site filling with rainwater while plans languished — came to be known as Lake Palmer. The “lake,” named for the developer behind the plans, still has its own (surprisingly lengthy) Wikipedia entry. Eventually the site was sold and the rainwater was drained — but not before securing this tongue-in-cheek Best of Nashville entry. The area is now home to the Broadwest building, popular restaurant Halls Catch and other businesses that are more useful but less funny than Lake Palmer. D. PATRICK RODGERS
Of all the wall murals that Nashville boasts, none is more elegant, more filled with promise than the technicolor invitation sprawled across t…
Best Five-Buck Meal: Carniceria y Taqueria Don Juan
Is there even such a thing as this anymore in town? We can't even seem to find a five-buck iced coffee. D. PATRICK RODGERS
If you look closely enough, a lot of messages can be found in this city. A declaration of love on an overpass or a joke on a bathroom wall. (S…
Best Presidential Endorsement From a Trash Can: Willie Nelson for President
For its casual treatment of the upcoming election — blessed naivete. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
From a kitchen in Murfreesboro to stages all over this country (and a few others), Those Darlins melted many a face over the course of their d…
Best Local Band We’re Going to Miss: Those Darlins
Over the nine or 10 years they were an active band — from practicing in a Murfreesboro kitchen in the mid-Aughts to rocking faces all over this country and a few others as part of a group of bands that brought Nashville rock to worldwide acclaim — Those Darlins stayed high on the list of things that made this city awesome. The band’s final bow in 2016 was the start of an emotional roller-coaster ride, which included Jessi Zazu making her diagnosis of cervical cancer public in late 2016, her powerful visual art show prior to her death from the illness in 2017, and her ferocious final musical project, a collaboration with fellow ex-Darlin Linwood Regensburg as Mama Zu called Quilt Floor and released in 2024. STEPHEN TRAGESER
As any Uber or Lyft driver will tell you, there’s something like 8,000 people moving to Nashville every day. But how many of them are as cool …
Best New Nashvillian: Robyn Hitchcock
There was a time when you might do a double-take if you spotted singular psych-folk-rock songsmith Robyn Hitchcock or his wife and fellow musician Emma Swift around town, but they’ve made the East Side their home base for more than a decade. Both have developed awesome creative relationships and released some of their best music yet (see his The Confuser and her The Resurrection Game). STEPHEN TRAGESER
Oh, Pickles and Ice Cream. You might have been a fine maternity store, but when word came along that you were closing and that Parnassus Books…
Best Bookstore Expansion: Parnassus Books
Ten years later and Parnassus Books is still going strong — thanks in large part to the space they picked up from this big expansion. D. PATRICK RODGERS
Criminal justice reform has been gaining momentum in Nashville as it has across the country, so it might not have shocked you to hear about an…
Best Metro Council Member: Dave Rosenberg
In 2016, then-staffer Steven Hale wrote that then-Councilmember Dave Rosenberg’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana had “shown Rosenberg to be a sharp, thoughtful representative with an eye to what’s working in other cities and a willingness to get into the, uh, weeds.” Some Metro Council terms and a whole lot of change later, Rosenberg (who was also named Best Cartographing Councilmember in 2019 thanks to his affinity for mapmaking) is now the legislative affairs director for Mayor Freddie O’Connell. D. PATRICK RODGERS
If you don’t win during the regular season, you damn sure better win in the offseason or face a complete revolt by your fanbase. Faced with em…
Best Offseason Move: Jon Robinson
Jon Robinson’s Titans tenure is a complicated subject around Nashville. The longtime Patriots staffer succeeded in his goal of making the organization New England South, but at what cost? His gutsy decision to trade the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft for a king’s ransom (including beloved franchise stalwart Derrick Henry) helped build the foundation for five consecutive winning seasons, four playoff berths and an AFC title game appearance. But he also slammed that window of contention shut with an inexplicable trade of star wide receiver A.J. Brown in 2022, a decision that ultimately led to his firing just a few months later. LOGAN BUTTS
June 29, 2016, felt like any other spring day. Hockey season was over — Preds fans had tucked their foam fang fingers back into the closet. An…
Best Nashville Predators Player Who Hasn’t Touched the Ice (Yet): P.K. Subban
P.K. Subban’s time in Nashville was brief, but it’s a time Predators fans will always remember fondly. The brash, electric defender earned two all-star nods during his three-season stint in Nashville, landing himself on the cover of NHL 19. He played a key role in the franchise’s first (and to this day, only) trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017 during his first season at Bridgestone. And most importantly, Subban was known as one of the most philanthropic players in the NHL throughout his career. LOGAN BUTTS
Some notable 2016 readers’ poll winners:
Best Family-Friendly Restaurant: Pied Piper Eatery
Best Dive Bar: Santa’s Pub
Best Concert Series: Live on the Green
Best Local Hip-Hop Act: Mike Floss
Best Beer Selection: Flying Saucer Draught Emporium
Best Burger: Burger Up
Best Brunch: Marché
Best Chef: Tandy Wilson
Best Restaurant: City House
Best Facebook Page: East Nashville
Best Local Liberal: Megan Barry
Best Community Role Model: Mayor Megan Barry
Best Local Twitter Account: @NashSevereWx
Best Thing Nashville Needs: Better Mass Transit (train/subway/light rail)
Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners: Broadway
Best Predators Player: Pekka Rinne
Best Titans Player: Marcus Mariota
Some notable 1989 Best of Nashville winners
When we first launched the Best of Nashville issue as a newly revamped and rebranded alternative-weekly newspaper, the Scene’s approach was a little bit different: We’d poll our readers in a few dozen categories (we received “hundreds” of ballots for our first BON, according to the intro), and our staff would write an entry for the No. 1 vote-getter in each category. Below find a slideshow of several winners from that issue, which was published in January 1990.
A Selection of 1989 Best of Nashville Winners
Entries from the inaugural Best of Nashville issue, published January 1990
Best of Nashville winners from 1989
