Couples dance to Chris Scruggs and the Stone Fox Five at Skinny Dennis
Under the broad umbrella of local venues you could defensibly call “honky-tonks,” there are standouts all over town. Robert’s Western World in the neon canyon of Lower Broad. Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge up in Madison. The Nashville Palace in Music Valley. Unlikely as it seems, the best new addition to Nashville’s honky-tonk scene comes to us by way of Brooklyn. (Yes, really!) An outpost of the Williamsburg venue named for country bassist Skinny Dennis Sanchez, the Gallatin Pike spot is a solid addition to East Nashville, regularly hosting performances from top-shelf country artists including Chris Scruggs, Joshua Hedley, The Cowpokes and fellow Best of Nashville writers’ choice winner Kristina Murray. Will some purists say it’s not a proper honky-tonk if it’s an outpost of a Brooklyn spot, which is itself an impression of a Nashville dive? Probably. But it’s got good drinks, good tunes, good vibes and plenty of room to two-step your sweetheart across the floor, if that’s what you’re into.
