Drink Up: Cracking Open Some Cold Ones, for Research

The closest I’ve ever felt to holding the Holy Grail was when I was handed a 12-ounce bottle of Miller High Life at Duke’s in East Nashville earlier this year. Let me explain. 

I love a crisp white wine, a snooty craft beer or an extravagant cocktail as much as anyone. But at the end of the day, I have to go back to my roots — a cheap, cold beer. Under the right circumstances, it’s both totally unremarkable and the best thing I’ve ever tasted. 

Part of the appeal of a cheap beer is the environment you’re in. For me, that’s oftentimes a grimy, dimly lit dive bar with sticky floors and graffiti on the bathroom walls. A place where hazy cigarette smoke clouds the patio and the sound of clinking billiard balls echoes inside; where the decor mostly includes dart boards and beer memorabilia. (I say this as someone who proudly has a Miller High Life mirror mounted in my kitchen.)

As a recent Nashville transplant, I’ve spent a fair share of my past six months trying out various pubs and dive bars. And now it has become my personal mission — and my assignment for the Scene’s Drinking Issue — to visit as many local watering holes as possible, and to learn the best spots to crack open a cold one in all its glory. 

Starting in East Nashville, the aforementioned Scene favorite Duke’s is the first bar in Nashville that served me a bottled Miller High Life (the premium and most delectable way to enjoy the beverage, in my most humble opinion). This was just a few months following my move to Tennessee, and was my sign from the all-knowing spiritual beer entities that everything was going to be all right. 

Just a few blocks away on Woodland Street at Lakeside Lounge, I enjoyed the $3 “frosty” special, a glass mug filled to the brim with Genesee Light. (Though if you’re ordering a frosty, you probably don’t care what it contains.) Frosties are just $2 during Lakeside’s happy hour, which is seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

While a bit more refined and newer to the East Nashville bar scene, Schulman’s Neighborhood Bar offers bottled PBRs, 7-ounce High Life pony bottles and — if you want a bit of novelty — a 40-ounce bottle of High Life for $15. (For an extra $10, they’ll serve it to you in a Champagne bucket with a side of Aperol, though that may be antithetical to the cheap beer enjoyer’s ethos.) If you’re a fan of large portions, Fran’s Eastside — another longtime Scene fave, which relocated to Dickerson Pike a few years back — offers low-cost buckets of domestic beer. 

While Mickey’s Tavern doesn’t offer bottled beers, it’s a solid spot to enjoy tall boys, priced decently, while illuminated by red mood lighting that can either be cozy or ominous, depending on where you want your night to go.  

The tried-and-true Dino’s closer to Five Points has you covered if you’re searching for a simple beer and some animal-style fries to soak it up. If you’re wanting a cold beer and live music, Cobra has some friendly bartenders and PBR on draft.

Heading across the river, I encountered a bar that might just be the epitome of an ice-cold-beer hang: Batter’s Box on Hermitage Avenue, a small but mighty establishment with a grand view of the twinkling Nashville skyline from its front patio. 

If you feel like tackling the beast that is Lower Broadway, Robert’s Western World offers one of the best deals in town — $2.50 for a High Life. You can also venture down to Printers Alley for some brews at Fleet Street Pub. 

West Nashville’s Springwater Supper Club — the oldest operational bar in Tennessee and another longtime Scene fave — is a delightful cash-only joint a stone’s throw from Centennial Park. A place where vintage music videos and old-school movies play on scattered corner televisions and an American flag acts as the divider between back- and front-of-house. 

As I neared the end of my monthlong tour of Nashville’s best bars for cold beers, a wrench was thrown into my plans. I tested positive for COVID-19. This is where I questioned whether chugging beers in the name of “research” every weekend was the best thing for my immune system. 

That left me with only half the story. A well-rounded piece would explore more of Nashville’s neighborhoods. Sources and Scene staffers tell me to head to The Villager Tavern in Hillsboro Village and Betty’s Grill on the West Side, Bobby’s Idle Hour in Midtown, Rosie’s Twin Kegs in South Nashville and legendary karaoke spot Santa’s Pub by the fairgrounds. 

I guess I’ve got more research to do.

Drink Up: What and Where We’re Drinking Lately

Cheap, cold beer, puddin’ shots, mocktails and our thoughts on Nashville’s newest bars