Bret's Basement Lounge
South Nashville is better known for its taquerias and international grocery stores than for its bars, but that’s only because you haven’t been to them yet. And maybe you’ll never go — that’s OK with us South Nashvillians. We don’t care about living in some hip part of town, because we’d rather have a decent house with a reasonable rent (and proximity to said taquerias and grocery stores).
But the dive bars in our neighborhood really are worth checking out, if you can tolerate the smoke for the sake of $2 beers — and if you’re OK with visiting remnants of a Nolensville Road culture pre-immigrant influx, which is to say the occasional Confederate battle-flag bumper sticker on the wall. (Though that’s not the case with all venues listed here.)
Bret’s Basement Lounge, 3306 Nolensville Pike
Bret’s Basement Lounge is the kind of dive bar where the bartender is so friendly that by the end of the night, we ended up with a beer on the house, just because, and then he begged us to come back next week for a ladies’ pool tournament. It is a true old-school dive — cash-only, beer-only, lots of cigarette smoke, no food unless you count chips. There’s karaoke twice a week, Tuesday and Saturday, and live music on Friday. And it’s a bar full of regulars, but they’re nice regulars, who don’t laugh too loudly when you botch your attempt at singing Patsy Cline.
Bret really does own the bar, which has been around 30 years or so (he’s the third owner), and it really is in a basement. The beer selection is limited, but cheap — $2 PBR, $3 everything else. Multiple televisions have football on, and — one imagines given the signage around — NASCAR probably airs on Sunday. But fair warning: The regulars at Bret’s are an early-drinking crowd, and if no one else is hanging out, the bar might shut down by 11 p.m. Which, really, isn’t the worst thing, you know. CWG
Tin Dog Tavern, 1401 Fourth Ave. S.
A little more than two years ago, Sean Clem transformed what had been a gay dive bar, Purple Heys, into a slightly more hipster-y dive bar called Tin Dog Tavern. Yes, you can smoke (and buy cigarettes from a vending machine!), and yes, there are $2 PBRs. But you can also spend $5 on an IPA or $9 on a glass of Four Roses Single Barrel (still significantly cheaper than most places in town).
Still, the fancy beers and somewhat fancy bourbon are the only thing fancy about Tin Dog. The bartenders curse freely and loudly, with affection. There’s no food, despite the website advertising “Taco Tuesdays.” The bar doesn’t take credit cards, but there is an ATM. The soundtrack ranges from ’80s country to punk to Wilco to Rihanna to black metal, depending on who’s bartending. Tuesdays are stand-up comedy nights, and Sundays are disco dance parties.
Tin Dog doesn’t really get going until midnight, when the service-industry crowd starts getting off work and trickling in, but arriving earlier for a $6 “FreedomRITA” — a can of PBR or Old Style with a shot of tequila — gives you a chance to gossip with the regulars. CWG
The Night Owl
The Night Owl, 330 Welch Road
For decades, the squat little building with the enormous point on top, tucked behind the Walmart at Harding Place and Nolensville Road, was Spanky’s Sports Bar and Grill, home to a comedy open-mic where many local stand-ups cut their teeth. I never visited Spanky’s, but Nolensville Road expert and Scene contributor-emeritus Sean L. Maloney (author of a series titled “The Road,” in which he set out to visit every non-chain restaurant between I-440 and the county line) tells me it was “just sort of dark, smoky and middling. Not really funky, just sorta divorced-dad scuzzy.”
Since Millicent and Randy Boen took over the property and opened The Night Owl in September 2015, the biggest change seems to be that you can’t smoke inside anymore. It’s clean, bartenders are friendly and accommodating, and the drinks come cheap and cold, with options that scale up as far as Crown Royal and Lagunitas IPA. On the food side of the menu, there’s an impressive array of choices, including a solid burger and not-super-memorable wings. If you hate shoestring fries, consider yourself warned — dine next door at Pupuseria Salvadoreña before you come to drink.
The Night Owl
The comedy open-mic has not returned, but the small stage regularly hosts good bands, and the soul-jazz-leaning R&B band that plays at 10 p.m. on Wednesday nights is especially worth making a date for. The group features guitar phenom Nate Foley, who as a teenager took Super Top Dog honors at the Apollo Theater’s brutally competitive Amateur Night contest and later enrolled at Belmont to pursue his music degree. ST
International Famous Twin Kegs, 413 W. Thompson Lane
Relatively little has changed at this Woodbine watering hole since Carter was in the Oval Office. You can still play shuffleboard or watch sports while layering new coats of nicotine on the old wood paneling, and they still serve that amazing burger. My work on the subject of that dead-simple carnivore’s delight has been done for me — thanks to Claire Suddath, Bawston Sean Maloney (again) and Steve Cavendish in previous reviews — but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity or three to go get one. Many sing the praises of the three-quarter-pound Big Bad Burger, but even its little brother stands toe to toe with fancier fare, at drive-thru window prices.
Let’s run down those few changes, though. A couple taps have been added, offering local brews from Jackalope and nearby Black Abbey. Parking is a little trickier, thanks to a new neighbor who claimed the lot space behind the building — part of another property made available by the grace of the previous tenant. Screenwriter/construction worker/regular Mac Cushing helped the Kegs crew put in a little patio around back by the new privacy fence, as well as a new sign on the roof.
Oh, and the karaoke (Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m.) has moved from the platform near the door to a weird spot near the bathroom. If the more crowded hangs at Santa’s or Fran’s East Side aren’t your thing, here’s your spot to belt one out. Just watch out for speeding patrons in case the beer hits someone’s bladder suddenly. ST
