Ben Fieker
Great news! You never have to use Trip Advisor, Yelp, Lonely Planet, Google Reviews, Eater or anything else for travel and restaurant recommendations anymore. Not knocking those sites at all (except Yelp…those people know nothing, Jon Snow). On a recent trip to Buenos Aires, I used Lonely Planet and The Guardian exclusively and the recommendations were dope, but On The Grid is better. Waaaaayyyyyyyyy better.
Allow me to introduce you to the by neighborhood, designer-curated city guide, On The Grid… also known as the best way to find awesome places to shop, eat, drink and be merry. We found out about On The Grid when it launched April 2015 as a side project from Hyperakt. We’ve been using it non-stop while traveling to make sure our restaurant game is on point. Every entry and neighborhood is hand-selected and reviewed by a certified local designer of their city. That’s like having a top secret spy agent deep embedded into Vladimir Putin’s secret service. You can’t get better intel than that! Finally, we have a metric that can unilaterally define whether a restaurant or shop will be top notch or not. Since it’s a proven fact that designers have the best style and refined palates, we can safely judge that every place on OTG is going to be fire ?. It’s almost like having an alternate version of yourself stationed in strategic locations around the world providing date night tips. To top it all off, Hyperakt managed to brand OTG with the most unfinished feeling “hypertext” blue. That’s indeed not an easy task. Bravo.
When our design buds at Perky Bros spearheaded Nashville as the ambassador for OTG, we jumped at the opportunity to curate our very own hood, SOBRO. It’s not every day that you can tell the world how cool your HQ’s neighborhood is. This allowed us to present the “Real Nashville” to the world, not the forced, fake and stuffy list that other city guides will give you. We love our town, our neighborhood, and our haunts. Now you can love them too! See for yourself by clicking the button below or read our blurb from the SOBRO page.
WHY OTG RULES:
1. We’ve been able to make a lot of new friends.
2. We ate extremely well.
3. We connected with our local community.
4. We learned more about things we already love.
5. We had the opportunity to expose others to parts of Nashville that we love.
Ten years ago, SOBRO didn’t exist. Well, technically, it did exist and was SOuth of BROadway (stolen from NYC’s SOHO and DUMBO), but it didn’t have half the places that now call SOBRO their home. Now, SOBRO has a sweet new roundabout with a controversial art piece made of poles, Nashville’s shiny new convention center, multiple huge hotels and hi-rise condos. A few original stalwarts of SOBRO include 3rd & Lindsley, Hot Diggity Dog, Union Station, Rocketown and Sixth Ave. The roots of these places run deep and stand the test of time and expansion.
This is the perfect place for folks that like to wine and dine and to also find the soul and the spirit of our fine city. For such a small section of Nashville, SOBRO runs the gamut.
A few of my personal On The Grid favs:
Bar Sovereign ?
Both low-key and high-end lounge.
Hot Diggity Dogs ?
Do yourself a favor and get the Nashville Dog.
Third Man Records ?
Your turntable still wants to party
Husk ?
Super Fancy. Super Southern. Super Delicious.
Hermitage Cafe ☕️
Authentic down-home local diner
Side note: You’ve got to check out Old Glory in Edgehill Village off of Music Row. This place isn’t in our hood or on OTG yet, but it’s one one the newest, baddest bones in town. Definitely the best build-out for a cocktail bar/lounge in town. As the Dothraki say, “It’s known.”