Tootsie's Orchid Lounge: Broadway's most famous honky-tonk

Look for the purple building. Tootsie’s World Famous Orchid Lounge has been a Lower Broadway fixture since 1960, and it’s one of the most storied bars in American music. It sits directly across the alley from the Ryman Auditorium, and for decades it was where country music’s biggest names went to unwind, write songs and wait for their big break. Every visitor to Nashville ends up here eventually.

How Tootsie’s got its name

In 1960, Hattie Louise “Tootsie” Bess bought a bar called Mom’s. Legend has it that the painter she hired coated the outside in a bright orchid purple instead of the color she’d ordered. She kept it, and Mom’s became Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. The color never changed.

Tootsie Bess became as beloved as the bar itself. She was famously generous to struggling musicians, running tabs for songwriters who couldn’t pay and keeping their IOUs in a cigar box behind the bar. She ran the lounge until her death in 1978, and her spirit still sets the tone.

Where the legends drank

Because the Grand Ole Opry broadcast from the Ryman until 1974, Opry stars would slip out the back door between sets and cross the alley to Tootsie’s. Willie Nelson wrote and pitched songs here early in his career, and Tootsie even let him live upstairs for a time. Kris Kristofferson, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings and Faron Young were all regulars. Loretta Lynn recalled that her husband often waited at Tootsie’s while she performed next door, and scenes from her biopic, Coal Miner’s Daughter, were filmed inside.

The Wall of Fame

Tootsie started pinning up photos of the artists who passed through, and today the Wall of Fame covers nearly every surface inside. You’ll find faded snapshots of Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson alongside today’s chart-toppers and hopefuls who dream of joining them. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum even honored the lounge with its own photo exhibit in 2011.

Live music from morning to night

Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Nashville runs live music on three stages, including a rooftop, from late morning until the early hours. There’s usually no cover; bands play for tips, so bring cash for the jar. The setlists lean classic country with plenty of crowd requests, and the house bands are some of the sharpest on Broadway.

It’s cramped, loud and gloriously unpretentious. Go in the early afternoon if you want a seat close to the stage, or late at night for the full Broadway crowd.

Finding Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Nashville, Tennessee

Tootsie’s is at 422 Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee, between 4th and 5th Avenues and directly behind the Ryman Auditorium. From Noelle, it’s about a five-minute walk. Pair it with a show at the Ryman for the most classic night out in Music City.