Buchanan Arts: Nashville's Forgotten Soul Food Corridor Wakes Up in the August Heat

The heat hit me sideways walking up Buchanan Street last August — 96 degrees with humidity that felt personal. But the smell coming off the smokers outside Slim & Husky's and the gospel leaking from a car window with the engine running told me I was in the right corridor. Buchanan Arts is a four-block stretch of North Nashville that most tourist maps skip entirely in favor of Broadway honky-tonks and the Gulch's overpriced brunch scene. That's fine by the regulars.

This neighborhood runs roughly along Buchanan Street between 14th and 18th Avenues North, about a 10-minute drive from downtown if traffic cooperates — and in August, Nashville traffic rarely cooperates. The district sits in the middle of a historically Black commercial corridor that's been feeding people since the 1940s. It went quiet for decades. Now it's loud again, in a good way, though the old guard and the new arrivals don't always agree on what that means.

1. Start at Slim & Husky's, but not for the reason you think

Everybody tells you Slim & Husky's is a pizza place. Sure. They do creative pies with names like "The Cee Smokey" — smoked gouda, mozzarella, roasted garlic, chicken. A large runs about $18-$22. But the real reason to start here is the cinnamon rolls. They're the size of a softball, dripping with glaze, and they come out early.

Get there when they open. The line at lunchtime wraps, and standing outside in August heat for 40 minutes for pizza is a choice I've made once and won't repeat. Morning is better. The AC is working, the staff isn't slammed, and you can sit by the window and watch Buchanan Street wake up. Address is 911 Buchanan Street.

2. The soul food debate nobody asked me to weigh in on

Here's where I'll catch heat: I think Buchanan Arts has better everyday soul food than some of the famous Nashville spots tourists line up for. Swett's gets all the love — and it's earned — but the plates coming out of Silver Sands Café at 937 Locklayer Street hit different. Smaller room, no tour buses, and the fried catfish on Fridays has a cornmeal crust that crunches like it means something.

Silver Sands operates cafeteria-style. You point, they plate. A meat-and-three runs around $10-$13 depending on what you load up. Greens, mac and cheese, yams. The tea is sweet enough to make your dentist wince.

I'm not saying skip Swett's forever. I'm saying if you've only got one lunch in North Nashville, Silver Sands gives you the food without the wait and without the feeling that you're eating inside someone's Instagram reel.

3. Afro-Carib murals and the art you can't buy online

The murals along Buchanan Street aren't decoration. They're a deliberate public art project tied to the neighborhood's identity — portraits of civil rights figures, abstract African-diaspora designs, local faces painted at scale. Most of them went up between 2017 and 2022 through community-funded initiatives. You can walk the full stretch in about 20 minutes if the heat isn't brutal, but it will be brutal in August. Bring water.

Inside the Buchanan Arts District gallery spaces — several of them rotate, and honestly, some feel more like pop-ups than permanent institutions — you'll find work by local Black artists priced to sell, not to impress collectors. I've seen screen prints for $40 and mixed-media pieces for under $200. The quality varies, which is the honest answer nobody puts in a guide.

Skip the "art walk" events if you're claustrophobic or don't like standing in packed rooms with one overworked portable AC unit. Go on a random Tuesday afternoon instead. You'll have the galleries to yourself and the artists actually have time to talk.

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4. Prince's Hot Chicken: the satellite location nobody mentions

Most people know Prince's Hot Chicken Shack from the Ewing Drive location or the original on Dickerson Pike. But there's a satellite spot inside the Buchanan Street area that doesn't get the same press. Same chicken. Same burn. Less chaos.

Order medium unless you've done this before. I watched a guy from Michigan order "extra hot" on a dare last summer and spend the next 15 minutes standing outside with his hands on his knees. The medium at Prince's would qualify as hot at most restaurants. A quarter-chicken dark with white bread and pickles runs around $9-$11. That's the canonical order.

August heat plus hot chicken plus no shade. Eat inside if you can.

5. What happened to the barbershops and why it matters

Buchanan Street used to be lined with barbershops, beauty salons, and small-business storefronts that served the surrounding neighborhood and Fisk University students. A lot of them are gone now — closed, priced out, or replaced by newer concepts that cater to a different crowd. Walking the street, you notice the gaps. Empty lots. Boarded windows between the murals.

This is the part of the gentrification story that doesn't fit neatly into a travel article, but I'm putting it here anyway. The corridor's revival is real and the food is excellent and the art is worth your time. But long-time residents will tell you, if you ask, that rising rents are pushing out the same people whose culture makes the neighborhood worth visiting. That tension is visible. You can see it in the "For Lease" signs next to the new coffee shops.

The Lee Chapel AME Church on 15th Avenue North has been here since the early 1900s. Still standing. Still holding services Sunday mornings.

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6. Fisk University is three blocks away and you should walk over

The Carl Van Vechten Gallery at Fisk University houses a permanent collection that includes work by Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Aaron Douglas. Free admission last time I checked, though hours can be limited — call ahead, especially in summer. The campus itself is a 10-minute walk southeast from Buchanan Street.

Last time I was there in late July, the campus was almost empty. Summer session. Quiet lawns. Jubilee Hall alone is worth the walk — built in 1876, it's the oldest permanent structure for the higher education of Black students in the South. Standing in front of it in that heat, cicadas screaming, felt like something I didn't need to photograph to remember.

7. August logistics: weather, parking, and the drive back

Nashville in August averages highs around 93°F, but the heat index regularly pushes past 100. Afternoon thunderstorms roll in fast — usually between 3 and 5 p.m. — and they're heavy enough to flood low-lying intersections for 20 minutes before draining. Carry a rain layer or at least resign yourself to getting soaked.

Parking along Buchanan Street is mostly free street parking, but spots fill up on weekends. There's a small lot near Slim & Husky's. Don't park in the church lots without permission — they will tow, and they should.

The drive back to downtown takes 10-15 minutes via Jefferson Street. If you're heading to East Nashville afterward, cut across via Dickerson Pike, but expect slowdowns near the Ellington Parkway interchange. Rideshares work fine but surge pricing kicks in during storms. Budget $8-$12 for a one-way Lyft to Broadway on a normal afternoon.