Buchanan Arts in July: Nashville's Forgotten Hot-Chicken Block Beyond Broadway

The first time I drove up Buchanan Street in July, my truck's AC had quit somewhere around Dickerson Pike, and I was sweating through my shirt before I even found parking. That's Nashville in July for you — 95°F with humidity that sits on your chest like a wet dog. But the air smelled like hot oil and cayenne, and a hand-painted mural of a rooster the size of a garage door told me I was in the right place.

Buchanan Street runs north of the Jefferson Street corridor, roughly between 17th and 19th Avenues North. Most Nashville visitors never leave the Lower Broadway loop, which means they're eating Luke Bryan's restaurant food and dodging bachelorette pedal taverns instead of standing in line for a $9 hot-chicken sandwich that'll rearrange their priorities. Buchanan Arts is a six-block stretch of Black-owned galleries, food counters, and barber shops that operates on its own clock — slower in the morning, loud by midafternoon, and mostly shut down by 8 p.m. Plan accordingly.

1. Prince's Hot Chicken is not the only game on this block

Everyone knows Prince's. It deserves its reputation. But the Buchanan Street location of Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish at 624 Main Street is the one I'd send a friend to first, especially in July when Prince's line wraps into direct sun. Bolton's does a hot-fish sandwich — whiting, fried to order, doused in their cayenne oil — that I think about at least twice a month.

The heat levels at Bolton's are honest. "Medium" will make your lips tingle. "Hot" means you'll need the white bread they give you on the side, and it's there for a reason. A hot-chicken tender plate runs around $11. Cash is fine. They close at 9 p.m. most nights but I've seen them shut the fryer off early on slow weekdays.

Skip Hattie B's entirely. I know people love it. I know the line looks like it means something. It doesn't — it means tourists read the same listicle. The chicken is fine. Fine is not what you drove to North Nashville for.

2. The galleries open late and close when they feel like it

Buchanan Arts District has a loose constellation of galleries and studios between 17th and 19th Avenues North. The anchor is Greer Stadium Gallery — no, not that Greer Stadium — which rotates local Black artists monthly and keeps weekend hours from noon to 5 p.m. Free admission.

In July, several studios participate in an open-doors walk on the first Saturday of the month. You'll see printmakers, ceramicists, and at least one person screen-printing concert posters by hand. The walk starts around 1 p.m., but "around" is the operative word. Nobody's rushing.

Don't expect white-walled Chelsea spaces. These are working studios with paint on the floor and fans running in every corner.

3. Silver Sands Café deserves more of your morning

Silver Sands Café at 937 Buchanan Street has been open since the early 2000s, and the meat-and-three format hasn't changed. You point at what you want behind the glass, they plate it, you sit down. Fried catfish on Fridays. Mac and cheese every day. A full plate with a drink is around $12-14.

The dining room is small — maybe ten tables — and the AC works hard but not always hard enough in July. I've eaten lunch here in a back corner with sweat dripping off my forehead onto cornbread, and I didn't care. The greens have pot liquor worth drinking straight.

Get there at 11:15. The lunch crowd peaks between noon and 1 p.m., and the room fills fast.

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4. July weather will test your commitment

I'm not going to sugarcoat this. Nashville in July averages 90-95°F with humidity regularly above 70%. You will sweat through whatever you're wearing by 2 p.m. Afternoon thunderstorms roll in three or four days a week, usually between 3 and 5 p.m., drop an inch of rain in twenty minutes, and vanish. Buchanan Street has almost no covered sidewalks.

Bring water. Not a suggestion — a requirement. There's no good reason to walk this neighborhood between 1 and 4 p.m. unless you're ducking into an air-conditioned studio. Morning hours and early evening are when the block is most comfortable and most alive.

A decent strategy: eat an early lunch at Silver Sands, drive somewhere with AC for the brutal midafternoon, then come back around 5 p.m. when the light gets golden and the street cools down to merely oppressive.

5. Getting there and where to park

From downtown Nashville, Buchanan Street is a 7-minute drive north on Rosa L. Parks Boulevard. From East Nashville via the Shelby Avenue bridge, figure 12 minutes. There's no practical transit option — the WeGo bus routes exist, but headways are long enough that you'll lose half your afternoon waiting.

Street parking is free and usually available on Buchanan and the numbered cross streets. July weekdays, no problem. First Saturday gallery walks fill up the curb by 1 p.m., so park a block east on Hynes Street and walk over.

6. The barbershops and the real neighborhood rhythm

Y'all need to understand that Buchanan Street is not a curated food hall. It's a neighborhood. People live here, get haircuts here, argue about the Titans here. The barbershops along the strip — there are at least three between 17th and 19th — are social anchors that have been here longer than any gallery.

I'm not telling you to walk in and sit down for a fade like it's a tourist attraction. But if you're spending an afternoon on this block and you don't notice the barbershops, the beauty supply stores, and the church parking lots, you're seeing about 20% of what Buchanan actually is.

This neighborhood has dealt with decades of disinvestment and is now dealing with the early pressure of development creeping north from Germantown. Some of the empty lots on the east end of Buchanan already have "Coming Soon" signs from condo developers. What's here now might not look the same in five years.

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7. One more plate before you leave

If you've got room after everything else, Slim & Husky's Pizza Beeria on Buchanan Street does wood-fired pizza with a hip-hop playlist and $6 draft beers. Their cinnamon rolls are the size of a softball — thick, yeasted, and the reason people keep coming back. The restaurant is Black-owned and started right here before expanding to other cities.

Order the Everything Goes pizza. Pepperoni, sausage, banana peppers. Nothing revolutionary. Just correct.

They're open until 10 p.m. most nights, which makes them one of the latest options on the block. Patio misters that take the July edge off. Barely.