Buchanan Arts: Nashville's Forgotten Strip Where Hot Chicken Meets Sunday Gospel

I pulled onto Buchanan Street on a Sunday morning last October, windows down, and caught two things at once: the bark of a preacher's mic bleeding out of an open church door and the smell of cayenne-laced grease from somewhere I couldn't yet see. That's the whole pitch for this stretch of North Nashville, right there in one inhale.

Buchanan Arts District sits roughly between Rosa L. Parks Boulevard and 6th Avenue North, a few blocks that most downtown visitors blow right past on their way to Germantown. The strip doesn't photograph well on a quick drive-by — some storefronts are boarded, others freshly painted, and the mix is the point. Y'all should know up front: this is not a polished neighborhood. It's a working one, with decades of Black creative history running underneath the new gallery signage.

1. Start at Prince's, but not the one you're thinking

Prince's Hot Chicken Shack on Dickerson Pike gets all the national press. The Buchanan Street location — 123 Buchanan Street — is smaller, less mobbed, and, I'd argue, turns out a more consistent bird. The line still exists, but it's a 15-minute wait, not a 90-minute pilgrimage.

Order the medium quarter-dark. If you've never had Prince's before, do not start at hot. I watched a guy from Michigan try it once. He stopped talking for about four minutes.

Cash-only. A quarter-dark plate runs around $9. They close when they run out, which on Saturdays can mean mid-afternoon.

2. The galleries aren't trying to impress you

Buchanan Arts has a handful of galleries and studio spaces, and none of them feel like the white-cube joints in the Wedgewood-Houston district. That's a compliment. Granny's Hot House, at the corner of Buchanan and 4th, shows local sculptors and painters in a converted residential space with creaking floors and no cocktail bar in sight.

Across the street, the Buchanan Arts building itself houses rotating shows and open studios, usually accessible on First Saturday art crawls. The crawl runs roughly 6–9 p.m. and draws a loose crowd — printmakers leaning on doorframes, DJ setups on the sidewalk. Free entry.

Skip the pop-up "art markets" that occasionally appear on non-crawl weekends. They're mostly resold candle brands and screen-printed tote bags. The real work lives inside the studios.

3. Sunday gospel at Greater Bethel AME

Greater Bethel AME Church has been on this block since before the interstate carved North Nashville in half. Sunday service starts at 10:45 a.m., and visitors are welcome — dress up a little, at minimum a collared shirt.

The choir here is the reason I'm writing this section. Three altos and a tenor that could fill Bridgestone Arena without a mic. I'm not a churchgoer by habit, but I sat through a full service in October and didn't once check my phone. The congregation skews older and will absolutely notice if you walk in late, so don't.

The church sits at 1207 Jefferson Street, about a four-minute walk from Buchanan proper. Street parking on Jefferson is metered on weekdays but free on Sundays.

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4. What people get wrong about this neighborhood

Every Nashville listicle calls Buchanan the "next 12South" or the "next East Nashville." That framing is lazy and a little insulting. Buchanan isn't becoming something — it already is something. It's the commercial spine of a historically Black neighborhood that survived urban renewal, interstate construction, and decades of disinvestment. Treating it as a blank canvas for brunch concepts misses the entire story.

The people who've been here longest — the barbers, the church ladies, the guys selling loose cigarettes on the corner at dusk — they aren't scenery. They're the neighborhood. If that makes you uncomfortable, Germantown is a ten-minute walk south.

5. Slim & Husky's is worth the hype (mostly)

Slim & Husky's Pizza Beeria at 911 Buchanan Street makes hand-tossed pies with creative topping combos — the "Cee Smokey Robinson" with smoked gouda, chicken, and red onion is the one to get. A large runs about $18. They pour local drafts, too.

Their cinnamon rolls get all the Instagram love, but they're too sweet. Aggressively sweet. The pizza is the reason to go. Don't fill up on pastry.

Hours lean late for a pizza joint — open until 10 p.m. most nights. The dining room is small; grab a spot on the patio if weather cooperates.

6. The drive in, and what the weather does to your plans

From downtown Nashville, Buchanan Street is a straight shot up Rosa L. Parks Boulevard — seven minutes without traffic. From East Nashville, cross the river on Woodland Street Bridge and cut north on 2nd Avenue; maybe twelve minutes.

Weather matters more here than in most Nashville neighborhoods because so much of the experience is outdoor or semi-outdoor: the art crawl, the patio at Slim & Husky's, the walk between Prince's and the galleries. Nashville summers are brutal — 95°F with humidity that feels personal. Mid-October through mid-November is the best weather for wandering on foot. January and February bring cold rain that empties the sidewalks entirely.

Rideshare from the Gulch or downtown runs $8–$12. There's no dedicated public transit stop on Buchanan itself, but WeGo Route 22 on Jefferson Street drops you within two blocks.

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7. A few blocks that don't need your permission to exist

There's a mural on the side of a building near 5th and Buchanan — a large portrait of a Black woman's face, eyes closed, headwrap in gold. No plaque. No artist tag that I could find. Just there, watching over the parking lot of a tax prep office.

That's the energy of the whole strip. Not asking to be discovered. Not waiting for a food blogger to validate it. Just there, doing its work on a Tuesday afternoon the same way it does on a Saturday night.

I stood in front of that mural for a while, eating the last of a Prince's leg quarter out of a styrofoam box. Grease soaked through the bag. A perfect mess.