BY CAILIN BURKE

After our morning of traveling, shopping and checking out some of the city’s coolest street art, we headed to Barista Parlour for much needed coffee and snacks! If you’ve checked out our blog at all, you know we love discovering and hanging out in new cafes. Most Nashvilians raved about Barista Parlour and we liked that it had such a cool cafe space and motorcycles just chilling out front. And of course, the coffee!

I got this amazing Whiskey Caramel Iced Latte and to top it off, added a BP Sausage Biscuit ( = a buttermilk biscuit with sausage and apple butter). Tara got a biscuit too because we were in Nashville after all!

The latte was one of my favorite espresso drinks ever and the biscuit was so so good — and that apple butter! The whole thing was the perfect start to our week of Nashville eating. We also made sure to grab a bunch of photos outside with their cool signs, antique truck, and motorcycles.

Just a short time after, we headed to dinner at The Pharmacy! We were all so pumped to try their food because not only did everything on the menu sound insanely good, but it was the most aesthetically pleasing place! We loved the look of their menus, packaging, and the rustic look of their plating! They also have a huge back porch filled with picnic tables and twinkly lights — and dining outside is our favorite.

I loved everything I ate there! The first thing I got was a phosphate and it might have been my favorite, because it was something I’ve never had before… And had never even heard of. I mean do you guys know what a phosphate is? I didn’t, but when I saw it on the Soda Parlour menu it piqued my curiosity enough to order one! I got the Maraschino Cherry Phosphate and I loved every sip! It’s basically a soda with acid phosphate in it, and I didn’t expect it to be as good and flavorful as it was.

Then came time to order the burgers! Tara decided to try their classic Pharmacy Burger but add on maple mustard, while I got the Mission City Burger which had guacamole, pico de gallo, black beans, and horchata crema fresca. We had to get regular fries and sweet potato fries too! Everything was really good and it’s a must stop place if you’re visiting Nashville! Even if you’re staying more near the Honky Tonks downtown, it is worth the trip across the river to East Nashville!

The next day, for our first full day in Nashville we planned on checking out downtown, but our first stop was Lynne Lorraine’s for smoothie bowls in East Nashville. We love smoothie bowls since Cailin and I both have a sweet tooth and sometimes crave sweet things (chocolate chip pancakes, doughnuts, muffins anyone?!) for breakfast, so a smoothie bowl is a healthier alternative. Cailin got a pitaya bowl – just look at that color! She topped her bowl with bananas, blueberries and mango. I got an acai bowl and topped it with strawberries, bananas and mango. Lynne Lorraine’s bowls also come with coconut flakes, granola and nut butter blended in! These bowls were the perfect healthy start to our day as we were eating a bunch of fried southern food for most of our other meals! We ended up going twice and had a chance to try one of their regular smoothies off of their pretty extensive smoothie menu.

Since we all needed some coffee after our bowls, we headed right next store to Bakery by Frothy Monkey. We were planning to go to the Frothy Monkey in 12 South later on in our trip, but loved this little outpost of it! Although it doesn’t have all of the same items, it’s perfect when you don’t feel like waiting in a long line at the other location and want a breakfast on-the-go! We grabbed a regular coffee and suddenly caved and got a chocolate chip cookie to go with it. We overheard the barista chatting with a customer about how they were her favorite, so we thought, “Why not get one?!” She was right, because it was delicious and definitely went right along into our vacation diet!