Each year around playoff season, I’m always obsessing over “finding the right sports bar” to get myself out of the house and watch with friends. Locating just the right spot that is not only showing the game, but making incredible food, keeps the drinks coming, and providing enough sound to feel like you can really get into it, is a challenge. So today we rounded up some of the best spots around Nashville to catch the NBA Playoffs and Finals, making sure to highlight what we love about each location.

Meanwhile, Loveless Cafe is celebrating 75 years of biscuits, country ham, and bringing in tourists by the bakers’ dozens. Their new anniversary dinner specials and happy hour menus are officially rolling, and one lucky subscriber can win up to $150 toward a meal. Honestly, that’s enough biscuits to alter your entire afternoon plans. Come on down, either way & drop your name in the hat to win!*

JUST ANNOUNCED

• Centennial Park’s best free excuse to sit outside all weekend returns for Memorial Day with another stacked Musicians Corner lineup this Friday through Sunday. Catch sets from Amanda Shires, Madi Diaz, The Verve Pipe, and more alongside food trucks, local vendors, for this popular spring tradition.*

• Margo Price is heading to Killjoy this Wednesday, May 20th to share some of her new booze-free drinks, conversation, and a night centered around creativity and kicking the bottle to the curb. Honestly, “badass babe thriving alcohol-free” feels like a pretty solid theme. Pull up VIP style and snag an autograph!

• Some shows feel less like concerts and more like sitting in on a really good Nashville secret. Music City Roots returns to Harken Hall on May 27th with Rhonda Vincent, Hannah Dasher, Crystal Bowersox, and the kind of storytelling-heavy live music for which this city is known. Throw your name in for tickets!*

• Free Frankie’s pizza, cocktails, a live Madi Diaz performance, and a chance to win fancy headphones? Rivian Nashville’s The Wild Honey Pie Little Pizza Party on May 23rd sounds less like an event name and more like a funhouse mirror gave birth to a pizza party. Come hang, eat slices, and support The Nature Conservancy in the process.*

• Plus other just announced shows from Damien Jurado, Hamilton Leithauser w/ Josh Gilligan, Post Sex Nachos, and more!

WHERE TO WATCH THE NBA FINALS

NBA playoff season is officially hitting its peak. Between the conference finals, blown leads, buzzer beaters, and that one loud friend role-playing as an assistant coach, the energy’s been unreal so far.

So we rounded up some of the best spots around Nashville to catch the action, whether you’re after the world record in amount of TV screens, the best beer selection, elite wings, or you are looking for the kind of crowd that treats every fourth quarter like a religious experience. Throw on your lucky jersey, grab a seat, and settle in for the emotional damage.

THIS WEEK

LOCALS ONLY

• East Nashville neighborhood “food court” Lost & Found just expanded its hours, with lunch now running Tuesday through Sunday alongside earlier openings for Retrograde coffee (at 7am), cocktails, Pizza Lolo and the food trucks (at 11:30am). East Nashville’s new favorite open-air hang officially became an all-day affair!

• Parents, consider this your official excuse to make everyone put the dang phones away for two hours. Phreedom Foundation is hosting an “Unplug Night” at The Pharmacy on May 27th where families trade screen time for actual conversation, plus free ice cream if you survive dinner without checking notifications. Come enjoy the genuine connection. 

WIN STUFF

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