Nashville. Love for the city hasn’t seemed to die down since it became the Next Big Thing several years ago, and I finally got around to checking it out. In addition to being as hot as ever, the city literally was as hot as ever—I don’t know if any records were broken that weekend, but even lifelong Nashvillians (there are a few) seemed overwhelmed by the temps.

We braved the heat to do an obligatory trek down Broadway, listening to snippets of cover tunes floating out open bar doors and windows and watching pedal-powered bar after pedal-powered bar lurch their way along the thoroughfare. (I’ve said it 20 times and I’ll say it again: This place beats Vegas hands-down for the title of World’s Largest Bachelorette Party.) But there’s only so much days-old beer smell that a person can endure, so we soon expanded our explorations into the city’s many neighborhoods and got what we felt was a lot truer view of Music City. There’s a lot going on in town, but these were some of my favorites.

Arnold’s Country Kitchen
This more than popular, cafeteria-style lunch joint in The Gulch was our first stop—I knew that Ian would love the downhome offerings combined with the super-affordable cost ($10.74 for your choice of meat and three sides).

Having learned our lesson from a Raleigh trip a few years ago that almost blew up our stomachs, we decided to start out slowly, with just a meat & 2. The wait—there’s always a wait, I hear—went quickly and soon we were moving past the options, which cleverly start with dessert. Pecan pie? Catfish? Fried green tomatoes? Yes, yes and yes, plus mac ‘n’ cheese. Ian went for the day’s special, the ribs. Rounded out with a glass of sweet tea, it was the perfect Southern lunch. Afterward, we popped into Carter Vintage Guitars next door, where tiny impromptu concerts were breaking out all over the place as musicians tried out the wares.

Five Daughters Bakery
When the 100-layer doughnut started popping up in my Instagram feed, I knew I had to have one. The bakery describes them as “croissant-style,” meaning they’re made using the classic folding technique that results in buttery layer after buttery layer. I anticipated a huge line akin to the craziness of the Cronut in NYC, but when we arrived at the 12 South location midafternoon, there were only a handful of customers inside—giving me all the time I needed to ogle the many varieties without feeling rushed. The winner was Grasshopper, a seasonal pick topped with a mint ganache, cacao nibs, crushed Oreos and little pareils of dark chocolate. Want to see what’s available before you head over? Check out their donut cam.

Seeing the City Via Its Murals
To avoid coming home 20 pounds heavier, we did a lot of walking around Nashville. I usually like to have a purpose, but it seemed counterproductive to go my usual route: making a map of bakeries and chocolate shops and using them to navigate. Instead, we tried to see as many murals as possible. As my guide, I used this post from Camels & Chocolate, which provides details about most of the city’s murals, separated by neighborhood.

I really wanted to make it to Kelsey Montague’s interactive hot-air balloon mural, but it was too far out of our range. (Her work is amazing. And I just realized she’s done a mural at Rosedale Mall here in MN!) We also skipped the popular pair of wings that you can pose with—I was a mess from the “feels like 123 degrees” heat and definitely not feeling like posing. But we did hit up several others, and you can see two of them above, plus the header photo.

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint
“Where to get barbecue in Nashville” took up a lot of my Google search time before the trip. Everyone has an opinion, but several spots showed up repeatedly during my research. I figured we couldn’t go wrong with any of them, so we opted for the one closest to our hotel: Martin’s. We were still on overload from our previous day’s indulgence, so we went later in the night—and there was still a wait. But it went pretty quickly, and the heat had settled down to a bearable 93 degrees, so we were fine slowly making our way to the counter to order.

We split the Big Brother Sampler (ribs, brisket and two sides, although we couldn’t resist adding on a third side) and were eyeing the fried pie on the menu, but fortunately they had just run out. I think that might have done me in. Everything was delicious but the brisket was FANTASTIC, so tender and flavorful. I could have done with an entire platter of that.

The Donut + Dog
It’s a genius concept: Open at 8 a.m. with a display case filled with tasty doughnuts bearing fun names, like Dirty Churro, 99 Problems but… (raspberry and basil), Stairway 2 Heaven (brown butter, sea salt and raspberry) and Southern Belle (peach). Then at 11 a.m., add a wallop of savory with gourmet hotdogs and—gulp—doughnut burgers. I’ll say it again: doughnut burgers. (One, aptly called Hangover, tops two hamburger patties with bacon, a fried egg and American cheese, then layers it all between two halves of a maple doughnut.) The dogs are just as interesting-sounding: Elote Loco (a chorizo dog with Mexican street corn), Reuben (corn beef, sauerkraut and Swiss) and Flying Hawaiian (yes, with pineapple). There’s also beer on tap, because why not?

I am so, so sad to say that we only had enough stomach room to try one of the doughnuts. These ones are made from a brioche dough, not as layer-y as those at Five Daughters but very tender and not cloyingly sweet. And the accompanying latte—dressed up with the colorful art they show on their Instagram page—was a nice chaser. (There’s a full coffee bar.) We stopped at the outpost up near Vanderbilt University, but the friendly barista told us that there are plans to open up one downtown soon, and they just launched their first out-of-town shop in Meridian, Idaho.