Roberts is One of the Twenty-nine Best Bars in America.

by Rod Williams, August 18, 2025- USA TODAY recently published its Bars of the Year 2025 list, and Nashville's Roberts Western World made the list as one of the twenty-nine best bars in America. Two other Tennessee bars also made the list, those being Brother Wolf in Knoxville and Fat Charlie's Speakeasy in Memphis.

I am well acquainted with Robert's. I have downed many a beer sitting in this iconic honky tonk. As an old man now, I don't get around much anymore and have, for the most part, roudied on down.  When I do get to lower Broadway, my two favorite bars are Roberts and A J's. At these two bars, you can find authentic country music. I like the old stuff. There is some contemporary I like, but it is the contemporary that sounds like the old stuff.  I find most contemporary country soulless and boring. At most bars downtown, you will hear a mix of today's country and warmed-over rock from the 70's and 80's. In addition to the good music, I just like the vibe of Robert's, the art on the wall, and the atmosphere that just feels different from most of the other lower Broadway honky tonks. This is what USA Today said of Robert's:

Robert’s Western World is an icon among icons. Among the noise on Nashville’s bright, boisterous Broadway, it stands alone. And it does so with a (relatively) quiet reverence for Nashville’s spirit, the one that existed before the crowds. It’s a shotgun shack of a place in a street full of multistory bars named after famed country music makers. At its barrel is a tiny stage where musicians play beneath the visages of long-gone country stars, while the masses whirl and two-step in front of them. Robert’s is neon beer signs and crooked tile. It’s fried bologna sandwiches and ice-cold PBRs. It’s an Old Fashioned and a twang of real country music in the air. If the Ryman Auditorium is the Mother Church of Country Music, Robert’s Western World, just a stone’s throw from its back door, is the Holy Ghost. 

For more on this topic, see These are the best 29 bars in America in 2025.

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