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Travel

Explore adventure guides and design a custom itinerary for the destination of your choice in and around the city.

Best Travel Guides, Cool Hotels and Interesting Events - Thrillist

“Dizzy heights” are quite literal in Canada's Rockies.

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Yobab/Shutterstock

We’re in the mountainous rainforest of St. Kitts—almost 10,000 acres of protected land, designated the Central Forest Reserve National Park in 2006—when a couple of mangos plunge down from the sky, narrowly missing our noggins.

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New York

Photo by Kolin Mendez

Events

January in New York City has a tendency to feel approximately 76 days long (double that if you participated in Dry January), so we’re quite happy to greet the first weekend of February.

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Los Angeles

Courtesy of PetSpace

With both the Grammys and the Big Game coming up next week, this weekend seems like one of those calm-before-the-storm moments in LA, but there’s still a ton of great stuff to do including a pop-up vending-and-music festival, some Lunar New Years celebrations, and a totally oddball film festival.

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Photo courtesy of Prosperity Market

Lifestyle

February is here, and with that comes the annual month dedicated to promoting awareness and recognition of the history, culture, and contributions of Black Americans to society.

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Welcome to February, the month to celebrate love—especially if what you love is dark beer, ‘90s rock, croughnuts, and golden retrievers.

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Find the best spots daily to eat and drink in hipster neighborhoods. Hit the roof, drink a beer and eat delicious at top-tier restaurants. Plan your nightlife adventure with maps and reviews of unknown micro-brews, rooftop parties, and independent drink.

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There is no shortage of great things to do on date night in LA, but there are some nights that call for a particularly sexy dinner out, like the culinary equivalent of Untitled.

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February is Black History Month, a time to commemorate and reflect on the past, present, and future of the Black community.

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United States

Acqua

From tiny shacks to James Beard-winning chefs, Nashville's best seafood restaurants have plenty to offer.

Nashville

Cousins Maine Lobster


As a city in the middle of a landlocked state, you wouldn’t expect Nashville to have a plethora of excellent seafood restaurants. Fortunately, FedEx allows just about anyone to receive fresh fish and other seafood straight off the boats to the restaurant kitchen. Once it arrives, <a href="https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nashville/best-restaurants-nashville" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">Nashville chefs</a> definitely know their way around a fish to create fantastic oceanic cuisine. Here’s where you’ll find some undersea delights.

As a city in the middle of a landlocked state, you wouldn’t expect Nashville to have a plethora of excellent seafood restaurants. Fortunately, FedEx allows just about anyone to receive fresh fish and other seafood straight off the boats to the restaurant kitchen. Once it arrives, <a href="https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nashville/best-restaurants-nashville" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">Nashville chefs</a> definitely know their way around a fish to create fantastic oceanic cuisine. Here’s where you’ll find some undersea delights.

Anyone who has visited chef Ford Fry’s original home of The Optimist in Atlanta knew Nashville was in for something good when he decided to open an outpost in Germantown. After what seemed like a really long time for construction to be completed, it was clearly worth the wait. The more casual fish camp vibe befits the unfussy menu of hot appetizers and starters from the raw bar followed by a seafood-centric offering of beautiful main plates. Highlights include a prototypical New England lobster roll with hand-cut fries, a rich halibut presentation with blue crab and crawfish étouffée and a surf-and-turf offering of wood grilled swordfish, smoked short rib, and cowboy caviar.

The Optimist Nashville


The Optimist

If your Platonic ideal of fish and chips demands that they be inspired by an English “chippy,” you just haven’t tried the Australian version from Red Perch yet. A beer batter fries up fluffy and crispy gold around delicate cod, and the house-made tartar sauce is perfect for slathering on the fish or for dunking fantastic fries. The seafood sensations don’t stop at cod with catfish, flounder, calamari and shrimp on the menus as delightful options. AHi or salmon poke bowls are also great choices.

Red Perch


Formerly known as Batter’d and Fried, the owner leaned into his New England roots with the menu and the name change. In addition to Northeastern staples like lobster, clams and scallops, the already excellent Boston chowder gets a Southern update as “Growder,” creamy clams ladled over spicy cheese grits and sprinkled with bacon and more cheese. It’s a delicious regional melting pot.

Boston Commons


While much of the menu at this cavernous restaurant focuses on charcuterie and wood-fired meats, the seafood selections at Urban Grub are plentiful and excellent, as well. Build a seafood tower from a changing list of fresh items from the raw bar or enjoy oysters raw with apple mignonette and sriracha cocktail sauce or roasted over a wood fire. Seafood main dishes include shrimp &amp; grits, seafood pasta made with squid ink and lobster claw spaghetti, and an Asian-inspired platter of perfectly seared scallops served with miso caramel, julienned apples, ginger and bok choy. In fact, it’s just plain inspired.

Urban Grub


This chef-driven restaurant focuses on the seafood of the seas that surround the boot of Italy. Multi-course dinners can range from 12 to 18 plates, artfully constructed presentations of creative combinations of exotic ingredients. While the menu changes frequently based on availability and the whim of the chef, almost every savory course revolves around seafood. It’s a pricey evening, but it’s a trip.


acqua.nashville


Seafood always seems to taste better if you can see the water while you’re eating (even if you’re only looking at the Cumberland River). Tucked into Rock Harbor Marina, Blue Moon Waterfront Grille is a floating restaurant on a barge with both indoor and outdoor dining areas. The menu features tropical dishes like coconut shrimp and grilled mahi-mahi, as well as Southern favorites like po-boys and fried catfish. For a taste of the ocean in the middle of a river, it’s worth a visit.

Blue Moon Waterfront Grille


Although much of the menu at Los Arcos features typical Mexican fare like fajitas and enchiladas, seafood is a very important element in the kitchen. Fish or shrimp dishes cooked Veracruz-style with onions, green peppers, and tomatoes are solid choices, but it’s tough to get past the description of the Piña Cantamar: baked shrimp and octopus, stuffed into a cored pineapple, and topped with cheese and creamy sauce.

Flickr/zug zwang

Los Arcos Mexican Grill & Seafood

Nashville-native Chef Julia Sullivan has made the world her oyster (and vice-versa) at her remarkable Henrietta Red. The elegantly chill restaurant focuses on seafood, shellfish, and vegetable-forward dishes roasted in a wood-burning oven, with a raw bar menu that changes daily. Pappy’s Caviar, a dish made from Tennessee paddlefish roe is a real standout.

Henrietta Red


There’s nothing fancy about this little seafood shack with a simple menu of fried sandwiches, fries, slaw, and spaghetti. At some point you should try the catfish, but the signature crispy battered whiting dressed with tangy mustard, hot sauce, pickles, and raw white onions might just be the best bite of seafood in the city, and it only costs $7.50.

Ed's Fish House


Ed's Fish And Pizza House

This Louisiana-inspired restaurant in the tony Thompson Hotel has definitely added some spice to the Nashville dining scene. Most of the menu comes from the sea instead of the marsh, and that’s a very good thing because seafood is the highlight of Marsh House’s fare. Build a seafood tower from the raw bar or choose from a fabulous grilled octopus appetizer with BBQ shrimp or seared tuna as mains to scratch your seafood itch.

Marsh House


In town since 2012, this food truck has served two versions of the iconic lobster roll, a chilled Maine roll with a kiss of mayo and a hot Connecticut roll with butter and lemon. Other crustaceous dishes include lobster quesadillas, tacos, poppers, and a gooey lobster grilled cheese sandwich.

Cousins Maine Lobster

Steak may come first in the name of this bustling SoBro restaurant, but it’s the fruits de mer that are the highlights of the menu. Featuring gumbo, fish and grits, barbecue shrimp, and a very popular raw bar, The Southern shines a spotlight on seafood all day long.

The Southern Steak & Oyster


<a href="https://www.thrillist.com/authors/chris-chamberlain">Chris Chamberlain</a> is a food, drink, and travel writer based out of Nashville, where he has lived his entire life -- except for four years in California where he studied liberal arts at Stanford University and learned how to manipulate chopsticks. He is a regular contributor to the Nashville Scene, Nashville Lifestyles, Local Palate, Edible, FoodRepublic.com, and Conde Nast Traveler. He likes beer, bourbon, and bacon but isn’t fanatical about any of them.

Restaurants

The Absolute Best Seafood in Nashville

Best Seafood Restaurants in Nashville: Top Seafood Spots in Nashville

 Look no further for the best lobster, crab, salmon, octopus, and beyond in Nashville.


As a city in the middle of a landlocked state, you wouldn’t expect Nashville to have a plethora of excellent seafood restaurants.

Acqua

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The Absolute Best Seafood in Nashville

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