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The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden
The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden opened in 2011 in East Nashville, founded by brothers Terrell and Trent Raley, who converted a former childcare building at the corner of McFerrin and Eastland into a burger-and-beer garden. The name itself came out of the buildout process — old pill bottles turned up in the property's pipes, leftover evidence of a pharmacy that had once occupied the site, and the Raleys leaned into that history rather than picking a generic name. The concept blends old-world beer garden charm with American diner nostalgia: craft beer, phosphate sodas, a genuinely family-friendly patio, and burgers built on fresh, locally sourced beef with buns made specifically for the restaurant by Frothy Monkey Bakery. The kitchen also makes its own bratwursts, enough of a focus that regulars have taken to calling it Nashville's "wurst-burger" joint — a burger spot that treats its sausage program as more than an afterthought. The Pharmacy has earned steady local recognition as one of the city's best burger destinations, and it's leaned into that reputation in a specific, community-minded way: in 2023 the restaurant launched a "Nashville Burger Time Machine" series, recreating the signature burgers of beloved Nashville restaurants that had closed, starting with Rotier's — the Elliston Place institution famous for its cheeseburger on French bread, which shut down in 2021 after its building was sold. That a competing burger restaurant chose to memorialize a fallen one, rather than just quietly outlasting it, says something about how The Pharmacy sees its own place in Nashville's burger lineage. Running a beer garden inside a building that used to look after other people's kids is the kind of origin story that could easily read as a gimmick, but the Raleys have kept the food serious enough — fresh, locally sourced beef, a real housemade bratwurst program, buns from one of the city's most respected bakeries — that the pharmacy backstory functions as flavor rather than substitute for a good burger. For a Nashville cheeseburger list, The Pharmacy is the essential "East Nashville beer garden done right" entry — a thick, gourmet cheeseburger built on Frothy Monkey buns, served in a patio setting that's become one of the neighborhood's most reliable hangouts since 2011.
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Hugh-Baby's BBQ & Burger Shop
Hugh-Baby's BBQ & Burger Shop opened on August 29, 2017, on Charlotte Avenue in West Nashville, founded by pitmaster Pat Martin as his second major restaurant venture after Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint. The name is a tribute to Martin's uncle, known in the family as "Hugh Baby" Coleman, and the whole concept was built as a loving nod to the small-town eateries Martin remembered from his own childhood rather than a scaled-down version of his whole-hog barbecue restaurants. Where Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint is a sit-down destination built around West Tennessee-style whole-hog barbecue, Hugh-Baby's is deliberately fast-casual — a counter-service burger and barbecue shop meant for quick, affordable meals rather than a planned-out dinner. Reviewers have consistently noted that Hugh-Baby's delivers real quality at a lower price point than many of its Nashville burger competitors, which fits Martin's stated goal of building a nostalgic, unpretentious neighborhood spot rather than another destination restaurant carrying his name. Martin's own reputation matters here: he's widely recognized as one of the country's leading pitmasters and one of the few still carrying the torch for West Tennessee whole-hog barbecue specifically, a labor-intensive regional style that's become rarer as barbecue trends have shifted toward faster methods elsewhere. That pedigree shows up on the Hugh-Baby's menu too, where the burgers share space with genuine barbecue rather than a burger joint's usual afterthought pulled pork sandwich. The shop has expanded to multiple Nashville locations since its 2017 opening, growing off the strength of that original Charlotte Avenue shop without losing the small-town, counter-service feel that was the whole point from the start — a burger built by a barbecue chef who wanted to make something simpler and cheaper than his flagship, not a scaled-up version of it. For a Nashville cheeseburger list, Hugh-Baby's is the essential "barbecue pitmaster's side project done right" entry — a fast, affordable, smash-style burger from one of the South's most respected barbecue chefs, built as a genuine tribute to the small-town diners of his childhood.
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