Betty’s Grill

Friend of mine goes here 2 times a week. I join him sometimes 1 time a week to get my dive bar feeling on and spend time with him. Cheap beer and only beer. Plastic cups. Food is not bad. Sandwiches, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hotdogs BLT’s and fries. Smoking used to be permitted. NOT anymore. Going to a dive bar and knowing it makes the expectation less. But 1^st time walk in’s can be shocking. Open late and cheap. Good place to come chat about the day, keep your tab low and go home feeling you took a break from life.

A throwback to a simpler time. Ice cold bottles of Bud for $ 2.50, country music on the jukebox and some really southern fellas shooting the bull and watching football. Friendly, dark and unassuming dive bar. Thumbs up.

New to the area, having tried a bunch of bars in East Nashville nothing comes close to this. Hands down the best vibe I’ve found in Nashville. Friendly up to the point where you are still allowed to remain anonymous. Cheap beer. No liquor… Which works for me, but maybe not for you.

Ok, it is no surprise that a dive bar is my favorite. I love them. And finally I talked some friends into going on a dive bar hop. Not bars that used to be dives but have been taken over by college students and ironic hipsters, but real dives. Enter Betty’s grill.
Ah the simplicity is what really works it out here. Nothing fancy just cheap ass cold beer, a couple of bowling video games, a cast of characters with an age range of 30s to 60s, tables, smoky atmosphere, and a jukebox playing old country. You can sit and drink in silence or you can bring some friends and make a night of it. Betty’s doesn’t care.
They do have a bar menu with sandwiches and such. The BLT was tempting and I bet it comes out like one your momma would make you at home. At least, in my mind it comes out just regular strips of crispy bacon, white bread, tomato, lettuce and love. I intend to find out one day soon.
Just trust me on this, Betty’s is the jam if what you are looking for a dive. So go!

Great wings, burgers, and service. Great dive bar

Have you ever fought the power? Did you find that the power was yourself, in the end? If so, you will be deeply conflicted about Betty’s Grill, sort of like you’re Hamlet.
This place is a cheap bar where you can smoke inside. The «locals» come here. By that I mean I walk here and a bunch of folks who dress like my dad came here and drink and play arcade games and shout and laugh and listen to «Now You’re Messing With a Son of a Bitch» and enjoy themselves. It’s great for things like that. Or it was great, anyway. There was some local music from a guy I realized is my neighbor. Pretty soon the locals all drove home because they work tomorrow and this bar isn’t the Stevedores Local from The Wire. This is real life. And I sat there drinking and laughing and telling stories and having fun. And it was cheap. And it was good.
And you know what? In a twinkling of an eye, this place will be transformed or gone or recontextualized. I used to live next to Bobby’s Idle Hour, a close relative of this place (the Springwater will also do as a comparison). And now that place has regular folks passing through and songwriters night and hipsters and all of that. And I think that’s wonderful. And I hope Bobby’s stays around. And I think Betty’s Grill will do well too. I don’t think they’ll go under just because MLRose is up the road and Hattie B’s is going up kitty-​corner. But something is changing. And maybe it’s only because in a place like Betty’s Grill, archaic as it seems, that I can get a glimpse at that, but I can see how this place would be exciting and sad and a bunch of other things depending on who you are. This place teeters on a nexus of shifting space. You are living between if you drink and eat at this bar.
So come on down to the thrift shops and such, and have some cheap beer and a burger and watch time happen. You won’t get many chances to embrace time. But do it. And then walk home, if you dare – if you can. And if you can’t, remember where you are.
Tourists welcome. Come on Thursday for live music.

This place is the definition of dive bar. And I love dive bars. We are talking what resembles the kinds of bars you see in small towns without stop signs. I’ve seen a lot of the same people in here whenever I come in. They have old school video games. You can even still smoke in here (GASP!). It’s hidden down a sketchy alley and its usually a couple people that all end up drunkenly talking to each other by the end of the night. The bar fare is typical and super cheap. You can find yourself having had several pitchers of cold beer and some fries for the change in your pocket. It’s possibly the quietest bar I have ever been in, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s a sweet little spot to hang and drink with friends without pomp or circumstance. Its dirty and dark and smoky and just wonderful. It’s a place to drink and hide out from the world. I have no shame in saying I adore this little hidden hovel.

This is the west side dive bar that makes the Springwater look uppity. Good wings, and arguably the best bar burger in Nashville for under $ 7. The place has a decent juke box, and adequate pool table, and a «back porch». To my knowledge they no longer breed feral cats in the alley. If you like your beer cold, cheap, and domestic, then this is the place for you. On my first time there, years ago, I asked what imports they had. The list was short. Heineken, Corona, and Rolling Rock. That about says it all.

As a dive bar, it disappoints… no old smoke/​stale beer smell (in the afternoon anyway), spotlessly clean with funky décor.
Fabulous hamburger– bacon on request
Free WiFi.
My new home away from home.

Oh Betty’s, you won my heart with your Bitchen’ Betty’s Brew, aka Natty Light. I was so excited to think they had their own beer. It also cost $ 1.25 a pint. Betty’s is tucked away in the Richland District. After driving by it countless times we decided to stop. What we were about to experience was almost mind-​blowing. For starters we met a poor man’s Dan Deacon. He was super nice, soldered his own equipment and really put his soul out there. I gave him props! Unfortunately we did not get to hear him play, but we did learn all about his process. We were also introduced to a man who didn’t know the difference between a really loud ear volume and speakerphone. What commenced was truly amazing. I can’t get into details but it will be a night I will never forget.
To the logistics, Betty’s is a little more than a room/​small house and it’s smokey, very very smokey. The place is filled with regulars. We happened to stop in pretty recently after the flood and they were holding a fundraiser in the corner. This truly is a neighborhood bar. Even with their small digs they hold a lot of live music. If you like quirky, dirty dive bars with a neighborhood feel then Betty’s is the place for you.

I have to give Betty’s five stars because it’s so unique. It’s not a biker bar, but the inside and its regulars remind me of the biker bar from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. However, come on a Friday or Saturday night and you’ll be sitting at the bar during an experimental/​electronic/​DJ/​noise show. WHAT? That’s why I love Betty’s.

Betty’s Grill feels like the inside of a Nascar trailer. You can count the menu items on one hand and the beer list on the other. Corona is the most exotic item you’re going to find here.
The bartender/​waiter (the only one in the establishment) had a quaint manner of of speaking and walking, despite looking like a biker type. He seemed to go across the floor like he was on a moving walkway and talked the same way. He also introduced every item on the menu with «the best in town» in a sort of monotone.
There were half a dozen people dawdling over the bar or the single pool table, but it was rather quiet and peaceful. I had a cold Miller Lite and some hot Chicken Tenders, both satisfying. Next time I will try the Wings or this thing they call a «Cheeseburger.»
The BG is conveniently located on 49^th Avenue, between Charlotte and the no-man’s land that exists near I-​40. A true dive bar.
UPDATE: I’ve revisited another day after sundown, and they do in fact have a jukebox, so it’s not as peaceful as previously described.

I can’t believe I’ve lived in this neighborhood for this long and I’ve only just now discovered Betty’s. It’s easy to miss, tucked away on 49^th Avenue, just behind the Rhino bookstore. What a great little dive bar! It has a great jukebox, one of those newfangled digital thingies, cold beer, and good wings.
I have a guilty pleasure to confess: Sparks, the caffeinated beer-​type drinks, and Betty’s has them. They also have Bud and Nat Light on draft. A pitcher is less than seven dollars complete with iced mugs. Ah, the simple pleasures in life! The wings are great, although they don’t have any blue cheese, but they’ll give you lots of ranch. They’re good and fried and crunchy.
I like the relaxed totally unpretentious atmosphere of this place. It’s a great place to while away a lazy evening or afternoon. I hear also that they have started hosting live shows, which would be pretty interesting for such a tiny little place. I will definitely be going back.

Like Cheers… only with more NASCAR paraphernalia! Way, way more! I genuinely like this place, even if it isn’t exactly my scene. I was on Charlotte today with a buddy of mine, and we just decided to duck into the Betty’s and check it out.
First of all, Betty’s is full of 40– to 60-​year-​old men who I can only assume are devout regulars. A couple of them have undergone tracheotomies (probably because of all the smoke in Betty’s), and they all look like they spend most of their days there. Betty herself seems very sweet, and all of her customers call her by name. Betty has the beers you’d expect (Miller Lite, Budweiser, Natural Light, et cetera), and they’re $ 2 a piece – cheap even by dive bar standards.
I ordered a cheeseburger, which only cost me $ 4.50, and Betty made it herself (pretty quickly). The cheeseburger was genuinely the best I’ve had in weeks, and I’ve had one at Bobbie’s Dairy Dip recently, so that’s really saying something. There is a virtual bowling game and a pool table, not to mention dozens of posters and pictures with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Trust me… this place is the real deal. It may be a dingy, dim, old dive full of people twice my age, but there’s just something about it I like. It’s like a Dino’s for the West Side.