Plan

Named for I-55, the highway connecting Memphis to New Orleans. Jason McConnell grew up hauling horses down I-55 and fell in love with Delta and Gulf Coast cooking. Fried catfish and po'boys, shrimp and grits, all of it under corrugated metal and a gas station light fixture. Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Lunch & dinner

A farmhouse built in 1830 that stood in the middle of the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The standard guided tour runs an hour and costs $22, with longer tours covering the battlefield and the people enslaved on the property. The last tour starts at 4pm.

Mon to Sat 9am to 5pm, Sun 10am to 5pm

Steakhouse and wine bar on Main Street. Good wine list, dependable dinner when you want to sit and spend a bit. Jason McConnell's place. He also does Red Pony and 55 South nearby.

Dinner hours

An art gallery in Clouston Hall, a house built in 1821 a block off Main Street. It represents more than 25 local and regional artists and also carries sculpture, art glass, jewelry and antiques. Free to walk through.

Daytime, closed Monday

The Gray's Drug Co. sign has been on Main Street since 1952. The building is from 1876. Michael and Joni Cole restored it in 2013. Original wood floors and tin ceilings, structural timbers left exposed. Southern food, live music upstairs on weekends. The right sit-down dinner in Franklin.

Tue to Sun dinner, live music upstairs Fri and Sat

Franklin-born roaster. Locals have been loyal since the start.

Open daily

An independent bookstore in the Old Factory Store, a Greek Revival building from the 1820s that is the oldest commercial building still standing in downtown Franklin. More than 35,000 new, used and rare titles, including over 2,000 signed first editions.

Daily 9am to 7pm

A no-fuss Irish pub on Main Street. Pints, pub food. The easy pre-show drink in Franklin.

Open through late

Merridee Erickson started selling bread from a log cabin in Fairview in 1981, moved to this old hardware warehouse on 4th Avenue in 1984. Scratch breads, pastries, breakfast and lunch from 7am Monday through Saturday. Whatever you get, take your time.

Mon to Sat, 7 AM to 5 PM. Closed Sunday

Bread and pastries. The quiet Franklin daytime stop.

Daytime

A park across the Harpeth River from downtown with a one mile paved loop, joined to Main Street by the Sue Douglas Berry pedestrian bridge. A trail climbs from the park to Fort Granger, the Union earthwork that served as a command post during the Battle of Franklin in 1864.

Dawn to dusk

Tony Gemignani opened the first Tennessee location of Slice House on Main Street in April 2025. Four crusts are on offer, New York, Detroit, grandma and Sicilian, sold by the slice or as a whole pie, with craft beer and natural wine. An hour of parking is validated.

From 11am, closes 8pm most nights

Built in 1929 as a stove manufacturing plant. Magic Chef stoves came out of here. Now 83 tenants: restaurants, shops, a Broadway-style theater, a concert venue. The red brick and factory windows are preserved. Enough to fill some time before heading out.

All day

A 198 acre former horse farm a half mile north of Main Street. W. W. Harlin started it in 1933 and it produced Midnight Sun, the Tennessee Walking Horse stallion that took World Grand Championships in 1945 and 1946. Franklin bought the land in 2004 and opened it as a park in 2007. Walking trails, open fields and a four acre dog park.

Dawn to dusk

Inside The Harpeth Hotel. 240-plus whiskeys in the keep, live music four nights a week. The quietest way to land in Franklin after a show.

Until 10pm

A cocktail club behind a hidden door on Main Street, reached from the alley through the back of Mellow Mushroom. Craft cocktails and shareable plates including a charcuterie board with house-pickled vegetables. Serves to midnight midweek and two in the morning on Friday and Saturday.

Tue to Thu 5pm to midnight, Fri and Sat 4pm to 2am, closed Mon

A seaside Italian restaurant on Main Street with a third-floor rooftop bar, the only rooftop downtown. Oysters, tapas and cocktails. The rooftop takes no reservations and seats first come, first served.

Mon to Thu to 10pm, Fri and Sat to 11pm, Sun to 9pm

A wine bar on the corner of Main Street and 2nd Avenue, pouring by the glass from self-serve machines. Happy hour runs Tuesday through Friday from four to six at 25 percent off the machines. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Tue to Thu 4pm to 10pm, Fri and Sat to 11pm

Open since 2005 in a Hillsboro Road strip center, with a ceiling shingled in beer tap handles they claim is a world record. Three in the morning, seven nights a week. Everything else in Franklin is dark by then.

Until 3am nightly · Walk-in bar, 21 and up.