Tootsie's Orchid Lounge - downtown honky-tonk and drinking history

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, located on Broadway behind the Ryman Auditorium, opened in the early 1960s and became a well-known watering hole for country musicians and songwriters. The bar's proximity to the Ryman helped it become part of Nashville's mid-20th-century honky-tonk and nightlife culture, and it remains a landmark on Lower Broadway. Tootsie's is frequently mentioned in accounts of Nashville's music-era bars and their role in the city's social and drinking history.