Nashville's notorious makeout spot, Love Circle, has been crowned the best place in the city to watch a sunset.
The honor comes from a recent survey of more than 3,000 people who ranked free public sunset-viewing destinations in cities nationwide.
The hidden hilltop overlook near Vanderbilt University — with the address literally Love Cir. — offers panoramic views of the city skyline, making it a local favorite for picnics, firework-viewing and date nights.
Love Circle's new title probably won't surprise longtime Nashvillians, many of whom associate the spot with pivotal life moments and late-night adventures.
It's also built a reputation for teenage mischief, fleeting romance and, yes ... the occasional smoke session.
The Tennessean crowdsourced
stories from Nashvillians about Love Circle, with some interviewees requesting to be identified only by their first names (for reasons that will soon become apparent).
For Hilary, a Nashville singer, Love Circle is tied to one of her earliest memories after relocating to Nashville.
"When I first moved here, my first love came to visit me," she told The Tennessean.
"I took him up to Love Circle to look at the moon and the city, and it felt very romantic. It's one of those little movie memories that has stuck with me."
She said the evening got a little steamy at the overlook, too. At Love Circle, she said, both things can be true.
Will, a Nashville guitarist, said he remembers Love Circle for a different reason.
"My buddy and I were living in the dorms at Belmont around 2018 and needed a place to smoke, so we went to Love Circle at dusk," he said. A stranger soon approached them.
"'Sorry if I'm interrupting your date, but I wanted to see if I could smoke with you,' he said.
Confused, the pair looked at each other.
"My buddy put his arm around me and was like, 'Well, what do you think, babe?'" Will recalled.
"We all laughed and ended up smoking with him." Will added that there's no better place for a bromance to bloom.
Another Nashvillian, an account executive also named Will (half the city is named Will, nowadays), remembers Love Circle as the backdrop to one of his most awkward dating stories.
He had planned to meet a Hinge match at Otto's before heading to Love Circle for sunset. A woman greeted him at the bar who didn't quite match her profile photos, but he shrugged it off and started the date anyway.
"We're walking in and I was like, 'Are you ready to grab a drink and head over to Love Circle after that?' And she was like, 'Wait, what?'"
Within seconds, both realized they had each mistakenly met the wrong date.
"It was briefly mortifying," Will said, remembering how he dodged the other couple in the bar once he'd found his actual date.
The mix-up was eventually sorted out, and he made it to Love Circle with the correct Hinge match.
"We were pointing out different spots on the skyline and sharing stories about them," he said. "The date started horribly, but I ended up finding one of my favorite spots in Nashville. It's a fun memory."
If you're fresh off a breakup, you may want to steer clear of all the couples at Love Circle, cuddled up as they watch the sun go down.
But some locals think the sunset-watchers at Love Circle are love posers.
"Love Circle definitely screams ... How would I say it? It screams of couples that don't relate to each other very much," Frank, a musician, told The Tennessean.
"So they just pick the storybook romantic spot and just wait for disaster to strike. It's a teenage-love kind of vibe there. It doesn't seem like it needs to last. That's the energy, I would say."
In the ever-complicated Nashville dating scene, Frank's opinion is probably shared by some others.
But, on a warm summer night in August, plenty of Nashvillians gathered at Love Circle anyway — some with their friends, some with their partners, and one pair who admitted they were in a "situationship."
"I think it's a good spot to not spend money at if you're looking to budget," said Alexis Victory, watching the sunset on a blanket.
"This is one of the best places to view the city," added her pal Audrey Parrish.
Reagan Brady and her boyfriend Kyle Harper had dressed up for the evening, laying out a burger picnic on an antique dining tray they had purchased earlier in the night.
Onlooker Belle Keel said she recently moved to Nashville and chose to spend her first night in the city at Love Circle.
"This is such a good spot," she said, jokingly referring to the razor wire on the hill as "prison yard chic."
While the overlook offers sweeping views of the city, the hilltop also hosts utility structures enclosed by grisly-looking chain-link fencing and barbed wire — reflecting the spot's reputation for both wholesomeness and chaos.
"I went with the cheesy Love Circle option for our early Valentine's Day and it definitely paid off," one person said on Reddit. The thread quickly became a collection of Love Circle lore.
"I got drunk and fell into a trashcan up there once," another Reddit user replied.
"Love Circle isn't cheesy. It's a staple in Nashville," a person wrote. "Take anyone that means something to you. It should be a very known secret. Just don't tell anybody."
Another user kept it simple: "Proposed to my wife up there 27 years ago. Good spot. Good marriage."
Despite the hot takes, most people agree: Love Circle is romantic.
Have a thought on this or a story to share? Reach out to Audrey Gibbs, a music reporter at The Tennessean, at agibbs@tennessean.com. You can also follow her on Instagram at @audreyraegibbs.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Love Circle is Nashville's best sunset spot. These romantic stories show why
