VOL. 48 | NO. 2 | Friday, January 12, 2024
Get it while it’s hot ... and still exists
By Nicki Pendleton Wood, Catherine Mayhew, Colleen Creamer
Nashville’s dining scene has never been more vibrant, with the Convention & Visitors Corp. tracking more than 200 new restaurants popping up over the past few years.
At the same time, however, as we hear more news about beloved neighborhood haunts closing their doors (rest well, McCabe Pub) or facing an uncertain future (welcome back, Arnold’s? For now, at least?), it’s good to be reminded of some of the fixtures, both decades old and relatively new on the scene, that could be classified as Nashville staples.
To that end, we asked longtime Ledger correspondents Nicki Pendleton Wood, Catherine Mayhew and Colleen Creamer to give quick hit updates on eateries – some well-known names, some hidden gems – that help keep Music City’s food scene among the most interesting in the county.
And if they didn’t mention your favorite, just know there’s no way to list them all.
Besides, some secrets are too good to share. You want to be able to get in the next time you go.
2318 12th Ave. South in 12South (naturally!)
615-463-7552.
Open Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11:30 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Good grub, really good beer (25 on tap!), good for families, no cut corners. Please spend a few minutes to read the beer descriptions because they are a combo platter of straightforward details and stoner poetry.
Then move on to the food offerings. It’s usually going to be a Reuben or a Cuban for me, but the time I got the sesame chicken salad, it was full of tastes and textures that hit all the flavor receptors. And don’t sleep on the brisket quesadilla! So much skill and creativity on the menu, with just that bit of extra care and effort to make it worth waiting in line for.
12South is great for families with children – there’s a kiddos menu with the usual suspects (cheeseburger, quesadillas) plus a rib-eye quesadilla for the future restaurant reviewer in the party.
– NPW
2102 Blair Blvd. in Belmont-Hillsboro
615-269-5509
Open Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
In 1927, PEZ candy, the first quartz crystal watch and a complete electronic TV system were invented. But, more importantly, Brown’s Diner opened and still holds Nashville’s oldest beer license.
Some might wonder if Brown’s interior has changed much over the decades, but that’s part of its charm. Its cheeseburger is legendary, served appropriately with Duke’s Mayonnaise.
Over the years, politicians, country stars, judges and construction workers have sat shoulder-to-shoulder and ordered the classic combo of a cheeseburger and homemade chili.
– CM
38 White Bridge Road in Lion’s Head Village
(615) 352-8121
Open Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
Dalt’s first opened its doors in 1980, and 44 years later the tables and roomy leather booths are still filled to the brim every day.
Fans of this Belle Meade-adjacent restaurant aren’t looking for fancy or fussy. They come for the superlative chicken potpie with a puff pastry crust, homey and substantial meatloaf, turkey and homemade dressing, and country fried steak with cream gravy. The hash brown and squash casseroles are sublime.
Don’t pass on dessert. The chocolate malt cake is made with the same recipe used when Dalt’s first opened, and their peanut butter pie is simply the best in the world, and that’s no exaggeration.
– CM
411 Gallatin Avenue in East Nashville
615-226-3566
Open Mon.-Fri. 5 p.m.-3 a.m., Sat.-Sun. noon-3 a.m.
Long before gentrification became an East Nashville reality, there was Dino’s. This is no curated dive bar/restaurant. Dino’s opened in the ’70s, a time from which the original Formica tables hail.
This bar/diner has a lot going on – annual dog calendars, purchasable hot chicken oil, merch, oracle readings on Halloween – and a lot going for it such as really, really good cheeseburgers, fries and hot chicken, and French toast, served until 3 a.m. every day of the week, which seems nothing short of community service.
Bon Appetit named Dino’s one of the top burgers in the country in 2017.
– CC
416 Broadway downtown
615-254-5715
Open Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
The original Jack’s Bar-B-Que has been dishing out barbecue to downtown crowds since the early ’90s. That was when owner Jack Cawthorn had lost his lease at the first location closer to the Cumberland River in the ’70 to make way for what is now the Hard Rock Cafe.
Admittedly, the level of foot traffic on Lower Broad helps fuel the attendance, but it is equally the quality of the food. Jack’s brisket with generous bark is popular with regulars. As well, the pork or beef barbecue plates with sides remain at prices before inflation.
Two other locations have sprouted since the original, one at 334 W. Trinity Lane, and another at 1601 Charlotte Avenue. All the cooking, chopping, and sauce topping is done out in the open because Jack’s has little to hide.
– CC
217 Louise Avenue in Midtown
615-329-4349
Open Mon.-Wed. 4-10 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. 4-11 p.m., Closed Sun.
This Nashville stalwart restaurant has been operating by the Kelly family since 1934 out of a Southern mansion at 217 Louise Avenue, just west of downtown.
The steakhouse’s original mission was to provide “a good steak and a generous pour” because, when the restaurant opened, the country was in the middle of The Great Depression and thirsty from 13 years of Prohibition.
The décor is dark wood with burgundy walls and bordello lighting; this is where the Rat Pack would have eaten. Deals and tales of deals are told here, and those tales would have been spectacular because Jimmy Kelly was a bootlegger during Prohibition.
Today, his great-grandson, Mike Kelly, runs a tight ship. The pours are still generous, as are the steaks, which are hand cut by the restaurant’s butcher the day of service
– CC
8400 Highway 100 in West Nashville
615-646-9700
Open Mon., Thurs., Fri. 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 7 a.m.-8 p.m., Closed Tues.-Wed.
The Loveless is as close to the middle of nowhere as Metro Nashville gets, but that hasn’t stopped crowds making the drive and waiting to sit down in the homey dining room for more than 70 years.
The fried chicken and biscuits were a main attraction when first owner Annie Loveless whipped them up back in 1951 and they’re still a draw today.
Over the years, the Loveless has expanded its campus and now has both a smokehouse and an extensive gift shop selling everything from biscuit mix to smoked meats.
– CM
Meet Noodles
2121 Belcourt Ave. near Vanderbilt
615-679-9941
Open daily 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Chongqing-style noodle bowls, but like 20 types. Thick noodles, thin noodles, hand-torn noodles. Flour noodles are the default, but you can get rice noodles or sweet potato noodles instead.
There are pickled peanuts, ribs with noodles, brothless wonders, authentic-as-heck noodles like pig intestine and fish balls and wontons. Seafood noodles, roast duck noodles and pickled fish noodles, for the love of mike. Some are hot, some are not.
What clenches it for me is the tingly-hot Sichuan peppercorn-chile condiment. It’s so good that last visit, I asked for extra and they sent me home with a little tub of the sliced chiles and Sichuan peppercorns floating in menacingly red oil.
– NPW
102 19th Avenue South in Midtown (naturally)
615-320-7176
Open daily 8 a.m.-2 p.m., 4:30-8:30 p.m.
A longstanding-power-lunch venue for Nashville movers and shakers, this award-winning, intentionally old school restaurant has been serving food in the heart of town across decades.
Culinary guru Randy Rayburn took over the single-story dining room between West End Avenue and Broadway in 1997. A little bit raconteur, Rayburn works the room of regulars, locals and others who may be thankful just to not have to wade through food items that have been “deconstructed.”
The menu at Midtown is fine dining without being intimidating. When Rayburn bought the restaurant, the deal had to include one recipe – the famed umami-rich lemon artichoke soup. The service is both crisp and welcoming.
– CC
1110 Hillsboro Road in Franklin
615-599-5313
Open Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Miss Daisy King has been serving her Southern classics to Nashville and beyond since 1974. The Unsinkable Miss Daisy first had a tearoom for many years, then two grocery store locations and now her own brick-and-mortar.
But the menu has always been must-have comfort foods like poppy seed chicken, chicken divan, meatloaf, corn pudding, green bean casserole, yeast rolls and congealed cranberry salad. Many a well-heeled hostess has served Miss Daisy’s creations, and there’s a question whether some Nashvillians could even conceive of Thanksgiving without her premade menu.
Miss Daisy is getting up in years, but she’s still at her shop every day. When she hangs up her mixing bowl, her likes won’t come this way again.
– CM
4014 Hillsboro Circle in Green Hills
615-269-3535
Open daily 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
The real ones show up solo at 7 a.m. for coffee, eggs and corned beef hash at the bar, while everyone else, from regulars like Vince Gill (leave the talent alone – it’s the Nashville Way) to families coming in for hot dogs and ice cream sodas, has a favorite time for this all-day breakfast-but-also-great-deli-lunch favorite.
Roll up earlier for sublime Nosh Benedict, go traditional with matzah brei, seven varieties of bagel and smoked fish platters or wait until a decent hour and get a bloody mary, brunch punch or wine with a pastrami and corned beef Deli Omelette. Every corner of the menu has something terrific, from silver dollar potato cakes to the matzah ball soup with noodles and worthy Reuben and Rachel sandwiches.
Take a minute to get down in the weeds with the menu and you’ll find quirks and inspirations like the PPPLT (pastrami, potato pancakes, lettuce and tomato) and a Tennessee Club (three meats!) on a pumpernickel, if ya freaky.
– NPW
5814 Nolensville Pike #110 in South Nashville
615-810-9388
Open Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Closed Sunday
5055 Broadway in the Assembly Food Hall
629-895-4688
Open Sun.-Thurs. 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10:30 a.m.-midnight.
4060 Cane Ridge Park Way at Tanger Outlets in Antioch
615-810-9388
Open Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Closed Sunday
World War II was ending the year James Thornton Prince opened a humble restaurant selling the chicken with the heartburn that would be felt around the world.
His great-niece André Prince Jeffries has been running the place for years, but the chicken remains the most delectable, the crunchiest, the juiciest and – yes – the spiciest hot chicken anywhere.
While “Nashville Hot Chicken” is sold around the world, Prince’s has kept its business model close to home, preferring the quality control that offers. Taste that quality, but beware the heat. Medium or hot is as far as most people want to go.
– CM
937 Locklayer Street near Bicentennial Mall
615-780-9900
Open Tues-Fri 6:30-2:30. Sunday 11-3. Closed Monday and Saturday.
Every time I visit I think, “How? How does this place cook so much food six days a week?”
Silver Sands opens early to serve a hot cooked breakfast, the kind hardly anyone bothers with anymore. Then lunch service starts late morning, a seamless transition from eggs and pancakes to a handful of entrees, plus fish and salmon croquettes by request and a double handful of traditional soul + Southern side dishes like beans, greens, cabbage and sweet potatoes. Round that out with a couple kinds of bread and cornbread.
It’s more than just good food – Sands offers some of the iconic meat-and-three and soul kitchen dishes that are harder to find on menus these days: stewed neckbones, liver, oxtail, pork steak all on the menu on various days of the week. You can get fish soft-fried or hard-fried. The Sands crew is putting in the work.
Third generation owner Sophia Vaughn includes so many foods that aren’t at the top of everyone’s list but some people really love them. That’s character and commitment, attributes a restaurant really cannot fake.
– NPW
2116 8th Ave. South
615-649-8162
Open Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
You know when you encounter someone who is very, very good at what they do that it’s satisfying to be in their presence? That’s Smokin’ Oaks. I haven’t eaten the entire menu, but they are so very good at meat-centered things, and someone there has a fantastic head for a great recipe.
Come for the huge selection of your most prized cuts – hams, roasts, ribs, flatirons, strips, stew meat, bone-in rib-eyes and so much more. Stay for the wildly imaginative sausages, big and bountiful prepared sandwiches, hot foods.
My technique is to buy a sandwich for the day’s supper (big enough for two people), then load up the basket with beautiful cuts for later and some sides, plus a bit of pantry stocking. It’s hard not to overbuy at Smokin’ Oaks, so just give yourself permission – you deserve it! – and count yourself well fed.
– NPW
5109 Harding Pike in Belle Meade
615-353-0809
Open Mon.-Sat. 4-10 p.m., Sun. 4-9 p.m.
650 Frazier Dr. in Cool Springs
615-778-9950
Open Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sperry’s celebrates its 50th birthday this year, and there’s a reason this old-guard eatery has stood the test of time. Just walk into its wood-paneled, leather-infused interior and you expect to be treated as thoughtfully as you are.
The wait staff is helpful and jovial, but not intrusive. The menu takes you back to the heyday of martini’s, escargot, wedge salads, trout almandine and the specialty, prime rib.
If you’re in need of pampering, even for just an hour, Sperry’s always delivers.
– CM
2725 Clifton Avenue in West Nashville
615-329-4418
Open Mon.-Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
This cafeteria-style restaurant west of downtown has steadily been serving home-cooked Southern food to students, politicians and session players since 1954.
The meat and fish are processed at the restaurant and the vegetables are cooked fresh. The décor is that of a no-fuss diner but at Swett’s that translates to large and bright.
In 2012, the Swett family made a decision about their long-standing menu that quite literally alerted the media; they added a barbecue pit. The fried chicken at Swett’s is well-known, as are their cobblers and pies.
With Arnold’s Country Kitchen’s future still to be determined, Swett’s is one of the few remaining meat-and-three restaurants still successfully operating in Music City.
– CC
5303 Charlotte Avenue in West Nashville
615-953-7001
Open daily 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Opened in 2019, Twilight has a timeless feel of a place that’s been around much longer. And despite the all-sports-all-the-time giant screen televisions, its food offerings are so much more than sports bar food.
For example, teriyaki wings are in a housemade sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds and cilantro with a homemade carrot-ginger sauce for dipping. Korean barbecue wings also get their own housemade sauce. Cajun sausage and puff pastry are an uptown makeover of pigs-in-blankets. Twilight roasts its own beef for French Dip. Even the grilled cheese gets cheffy – grilled Tuscan bread is stuffed with ham, Gouda and Swiss.
For a place serving 12 hours a day, the level of commitment to the food here is really something. Even the desserts at Twilight are homemade, although you could also opt to stroll next door to Bobby’s Dairy Dip.
– NPW
5906 Charlotte Pike in West Nashville
615-356-5995
Open Mon, Thurs-Sat 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Sun. 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Closed Tues.-Wed.
There’s a reason VN Pho always has a crowd: some declare it the best of the westside Vietnamese places. The basics – special beef pho, Bo Bun Hue, Hu Tieu Soup – are made without shortcuts so the flavors are deep and layered.
Bun bo hue is a rich ruddy broth with big hunks of long-stewed beef so tender that a spoon or chopstick can cut them, plus meltingly tender sweet carrot chunks. Extra points for the bountiful garnishes (bean sprouts, jalapeño slices, green onions, red onions, a whole branch of basil, lime wedges) so you never run out of extras before you run out of soup and noodles.
Customize and stretch your meal from the selection of “extras”: extra broth, extra meat, a fried egg, a baguette, extra garnishes. (Not a noodle person? There are also rice dishes such as grilled pork or chicken.)
– NPW
407 53rd Ave. N. in West Nashville
Open Mon.-Fri. 6 a.m.-7:15 p.m., Sat. 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Closed Sunday
Dwight Eisenhower was front and center when Wendell Smith opened its doors in 1952. Almost nothing has changed in the intervening 72 years and that’s much to the credit of this venerable restaurant serving country breakfasts and meat-and-three lunches.
The menu is stuck in time in the best way possible with fried chicken, salmon patties with pea sauce, meatloaf, fried pork chops and catfish. The sides are still vintage 1950s.
Anyone care for baked apples, purple hull peas, marshmallow yams and congealed fruit salad? Resoundingly, yes please!
– CM