The Essential Nashville

Even if you arrive at Arnold’s right when they open at 10:30 am, you’ll probably be faced with a line of hungry patrons who queue up Monday through Friday for this Nashville institution’s legendary meat-and-three lunch. The line doesn’t take too long—and you’ll encounter just about every slice of Nashville’s community there, from construction workers and teachers to judges and world-famous songwriters. Before you know it, you’ll be pulling a red tray down the stainless-steel counter, pointing to the savory contents of a loaded steam table.

It’s not a meal you could eat every day—nor should you. Meat-and-three lunches are modeled on the country farmhouse tradition of eating a large meal at midday. You’ll start by choosing a meat, like fried chicken, roast beef, breaded catfish, liver and onions, or chicken fried steak. (The selection changes daily.) Next, figure out your sides—turnip greens, pinto beans, fried apples. I like to keep an eye on proprietor Kahlil Arnold’s social media posts, where he announces when he’s firing up the smoker for a plate of cherry-smoked ribs or putting meatloaf on the menu. It’s always affordable, deeply filling food that usually rings up for less than $11.

The story of Prince’s hot chicken has been told and retold, dissected, reported, and passed along in various forms. And while it does involve the tale of a woman cooking up a pile of chile pepper-laced fried revenge for a cheating boyfriend, it is also a story about struggle and triumph within Nashville’s African-American community.

Hot chicken has now been replicated and riffed on by everyone from passionate fans to KFC. But Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, located in North Nashville, is where locals will tell you to find the real deal. The strip-mall location maintains its old-school ways as a long-standing, family-run joint, where the wait and eventual reward are shared with long-time fans as well as visitors making the pilgrimage.

Other variations are worth seeking out too. Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish goes deeper on the pepper with its dry rub. (And don’t skip the hot fish; there’s a reason it gets equal billing.) Pepperfire Hot Chicken aims for the same depth of flavor as Prince’s, but like many of the restaurants now doing iterations of hot chicken, they offer a wider range, from “southernified” (no heat) to XX Hot.

When the Catbird Seat opened in Nashville in 2011, its intimate thirty-two-seat counter and chefs-on-stage experience gave the city a place to channel creative coolness. Chefs Erik Anderson and Josh Habiger were doing something experimental and daring for any part of the country, let alone a city whose culinary talents had just barely begun to reveal themselves. On the menu, you’d find rabbit with morels and smoked yogurt; albacore tuna with citrus, chiles, and sea beans; and braised veal cheeks with beets and dill. (There was also a play on hot chicken: a snack of super crispy chicken skin dusted with cayenne.)

The restaurateur brothers behind the concept, Max and Ben Goldberg, are still the city’s most boundary-pushing conceptualizers.

From a perch at the pizza counter, you can feel the warm glow of the wood-burning oven as chefs push and pull mozzarella-scattered pies around in the embers. Octopus with smoked sausage, chickpeas, and hakurei turnips might have been considered bold at Wilson’s opening, but it’s now a locally adored staple, as is the belly ham pizza and a bread gnocchi tangled with rabbit sugo. After several years of nominations, Wilson was named Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation in 2016, solidifying his place as one of the region’s best. 

The Beard Foundation has turned more attention on Nashville’s chefs in recent years, putting McCormack, Habiger, and Andy Little of Josephine on its regional semifinalist lists. Lockeland Table received a nomination, as did the Catbird Seat, both for being superb new restaurants when they opened.

In 2018, Henrietta Red continued the streak when it picked up a Best New Restaurant nom, while its chef, Julia Sullivan, was named to Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs list. Judging by the constant buzz inside the dining room, just a short block away from City House, the restaurant is destined for similar status as a Nashville staple. The space is comfortable, chic, and feminine. And Sullivan’s menu—a balance of focused small plates—emphasizes vegetables and seafood; you’ll find mushroom steak topped with a sourdough crumb, baked ricotta with delicata squash. It’s relaxed and jovial in here, but there is serious work being done both in the kitchen and behind the bar.

The culinary scene’s award-winning streak is likely to continue.  Later this year, superstar Sean Brock plans to open his dream restaurant: Focused on the foods of his Appalachian upbringing, the two-story space will house both a casual, approachable downstairs dining room, as well as a second-story tasting menu space. 

Inevitably, when I’m down that way, I find my way to Robert’s Western World where there’s homegrown talent on the stage and cold, cheap beers being passed over the bar. One wall is lined up with vintage boots and another stacked beer bottles; snapshots fill just about every uncovered inch. I come here to tap my feet, scoot around the cozy dance floor, and toss appreciative tips into a bucket when the band passes one around.

But no trip to Robert’s is complete without a fried bologna sandwich. Whether I’m there late into the night braving shots and bottles of High Life or stopping through with my family for some afternoon tunes, that perfectly griddled slab of bologna squeezed into a bun—and accompanied by a fiddling crooner—seems to set everything right in the world. 

The mural-selfie phenomenon started when street artist Adrien Saporiti put up his now iconic “I Believe in Nashville” mural in 2012. Slowly at first, new murals cropped up, including remakes of Saporiti’s original. But recently, a spate of new art projects, whether done by traveling artists or with the help of local arts initiatives, have made their mark in many of Nashville’s neighborhoods. Stroll down 11^th Avenue in the Gulch and you can’t miss the Nashville Walls Project’s soft greens and blues framing Laurel Street, or the “wings” mural by artist Kelsey Montague. Charlotte Avenue now has a block-long string of murals thanks to the Off the Wall project, funded by local businesses.

Best to start with a local favorite. The longtime pastry pro at City House, Rebekah Turshen, brings heat and soul to her desserts. Whether it’s an almond ricotta skillet cake or her crackly, crispy cookies, her finishes perfectly cap a meal.

Newer to town but no less beloved is pastry chef Lisa Marie White, who moved to Nashville after cutting her teeth in New Orleans where she helped open the much-lauded bakery Willa Jean. She shows her range through the restaurants at Thompson Nashville, putting out big, bouncy biscuits and ultra-gooey cinnamon rolls with the coffee at Killebrew, or finely plated sweets like hazelnut mousse cake at Marsh House.