Sure, Nashville, Tennessee is famous for its historic and thriving music scene. But knowing where to eat in Nashville is as important as knowing where to hear the Nashville sound. The food scene is growing, becoming a major reason for people to visit. Writer Carla Waldemar did just that and came back with a handy list of both iconic (hot chicken is king) and lesser known Nashville restaurants you need to try to get the varied but authentic taste of Music City. Here’s her guide to Nashville restaurants for food lovers as she ponders “Nashville? Or Noshville?”

Music reigns supreme in Nashville. But you gotta eat and there are plenty of great places to do that all over the city.

Whatever’s in the drinking water, I want some: Nashville is on fire. People are moving into the Music City to the tune (sorry!) of 100 new citizens per day. Once-gritty neighborhoods are morphing into hot spots at the speed of light, and a formerly-moribund downtown shimmies with a reborn vibe. A small town with a big attitude, they all tell me.

Blame it on the music. “If you’re a song writer, this is the only place to be,” declares Kentucky album-idol Jeremy Spillman. Paul McCartney recorded in Nashville, as did Jimi Hendricks, who famously declared, “Here, everybody knows how to play together. Walk down the street and people are sitting on their porches playing: That’s where I learned.” So, needless to say, did performers from Roy Orbison to Johnny Cash…and the list goes on. When people talk of “the industry,” it’s the one involving guitars and microphones.

But that spills over into the eats. It’s no surprise Nashville has been declared the best dining city in the entire Southeast. Not long ago, the town’s music makers got fed up with boring dining. Vanguard chefs got the message and moved in. Today the food scene is national news. Says Randy Rayburn, owner of Midtown Café, “In my lifetime, Nashville’s gone from meat-and-three [sides] to chain restaurants to ‘imitation’ fare—French, Italian, fostered by our inferiority complex—to an explosion of creative food.”  He’s so right. I chalked up out-of-body experiences emerging from humble hot chicken stands to elite, multi-course tasting menus.

The flat-out hardest reservation to snag is for The Catbird Seat, the Southeast’s answer to The French Laundry. Diners in the 35 seats fencing the working kitchen walk away stunned but smiling from prix-fixe, multi-course fare that included, on my visit, beef tartare with snail eggs and begonias—and for dessert, ice-box pie ice cream sandwiched between salad greens.

Can’t leave Nashville without baptism by its legendary hot chicken, done best at a dive called Hattie B’s and her rival, Prince’s. Join the line for the crisp-crusted fowl in fiery-to-fierier chili batter. When the guy in front of me ordered the Damn Hot version, the counterman furrowed his brow, and with concern inquired, “Been here before?”

In between these two dining extremes rises a field of dinner ops. Acme Feed & Seed, in a setting livened by Outsider art, gussies up its own hot chicken sandwich with green peppercorn aioli. Southern staples get slicked up, too, like fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese, a terrific marriage of two classics further embellished with bacon marmalade and sriracha aioli. Or try the redneck lo mein featuring collard greens and black-eyed peas with andouille soy glaze. I admit to succumbing to a dynamite rendition of ribs sided with mac & cheese, collards and slaw.

Roy Acuff, Nashville music icon shares space with iconic food.

The Farm House’s owner, who calls Nashville “the biggest small town you’ll ever live in,” melds his Italian heritage with Tennessee staples, arriving at starters that careen from don’t-miss pimento cheese beignets or deviled eggs dressed with country ham and chow chow to crispy pig ears for the fearless. Small plates, like my order of pork belly with Gouda grits and peach chutney or a mélange of sweet corn, okra, jalapenos and queso fresco, all sprinkled with smoked vinegar, turn humble fixings into heaven. Mains include pappardelle made in-house, embellished with Italian sausage, Asiago and a 62-degree egg. Farm House’s tiramisu takes on a Southern accent with a splash of Bourbon.

Josephine, under Chef Andy Little, performs its own tricks with grandma’s staples, starting with Nashville scrapple in pickle vinaigrette with chives and fries. Veggies merit their own section of the menu, with standout combos like heirloom tomatoes on grilled bread with bacon mayonnaise, or sugar snap peas tossed with peaches, mint and ricotta. My entrée, duck leg confit, came Southernized with a side of black eyed peas, corn and kale. A big hit across the table: the kitchen’s signature chicken for two, served with crispy potatoes, kale, and grilled-onion vinaigrette. Save room, of course, for dessert here, where we’re talking about peach cobbler or chocolate peanut butter cake.

Henrietta Red is a bright and cheery site with a neighborhood feel spotlighting James Beard winner Julia Sullivan’s small plates. They careen from wood-roasted oysters to shrimp toast, Southern style (think corn, tomatoes and pole beans) to heirloom tomato salad to field pea hummus. And those are just the starters. Stick around for smoked trout, snapper, grouper, lamb meatballs and the like. My dessert choice was a berry rice pudding: corn husk ice cream, blackberry gastrique and (alas) goat feta, which overpowered, and ruined, the creation.

Henrietta Red’s oysters and a glass of wine.

Would I send you to a dime stored to dine? Heck yes, if it’s Nashville’s iconic Woolworth, where sit-ins were held in 1960 and their brave participants brutally attacked. The store closed in 1976 but has been reborn as a destination café, complete with non-segregated lunch counter. Here I enjoyed perhaps the best fried green tomatoes of the trip, embellished with goat cheese and red pepper jam. The pimento cheese with crispy pork rinds also makes my bucket list. Woolworth’s menu also features “counter classics” ranging from short-rib pot roast to meatloaf, catfish and more hot chicken. Dime store burgers, too.

Fried Green Tomatoes at Woolworth. Photo courtesy Woolworth.

NASHVILLE BONUS: Come for the Eats, Stay for the Music

First off, I got a little history under my belt at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. “Head nerd” Jay McDowell, a recovering musician himself, explained that its story encompasses all genres, from blues and R&R to bluegrass, pop and country. It traces the evolution of music on demand from “furniture—radios and phonographs—to today’s device in your pocket.”

We gawked at the museum’s salvaged Enactron Mobile Recording Studio—“a dirty, old trailer,” says Jay, made of lead that magnificently blocked interference. Look for the scrawled autographs on the walls. Then we popped on headsets and picked up instruments to “perform” onstage.

Proceed to the Country Music Hall of Fame to trace this music’s roots: Appalachian fiddle and banjo; European accordion; African drums. By the 1920s, radios brought it nationwide. In the’70s, the Nashville sound added strings and backup vocals to the mix.

The Hall’s tour continues at the fabled Studio B, where Dolly Parton cut over twenty records and Elvis sat at the very piano bench you’re invited to occupy. Later, follow the neon igniting Broadway, aka Honkytonk Row, crammed with saloons that offer live music by the stars of tomorrow.

History also shines at the brand-new building of the Tennessee State Museum, unspooling the region’s story through  a Time Travel Tunnel starting eons before explorer DeSoto looted his way through; long before Andrew Jackson vaulted from here to the White House. (Tennessee was a divided state during the Civil War, and the last one to secede.) The exhibit doesn’t pull punches when discussing the war, or the KKK. The Depression that forced Blacks from jobs that white guys needed. The Manhattan Project of World War II. The trail of MLK and the Nashville sit-ins.

It’s hosting a special exhibit called Let’s Eat through Feb. 2, 2020, spotlighting small-town cafes, home cooks and festivals like the one celebrating cornbread with its ardent contenders who fight over whether it’s best  “wet” or “dry” style.  It explains the roots of Soul Food, and the items originating with African enslaved people—okra, sweet potatoes, hot spices—along with Native American contributions of squash, corn and beans. Spanish explorer DeSoto introduced pork to the Chickasaws in 1530, and it didn‘t take long to turn the territory into “the buckle on the BBQ belt.”

Putting its money where its vocal cords are, Nashville’s music institutions have undergone massive expansions, filling new spaces with interactive features that make them even more engaging, starting with the Rymer—originally a church, converted to an auditorium. Today it’s the Mother Church of Country music, where the Grand Ole Opry got its start. If its ghosts could talk, you’d hear the voices of Patsy Cline, Bruce Springsteen and James Brown among the choir.

To plan your visit, check out www.visitmusiccity.com. To plan where to stay and car rentals, give TravelZoo.com a try, one of RealFoodTraveler.com’s affiliate partners.

Hungry for more? Read about a first-timer’s experience going to Memphis, Tennessee; find out what Carla found when she went to South Carolina; and learn more about what our readers love about authentic cuisine in our About page.

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