Nashville Hot Chicken, Meat & Three & the Nashville Food Scene
Nashville's food culture (the culinary scene of a city that has evolved from a regional Southern food tradition into one of the most celebrated dining destinations in the United States): Nashville is the home of Nashville Hot Chicken (the uniquely Nashville form of fried chicken — the spice-coated fried chicken served on white bread with pickles that has been exported from Nashville to fried chicken restaurants across the United States and the world), the 'meat and three' (the Southern tradition of a cafeteria-style restaurant serving a meat and three vegetable side dishes), and an increasingly sophisticated restaurant scene driven by the city's rapid population growth and economic boom.
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Prince's Hot Chicken Shack — The Inventor of Nashville Hot Chicken
Prince's Hot Chicken Shack (123 Ewing Drive, Nashville — the restaurant established by Thornton Prince III in the 1930s as 'BBQ Chicken Shack', the restaurant where Nashville Hot Chicken (the cayenne-paste-coated fried chicken served on white bread with pickles) was invented): the Prince's origin story (the legend — the most famous origin story in Nashville food history — that Thornton Prince's girlfriend, angry at him for staying out all night, cooked him an extra-spicy fried chicken for breakfast as revenge, intending it to be inedible, but that Prince ate it, loved it, and asked her to make it the same way for his restaurant): the Prince's experience (the restaurant currently operated by Semone Jeffers, the great-niece of the founder, in a converted gas station at 123 Ewing Drive in the Clifton neighbourhood of Nashville — the experience of ordering at the counter (the spice levels: Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot, XXX Hot), waiting (the wait is typically 30-45 minutes — the chicken is fried to order, not held), and receiving the iconic tray: the dark-red, glistening chicken pieces on two slices of white bread, with dill pickle chips on top): the national hot chicken phenomenon (Prince's Hot Chicken inspired the establishment of hundreds of Nashville Hot Chicken restaurants across the United States — from the chains (KFC introduced 'Nashville Hot Chicken' to its national menu in 2016, the first major fast-food chain to adopt the style) to the independent restaurants (Hattie B's Hot Chicken, Dave's Hot Chicken, Howlin' Ray's)).
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Hattie B's Hot Chicken — Nashville's Most Famous Hot Chicken Chain
Hattie B's Hot Chicken (the Nashville-born hot chicken restaurant chain founded 2012 by Nick Bishop Sr. and his son Nick Bishop Jr. in the Midtown neighbourhood, now with multiple Nashville locations and expansion to other cities — the hot chicken restaurant that more than any other has been responsible for introducing Nashville Hot Chicken to national audiences outside Tennessee): the Hattie B's experience (the ordering system (the spice levels — Southern (no heat), Mild, Medium, Hot, Damn Hot, Shut the Cluck Up!!! — the Shut the Cluck Up!!! level being the hottest on the menu, a level of heat that most first-time hot chicken eaters cannot finish): the sides (Hattie B's sides — the comeback sauce (the creamy pink Southern sauce based on mayonnaise, ketchup, and hot sauce), the pimento cheese (the Southern staple — the mixture of sharp cheddar, cream cheese, pimentos (the roasted sweet red peppers), and Duke's mayonnaise that is the most beloved cheese preparation of the American South), the black-eyed pea salad, and the banana pudding): the Midtown location (1032 Broadway — the original Hattie B's in the Midtown neighbourhood, across from Vanderbilt University (the private research university in Midtown Nashville established 1873, with an enrollment of approximately 12,500 students), the location that is consistently the busiest of the Hattie B's locations with waits of 45-90 minutes on weekend evenings).
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Arnold's Country Kitchen — Nashville's Best Meat & Three
Arnold's Country Kitchen (605 8th Avenue South, Nashville — the meat and three restaurant established 1983 by Jack and Rose Arnold, now operated by their son Kahlil Arnold — the most famous and most beloved 'meat and three' restaurant in Nashville, winner of the James Beard Foundation's 'America's Classic' award): the meat and three tradition (the Southern cafeteria tradition of a restaurant where diners choose one meat (the fried chicken (the most chosen meat at Arnold's), the roast beef, the pork chop, the catfish, or the vegetable plate) and three side dishes from a selection of approximately 15 daily vegetable sides (the turnip greens (the Southern staple — the slow-cooked leafy greens (Brassica rapa subsp. rapa — the turnip tops), cooked with a piece of smoked ham hock until completely tender and richly flavoured with pork fat), the mac and cheese (the Arnold's macaroni and cheese — the baked macaroni with the thick, orange-hued cheese sauce, the most ordered side dish at Arnold's), the fried okra, the butter beans, the creamed corn, the mashed potatoes, the pinto beans, the sweet potato casserole, and the cornbread dressing (a seasonal special)): the experience (the cafeteria line (the tray-and-silverware line where you move past the steam tables choosing your meat and three), the low prices (the average meal at Arnold's is under $12, making it the finest food value in Nashville proper), and the seating in the no-frills dining room at communal tables where Nashville mayors, country music stars, and construction workers eat side by side).
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The Gulch, 12South & Nashville's New Food Neighbourhoods
The Gulch (the neighbourhood in downtown Nashville immediately south of Lower Broadway — the neighbourhood developed from a former rail yard into Nashville's most upscale mixed-use development, with high-rise condominiums, boutique hotels, and the most concentrated collection of upscale restaurants in Nashville): the Gulch restaurant scene (the neighbourhood with the highest density of nationally recognised restaurants in Nashville, including Etch (303 Demonbreun Street — the contemporary American restaurant by acclaimed Nashville chef Deb Paquette, one of the most consistently acclaimed restaurants in Nashville), Kayne Prime (1103 McGavock Street — the dry-aged steakhouse in the Gulch, consistently rated one of the finest steakhouses in the American South)): 12South (the neighbourhood along 12th Avenue South in south Nashville — the neighbourhood that has transformed from a low-income residential area into one of Nashville's most vibrant dining and shopping districts): the 12South dining scene (the neighbourhood's restaurants (Josephine (2316 12th Avenue South — the New American bistro in the former Cotten's Filling Station, one of the most charming dining rooms in Nashville), the Burger Up (2901 12th Avenue South — the craft burger restaurant famous for the 'Ode to Hank Williams' burger (the burger with the pimento cheese, fried onion strings, and tomato jam, named for country music legend Hank Williams)), and Imana (2014 12th Avenue South — the farm-to-table restaurant that is the most acclaimed new restaurant in the 12South neighbourhood)).
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Germantown & the Nashville Farmers' Market
Germantown (the neighbourhood immediately north of downtown Nashville, across the railroad tracks from the State Capitol — the oldest intact residential neighbourhood in Nashville, developed in the mid-19th century by German immigrant families and now the most gentrified and most restaurant-dense neighbourhood outside of the Gulch and 12South): the Germantown dining scene (the neighbourhood that has become Nashville's most sophisticated food neighbourhood, with restaurants including Rolf and Daughters (700 Taylor Street — the most acclaimed restaurant in Nashville, the pasta and vegetable-focused menu by chef Philip Krajeck that incorporates fermented and preserved vegetables with house-made pasta in a former 1880s textile mill), Butchertown Hall (1416 4th Avenue North — the Texas BBQ and craft beer restaurant in a former printing press building), City House (1222 4th Avenue North — the Italian neighbourhood restaurant by chef Tandy Wilson, winner of the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: Southeast award in 2016, one of the restaurants that launched the Nashville food renaissance): Nashville Farmers' Market (900 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard, adjacent to the State Capitol — the year-round indoor and outdoor farmers' market with approximately 150 vendors selling locally grown produce, handmade goods, and prepared foods from the diverse communities of the Nashville region (the Amish baked goods vendors, the Southeast Asian produce vendors from Nashville's large Vietnamese, Laotian, and Somali immigrant communities, and the Tennessee farm vendors selling heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn, and locally raised meat)).
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Vanderbilt & Midtown Nashville
Vanderbilt University (2201 West End Avenue, Midtown Nashville — the private research university established 1873 by Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), the New York shipping and railroad tycoon, with a $1 million donation intended to 'contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country' in the aftermath of the Civil War — the university that has become one of the most selective and most prestigious universities in the American South (U.S. News & World Report ranks Vanderbilt 18th among national universities as of 2024), with an enrollment of approximately 12,500 students and a total endowment of approximately $10 billion): the Vanderbilt campus (the 330-acre (135-hectare) campus adjacent to the Centennial Park in Midtown Nashville, with the characteristic red-brick buildings (the original buildings designed in the Romanesque Revival style by William Crawford Smith in the 1870s) and the magnificent trees (Vanderbilt's campus is designated as an official arboretum — the 'Vanderbilt University Arboretum', with 300+ tree species)): Centennial Park (the 132-acre (53-hectare) park adjacent to the Vanderbilt campus, home to the Parthenon (the full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens — the building constructed in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition and rebuilt in permanent concrete in 1925, now housing a fine arts museum and the 42-foot (13-metre) tall replica of Phidias's Athena Parthenos (the chryselephantine statue of Athena that stood in the original Parthenon in Athens — the statue is the largest indoor statue in the Western Hemisphere)).