Nashville’s foodie scene is hopping with heaps of new restaurants opening every month, but the oldies need our support, too. While Nashville’s oldest restaurant, Varallo’s, closed earlier this year, we still have plenty of great restaurants and bars that have been around for a very long time.
This West Nashville dive bar is not only the city’s oldest bar, but the state’s, too. While it looks like the typical semi-dilapidated dive bar, it has a storied history. The bar converted to a speakeasy during the Prohibition era, and it’s rumored that Al Capone was a frequent visitor. They always have a great lineup of comedy shows and live music.
This greasy hamburger joint made its home almost 100 years ago in an old trolley car in Hillsboro Village. It’s also got that dive feel, and has only had three owners in its history. Though its hamburgers are famous, Brown’s also serves a solid breakfast.
You can find this high-end steakhouse in a Southern mansion tucked between the Centennial and St. Thomas Midtown hospitals. Founded during the Great Depression, the original Jimmy Kelly promised diners he’d always serve good steak and whiskey, though the restaurant is perhaps best known for its corncakes, after Kelly lured away a cook from the Maxwell House Hotel known for making them.
Just a block away from Jimmy Kelly’s is this meat-and-three with a classic, pharmacy-style soda fountain. They serve three meals a day, but their milkshakes are the highlight. While the shop briefly closed in 2019, developers Tony and Lisa Giarratana reopened it in 2021, with the goal of preserving its charm.
Nashville’s OG hot chicken has an origin story as spicy as its menu: When Thornton Prince’s wife got fed up with his philandering ways, she served him his favorite meal, fried chicken, with heaps of peppers and spices. But instead of getting sick, Thornton loved it, and decided to open a hot chicken restaurant. Today, it’s run by his great niece, Ms. Andre Prince Jeffries.
Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash have performed at this famous Printer’s Alley restaurant, known for its burlesque and jazz. It also has quite a history, including the 1998 murder of founder David “Skull” Schulman.
Lon and Annie Loveless began serving chicken and biscuits out of their Bellevue home in 1951, but as demand grew, they converted their entire home into a restaurant and built a 14-room motel for guests. Those biscuits are still famous.
This West Nashville staple is best known for its chocolate-dipped soft serve ice cream. It was originally called Harper’s Dairy Dip, but when Bobbie McWright bought it in the mid-1980s, he renamed it. While it’s changed hands a few times, it still maintains that ‘50s feel.
Right across the street from Bobbie’s is this meat-and-three, which has stayed in the same family for three generations. The restaurant serves all three meals every day except Sunday. Don’t sleep on its country ham and banana pudding.
This North Nashville cafeteria-style restaurant serves up delicious Southern soul food, and has had pretty much the same menu since its opening. It’s stayed in the family for all these years. Try the pork chops and cornbread.
