Food destinations within easy reach of Nashville, worth the early start.
Food destinations within easy reach of Nashville. worth the train, the rental car or the early start.
Famous for: Main Street meat-and-three, gracious Southern lunches
Franklin's restored Main Street, 25 minutes south of Nashville by car, runs a tighter restaurant row than its size suggests. Puckett's Grocery and Gray's on Main are the institutions.
Famous for: Jack Daniel's distillery tour and Miss Mary Bobo's boarding-house lunch
Lynchburg, 75 minutes southeast of Nashville, hosts the Jack Daniel's distillery and Miss Mary Bobo's, a 1908 boarding-house Southern lunch in a single sitting per day.
Famous for: Country tables, live music, the Country Boy restaurant
Leiper's Fork, 40 minutes southwest of Nashville, is a single-street country village with the Country Boy restaurant for biscuits and the Fox & Locke for Saturday-night live music and food.
Famous for: Riverfront dining, Easy Bistro and Main Street Meats
Chattanooga, two hours southeast of Nashville by car, runs a strong riverfront dining scene with Easy Bistro for French-leaning plates and Main Street Meats for whole-animal butchery.
Famous for: Jack Daniel's, George Dickel and Uncle Nearest distillery lunches
The Tennessee Whiskey Trail strings Jack Daniel's, George Dickel and Uncle Nearest distilleries within a 90-minute drive of Nashville. Each runs a kitchen or pairs with a nearby restaurant.
Peak food season in Nashville is year-round.
Local dining hours: lunch around 12:30, dinner from 19:30.
service is typically included; small extra is welcome but not expected.
Ask the next local you meet what they would order. Nashville rewards trust.