Signature Dishes of Nashville

Must-try dishes

Nashville hot chicken

Bone-in fried chicken painted with a cayenne paste, served on white bread with pickles. The lacquered red crust hides serious heat; bread soaks the oil.

History: Thornton Prince, in the 1930s in Nashville, was given a too-spicy plate by his girlfriend as punishment for staying out late. He liked it. The Prince family opened a hot chicken shack in North Nashville and the rest of the city followed. Bolton's, Pepperfire, Hattie B's and others built on the template. Today the dish is on menus from KFC to Carla Hall's New York shop; the original Prince's location on Ewing Drive closed in 2018 but the family expanded.

Where to try it: Prince's Hot Chicken, Hattie B's Hot Chicken, Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish, Pepperfire Hot Chicken

Watch out for: Gluten, Egg

Meat-and-three

A plate-lunch tradition: one Southern protein plus three vegetable sides, with cornbread and sweet tea. Counter ordering, cafeteria lines, lunch hours only.

History: The meat-and-three is Tennessee's plate-lunch tradition, descended from boarding-house cooking. Lunch counters serving working Nashvillians codified the format by the 1950s. Arnold's Country Kitchen, which won the James Beard America's Classics Award in 2009, runs the canonical version. The 'three' refers to vegetables but typically includes mac and cheese; the protein rotates daily. Most counters are lunch-only, Monday to Friday, with prices still under $15 in 2026.

Where to try it: Arnold's Country Kitchen, Monell's Dining and Catering, Elliston Place Soda Shop

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Biscuits with redeye gravy

Scratch buttermilk biscuits, halved and topped with country ham slices and redeye gravy: pan drippings deglazed with strong black coffee.

History: Tennessee country ham, salt-cured for 6 to 12 months, has been a regional pantry staple since the 1800s. Frying a slice releases drippings that, deglazed with leftover coffee, make redeye gravy. The Loveless Cafe on Highway 100 in Nashville has plated the dish since 1951 and remains the canonical reference. Biscuits at Loveless are made from scratch every 20 minutes; the recipe stayed unchanged through ownership transitions in 2003 and 2014.

Where to try it: Loveless Cafe, Biscuit Love, Monell's Dining and Catering

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Tennessee whole-hog pork

Tennessee-style barbecue: pulled whole-hog pork over hickory, served with vinegar sauce or Alabama white. Slow-cooked overnight, served on a soft roll.

History: West Tennessee whole-hog barbecue tradition runs through Memphis and out to Nashville's Pat Martin, who opened Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint in 2006 and has since franchised to four states. Carey Bringle's Peg Leg Porker in The Gulch since 2013 runs Memphis-style dry-rub ribs alongside pulled pork. The two pull-pork sauces of Tennessee are tangy red and the lighter Alabama white, both common on Nashville BBQ menus.

Where to try it: Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint, Peg Leg Porker, Edley's Bar-B-Que

Watch out for: Gluten

Goo Goo Cluster

A round chocolate-coated candy of caramel, marshmallow nougat and peanuts, invented in Nashville in 1912. The first ever combination candy bar in America.

History: The Standard Candy Company invented the Goo Goo Cluster in Nashville in 1912: caramel, marshmallow nougat, peanuts and milk chocolate. It is widely cited as the first combination candy bar in America, predating the Snickers by 18 years. The cluster shape was named in a streetcar after a passenger said 'goo goo' at a child. Goo Goo's are still made in downtown Nashville; the Standard Candy flagship at 116 3rd Avenue South runs a chocolate-shop tasting and limited-edition flavours.

Watch out for: Peanuts, Dairy, Soy

Tennessee country ham

Salt-cured, smoke-cured and aged Tennessee ham, sliced thin and pan-fried. The signature pork product of the region, with redeye gravy as its match.

History: Tennessee country ham follows a 200-year-old tradition: pork hind legs are salt-cured for several weeks, smoked, then aged six to 18 months. The result is a dry, salty ham closer to Italian prosciutto than to wet-cured American ham. Loveless Cafe's country-ham program has run since 1951 in Nashville. Edwards in Surry, Virginia and Newsom's in Princeton, Kentucky are the regional producers Nashville restaurants source from most often.

Where to try it: Loveless Cafe, Husk Nashville, Monell's Dining and Catering

Watch out for: None typical

Fried catfish

Cornmeal-dredged catfish fillets, deep-fried until the coating shatters. Plated with hush puppies and cole slaw, dipped in tartar or hot sauce.

History: Catfish is the South's working-river fish. Farms in west Tennessee and the Mississippi Delta supplied Nashville fish fries through the 20th century. The dish became a Friday-night fixture in Black-owned restaurants and meat-and-three counters. Today catfish lives on at Swett's, the Loveless and most meat-and-three menus around Nashville, always with cornmeal coating and never with batter.

Where to try it: Loveless Cafe, Arnold's Country Kitchen, Monell's Dining and Catering

Watch out for: Gluten

Banana pudding

Layered dessert of vanilla wafers, banana slices and from-scratch vanilla custard, topped with meringue or whipped cream. Cold service.

History: Banana pudding migrated South from Northern dessert columns in the late 1800s. The Nashville version that Arnold's, Loveless and most meat-and-three counters serve uses Nabisco Nilla wafers (Northern brand, fully assimilated), home-cooked vanilla custard and ripe bananas. It is the standard dessert closer at a meat-and-three. Hattie B's sells it by the cup as the heat-killer chaser to hot chicken.

Where to try it: Arnold's Country Kitchen, Hattie B's Hot Chicken, Loveless Cafe

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg