Where to Eat in Nashville

The Phoenix likes roadtrips.  Me, not so much.  But because he makes my heart pound, I agreed to take the kids and head to Nashville last week so we could see his brother and get out of town for a few days.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Nashville is beautiful.  The city is full of charming architecture and great restaurants too.  But a “vacation” of hours and hours of driving with two kids under 3, one who was just potty trained and has to go every 10 minutes or so and one who plain doesn’t like the car much, well, let’s just say I was ready to come home about an hour into the trip.

But we survived, and learned a few things along the way.  Today I’ll tell you about a couple of my favorite restaurants we discovered on our adventure.  You know, just in case you’re in Nashville someday and need a recommendation.

I’ll start with the last place we went in Tennessee, Loveless Cafe.  You might have even heard of this one.  They’ve been on Food Network and mentioned in quite a few magazines.  Loveless is home cookin’ at its best.  I can’t even tell you how much I wanted to try their fried chicken, but the way it worked out, we went there as our “second” breakfast on our way out of town and so I wasn’t even that hungry.  But I had to try their biscuits.  Oh my land. And they come with strawberry, peach and blackberry preserves.  Yum.

(And if you have to use the ladies room while you’re there, you walk through a hallway that splits the kitchen and they have glass on both sides so you can watch the cooks work their magic.)  And they even post a few of their recipes online, but not the biscuits.  I checked.)

So don’t forget Loveless the next time you’re in Nashville, and please let me know how their fried chicken is.  Or maybe not, maybe it’s best if I just don’t know.

You can’t go south without barbeque, right?  I guess I’m not sure how South Tennessee really is, but Jack’s Barbeque was recommended in an article I read, so we went.  They chop the meat right in front of you after you order. For me, that was the pulled pork.  If we didn’t have to be so conscious of time because of the kiddos, I probably would have had a couple more plates.  This was so good, melt in your mouth delicious.  I’d highly recommend checking out this place.

(I suppose I must say that The Phoenix liked Corky’s BBQ over Jack’s.  But I just plum think he’s crazy.  You really can’t trust his tastebuds all the time, he’s eaten WAY too much fast food in his life.  But that’s a whole other story.)

For breakfast, we went to The Pancake Pantry and their buttermilk flapjacks did not disappoint.  I really wanted to try Pfunky Griddle where you pick your batter and mix-ins and get to cook your own at your table, but we didn’t have enough time.  Please try it for me.  Thank you.

And, finally, my last recommendation actually isn’t in Nashville, or even Tennessee for that matter.  We made a stop in Illinois to visit family on our way home and my aunt brought us a box of cupcakes and cookies from The Cupcakery.  Wowzers.  These were divine.  I don’t have any pictures because they didn’t last long, but this place makes delicious sweets.

(As I was looking up their website for you, I discovered they have a bakery in St. Louis and Knoxville too, so I was wrong.  They are in Tennessee after all.)

One last thing before we part ways for the day.  I realized as I was going through our trip pics that I don’t think I’ve shared any of my little boy and this one made me smile.  He’s my snuggler and seriously melts my heart every few minutes or so.

Okay, this really is the last thing…can you believe those steps we’re on by the river are actually all under water now after the storms this weekend?  We were actually pretty high up.  Crazy.