The Resy Hit List: Where In Nashville You’ll Want to Eat in Oct. 2024
There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
We’ve designed it to be your essential resource for dining in Nashville: a monthly-updated (and expanded!) guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Nashville Not to Miss This Month
- Now Open: Julio Hernandez has quietly grown his Maiz de la Vida empire over the past couple of years, permanently parking a food truck outside of the Chopper tiki spot to feed hungry bar patrons, opening a tortilleria in North Nashville to sell his tortillas made using imported heritage Mexican corn that he grinds and nixtamalizes in-house, and now establishing a permanent location in the Gulch at 606 8th Ave South in the new Paseo South complex. Guests can now enjoy the same great tacos plus a full bar.
- Power Women: A recent cover story in the Nashville Scene highlighted many of the women who run hospitality venues in Nashville. Among those profiled were the daughters of longtime local restaurateur Tom Morales who has retired after more than 40 years running TomKats Hospitality. Lauren and Kendall Morales are now in charge of the business including the company’s massive catering operation and beloved local restaurants like The Southern Steak & Oyster and Acme Feed & Seed. With these two capable next-generation leaders at the helm, TomKats should continue to thrive!
- Sustainability Showdown: The 1 Hotel in SoBro has been fanatically committed to sustainable environmental practices since opening in 2022, and these aspirations extend to their signature restaurant, 1 Kitchen. As part of Climate Week, they teamed up with locally-based non-profit Urban Green Lab for a zero-waste culinary competition featuring 1 Kitchen chef Chris Cary, Skylar Bush of Edible Nashville, and Nashville Food Project’s chef Bianca Morton vying to see who could create the most delicious dish with a minimum of food waste. Bush took home the coveted (we think?) “Waste Less Whisk,” but really, given the cause, there were no losers.
- Giving Back: Restaurants around Nashville are planning various fundraising events in October to benefit the important works of Giving Kitchen, a nationwide network that provides emergency assistance to food workers in times of crisis. The national program is called Dining with Gratitude and offers the opportunity for restaurant patrons to contribute directly to the cause by purchasing specific items that have been earmarked to share proceeds with Giving Kitchen or by attending special tasting events. The list of participating restaurants is constantly updated on the Dining with Gratitude web page.
New to the Hit List (Oct. 2024)
888, Choy, Fancypants.
1. Pastaria West End
Pastaria offers a choice of a few different dining experiences. The airy main dining room is festive and occasionally boisterous with families sharing meals of fresh pasta and classic Italian plates together around the table. The separate bar is a little more of a grown-up experience, the spot for friends to meet up for cocktails or a tasting from the restaurant’s expansive collection of amari and vermouths. Foodies who want to be part of the action should request seating at the pizza bar where they enjoy a front-row seat as talented pizzaiolos ply their trade tending to pies entering and exiting from the infernally hot pizza ovens. A Pastaria pie paired with one of the best chopped salads in town is a fantastic dinner for two that won’t break the bank.
2. Husk Nashville Rutledge Hill
For more than a decade, Husk has represented the epitome of farm-to-table fare in Nashville — with a laser focus on the mandate by opening chef Sean Brock: “If it doesn’t come from the South, it’s not coming through the kitchen door!” The stately Italianate mansion that is Husk’s home was once the home of a 19th-century Nashville mayor — and is reflected in the courtly hospitality — yet the cuisine continues to combine modernism with historical techniques of preservation, pickling, and some of the finest fried chicken in the land. And both kitchen and the bar staff take full advantage of the restaurant’s garden, where they grow heritage seeds into plants that show up as ingredients and garnishes.
3. Audrey McFerrin Park
After leaving the tables set and ready for guests for more than a year while waiting out the pandemic, chef Sean Brock finally opened his shrine to Appalachia in late 2021. Since then, Audrey has provided a meditation on the rural cooking of Brock’s youth. Open-fire cookery combines with molecular gastronomy to extract the essence of heritage ingredients like sour corn and greasy beans, creating 21st century dishes that tell the story of the hardscrapple residents of Appalachia. And Brock continues to push the cuisine forward with a perpetual reimagining of the flavors of his native region. Whether á la carte or as part of a fixed menu of the kitchen’s favorite dishes served family-style, a dinner at Audrey is always a treat.
4. Rolf and Daughters Germantown
Natural wood brings warmth to the post-industrial exposed brick and steel girder ambiance of the converted factory that is home to chef Phillip Krajeck’s flagship restaurant. The reservation book fills quickly with intelligent patrons who know that the kitchen serves up some of the most interesting European cuisine in the entire city. The menu changes often, as the kitchen staff experiments with novel fermentations and takes advantage of the best seasonal ingredients. But the beloved heritage pork ragu with rigatoni, tomato and Parmesan is a menu stalwart that remains unchanged since opening night. The thoughtful wine list offers uncommon bottles with an emphasis on natural wines that are downright inspired, especially with some of the fermented dishes.
5. Fancypants East Nashville
From the team that brought Butcher & Bee and Redheaded Stranger to town, this is an exciting new dining option that aims to turn fine dining on its head. Offering a prix fixe menu of meticulously plated dishes, Fancypants isn’t necessarily a tasting-menu restaurant because patrons have choices among several different vegetable-forward options. Add-ons are available, and carnivores can always find something meaty to enjoy. The converted Piggly Wiggly supermarket has become a lovely dining space with a whimsical decor of pretty florals, bold colors, and an inviting outdoor patio space. Put on your stretchy pants and head here for a dining experience unlike any other in Nashville.
6. Halls Chophouse – Nashville Midtown
One of the newer jewels of Midtown, Halls brings a classic steakhouse experience to this burgeoning neighborhood. In addition to views of the hustle and bustle of the city through sweeping windows, the open kitchen provides another entertaining show with chefs expertly preparing USDA Prime beef and premium seafood. The Hall family has spent their lifetime in hospitality, and the emphasis on attentive service is literally a (Hall)mark of the restaurant. Different sections offer various atmospheres depending on the desires of diners, from a lively bar scene to quiet nooks for a sophisticated date.
7. Choy Nashville The Gulch
As soon as you enter the huge, airy dining room at this new Chinese fine-dining restaurant, your attention is drawn to a towering bar stretching the length of the building. It’s just about mandatory to have a seat and enjoy “East meets West” cocktails while chair-dancing to the beat of old-school hip-hop. The menu offers further delights, courtesy of consulting chef Brandon Jew of San Francisco Chinatown favorite Mister Jiu’s. In a city with a dearth of upscale Chinese options, Choy offers modern interpretations of classic dishes like shrimp fried rice, beef chow fun, and Peking-style whole roast duck served with housemade pancakes and duck liver mousse. The kitchen also puts international touches on Southern dishes; think chicken-fried American wagyu with Sichuan peppercorns.
8. Henley Midtown
Henley takes its design inspiration from the legendary hospitality of a stately Southern manor. Enter through a sidewalk patio and belly up to the bar for a welcome drink as some of Nashville’s finest bartenders serve thoughtful cocktails and drams of the restaurant’s special selections of single-barrel whiskeys. The cozy dining room is where most diners sit down to a menu of fun Southern dishes accented with international flair. At the back of the restaurant, a clubby snooker room offers private dining and overflow space on busy nights, but an even greater surprise lies behind a secret door in a bookshelf. The Rabbit Hole is a tiny table in the kitchen where up to four patrons can enjoy a special multi-course tasting menu.
9. Mangia Nashville 8th South/Melrose
An evening at Mangia Nashville is more than just a meal. It’s a full-on party with traditional Italian music blaring at festive volumes during the multi-course meal, “The Godfather” playing on a loop on screens around the dining room, family-style platters of antipasti, meats, pasta, and desserts flowing constantly out of the raucous open kitchen, and chef-owner Nick Pellegrino leading the frivolity between courses by drumming on pots and pans and occasionally kicking off a conga line among the tables. The three-hour experience on Friday and Saturday nights is the sort of experience where strangers become friends and future tablemates, and patrons generously share bottles between tables. If you’re too full for dessert at the end of the evening, take some zeppole home to enjoy with your morning coffee.
10. The Southern Steak & Oyster SoBro
The motto of The Southern is “South of Somewhere,” which explains the eclectic menu that ranges from Gulf Coast seafood to downhome Southern specialties to Latin American and Moroccan flavors. Walking up to the restaurant, diners may see and smell sweet smoke pouring out of a vent on the side of the building as the kitchen smokes racks of ribs, unusual for a downtown restaurant on the ground floor of an office tower. An in-house butcher shop cuts steaks from huge dry-aged beef primals to create magnificent steaks and the meats for sandwiches at their quaint market and deli next door to the restaurant. Weekday lunch service and weekend brunches add even more opportunities to take a trip south.
11. Butcher & Bee – Nashville East Nashville
Although the original Charleston location of this Middle Eastern restaurant has been converted to another concept, the Nashville outpost of the Bee is still setting the standard for seasonal Israeli-inspired cuisine after almost a decade of crowd-pleasing cuisine. The whipped feta and fermented honey dip is legendary and a can’t-miss appetizer, but don’t be afraid to dig deeper into the menu for inventive shareable dishes made with local ingredients and served family-style to the table. Pro tip: Opt for the “Eat Like a Chef” experience to sample the current favorite dishes of the kitchen staff, coursed out and presented by the cooks that prepared them.
12. Salento Italia Cloverhill
The Darsinos family runs some of the city’s most beloved restaurants, including GReKo Greek Street Food in East Nashville and Donelson-area favorite Darfons. Bill and Sam Darsinos looked across the Ionian Sea from Greece to Italy for inspiration for their latest venture with Salento Italia. The goal was to create a welcoming, chill spot focused on “thoughtfully prepared versions of comforting Italian dishes with subtle nods to our family’s Greek roots,” as co-owner Bill Darsinos puts it. The well-received menu includes pizzas, pasta, and traditional Italian desserts like affogato, olive oil cake, and tiramisu.
13. International Market Belmont/Hillsboro Village
Arnold Myint is a James Beard-nominated chef, food television celebrity, and Nashville native who joined up with his sister to revive the Thai restaurant tha his parents operated for decades. Myint’s creative cuisine and dedication to tradition earned International Market an official Thai cuisine seal of approval from the Thai government, a first for Nashville. The kitchen takes regional Thai dishes and street food seriously. Order from dishes along a steam table like at the original International Market or take advantage of Myint’s own menu for dishes like his signature Hat Yai fried chicken, perfectly cooked and accented with fiery chiles, spices, and sauces.
Call 615-297-4453 for reservations.
14. Culaccino Italian Restaurant & Bar Downtown
Executive chef and owner Frank Pullara knows not to rush perfection at his popular ristorante in downtown Franklin. Three days of fermentation offer incredible depths of flavor to the pizza dough that takes a quick trip through an infernal wood-fired oven, while artisan pasta is kneaded and shaped by hand for some of the highlight dishes on the menu. Many offerings from the extensive list of Italian wines have spent almost a decade maturing to the ideal moment for uncorking, and attentive but casual service ensures that a meal at Culaccino can be a languorous delight for a special occasion or the perfect spot for a weeknight family dinner.
15. Lockeland Table Lockeland Springs, East Nashville
Few restaurants are more ingrained in their community than Lockeland Table, the sort of place where diners secure standing weekly reservations and neighbors gather frequently during the restaurant’s Community Hour to catch up on school events and support local PTOs, with a portion of the proceeds from sales of shareable small plates. The burnished copper pizza oven is a work of art and the centerpiece of the open kitchen, and the pies and roasted vegetables that emerge from the infernal oven are centerpieces of any meal at Lockeland Table. Chef Hal Holden-Bache’s signature N.Y. strip steak served with spicy chimichurri is a menu stalwart and one of the best beef deals in town.
16. 888 SoBro
In Japanese slang, “hachi, hachi, hachi” represents the sound of clapping as well as the number 888, and patrons of this innovative and stylish new cocktail lounge and vinyl listening room inside the JW Marriott have been breaking out in applause for the fresh sushi selections, shareable plates, and dinner offerings as well as the creative cocktail list. With Nashville being Music City and all, you know that the sound system is acoustically perfect, and audiophiles can enjoy a special late-night menu while listening to a wide variety of music spinning on state-of-the-art turntables. The entrance is a little hidden, so look for the red light to discover an atmosphere that feels a world away from the honky tonks of Lower Broad.
17. Margot Café & Bar East Nashville
Ever since chef Margot McCormack made the bold decision more than two decades ago to open a French-inspired and Southern-informed brasserie in a former service station in East Nashville’s Five Points neighborhood, she has continued to tune up the cuisine on that side of the Cumberland River. The menu changes nightly depending on the whim of the kitchen and the freshest seasonal ingredients that come through the back door that day. Local farmers and purveyors are the guiding inspirations for the cooking team, and loyal patrons reward them with standing weekly reservations to sup in the cozy bar or at a favorite table in the warm and inviting dining spaces.
18. Kisser East Nashville
Waits of up to an hour are common at Kisser as hungry diners line up before the restaurant opens for lunch-only service at this tiny Cleveland Park Japanese neighborhood newcomer. Husband-and-wife chef team Brian Lea and Leina Horii work their stations in the diminutive kitchen with zen-like precision, preparing their own brand of Japanese haute comfort food. Rice dishes, salads, noodles, and a chicken katsu sandwich served on delectable toasted milk bread are menu standouts, but Kisser’s version of a traditional Japanese breakfast with miso-marinated fish, three vegetables, a rolled omelet, soup, and furikake rice represents the chefs’ full culinary sensibilities in one spectacular menu item.
No reservations.
19. answer. Sylvan Park
When two long-time industry pros came together to open answer. in Sylvan Park, the new restaurant was (literally) the answer to the prayers of the burgeoning neighborhood. The primarily residential area didn’t have many spots for casual dining, and answer.’s globally-inspired menu and intentionally close-packed tables turn the dining area into a neighborhood dinner party most nights with friends catching up over drinks and peeking at nearby diners’ plates for ordering inspiration. Also popular is the restaurant’s takeaway suppers sized for two or four. Available for pick-up on Wednesdays and Sundays, these mobile meals are the ideal solution for nights you just don’t feel like cooking.
20. The Row Kitchen and Pub Midtown
In a town with so many great dining options and live music venues, Nashville doesn’t have an overabundance of restaurants where you can enjoy dinner and a show together. That’s where The Row fits in thanks to a roster of acts that change hourly from 6 p.m. until close every night except Saturday when the music kicks off at 2 p.m. A favorite spot for a casual brunch or lunch in Midtown, The Row features decadent and down-home Southern grub from biscuits and burgers to hot chicken and catfish. A novel appetizer of a selection of different vegetables pickled in-house is a delightful start to any meal or a great bar snack during a show.
