Between the Mountains of the east and the cotton fields of the west, in its cities and small towns, Tennessee’s incredible variety is reflected in a state menu that has something for everyone. Barbecue? Memphis just might have the nation’s finest, both wet and dry. Fried chicken?
It’s glorious in Nashville Restaurants, hot chicken especially. Country ham is served throughout the state, as are superb southern vegetables as part of a meat-and-three lunch in which meat is frequently abjured in favor of a fourth vegetable. The Smoky Mountains at the East are a separate world, where restaurants serve such hearty country vittles as fried apples, smoked pork chops, and, of course, barbecue. And in Knoxville, rustic mixes with cosmopolitan in bakeries, cafes, and barbecues.
A few years back, country singer Ray Stevens invited a New York friend to join him at one of his favorite Nashville lunchrooms, a place called Hap Townes. The...
Nashville’s crunkest hot-fish sandwich is also its biggest. The Giant King, signature dish at Eastside Fish, is a pair of whiting fillets, each at least a half pound, dredged in...
We’ve never met a cooked potato we didn’t like. Baked with butter, salt-boiled, fire-roasted, puréed with cream, au gratin, dauphinois, frittered, and french fried—all are surefire transformations of the homely...
Thirty years ago, when we started writing about the colorful, cheap, and unpretentious restaurants that anchored communities across the country, we suspected we were documenting the end of an...
Memphis is our favorite place to eat pork—ribs (dry rubbed or wet sauced), chopped shoulder on a bun, country ham stuffed into biscuits, and bacon banana sandwiches—but in this...
You’ll find the best plate lunch in Chattanooga in a gray brick hut across from a junkyard in a stark neighborhood where most buildings were vacated long ago. That...
The Annual HOT ROD Power Tour This is a seven-day, seven-city journey expected to bring together more than 6,000 vehicles and 100,000-plus spectators making it the largest traveling car-show in...
After many happy weeks eating our way around Nashville. we've created a one-day eating plan that presents you with the best of the best: five fantastic meals in memorable...
The magic of Highway 61 from Graceland down deep into the Mississippi Delta, through cotton fields and past speck-on-the-map small towns, is all about the blues. You might be...
Memphis is a bonanza of world-class barbecue, smoked and served in humble storefront shops as well as booming dinner halls. Anything and everything can be had barbecued in this...
Is there another dish as diverse as pizza? It can be an utterly simple tomato pie – nothing but sauce on crust – or it can be a multi-meat...
Anybody visiting Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park will have no trouble finding a place to eat – there are hundreds. The trick is to find...
Where to Eat in Knoxville? Exploring cities can be fun but finding where to eat in one is difficult. A delicious day in Knoxville must begin in the Old City...
What Is Meat & Three? A term used through much of the South, “meat and three” quite simply refers to a menu template that lists two to five entrees and...
Authentic Eats in Music City Avoid the tourist traps and overly-trendy spots, and opt for fantastic meals in these quintessential eateries in and around the city that will be the...
The Challenge You have one day to eat around downtown Memphis. Assuming you don't want to have barbecue for all your meals -- there's no place better for that strategy...
Unique Regional Dishes After 40 years and 5 million miles spent on the road looking for America's best regional food, we've assembled a list of the quintessential, must-eat food in...
Fried chicken used to be considered comfort food, but in recent years, a handful of Nashville restaurants have made it the most delicious discomfort food imaginable. All the restaurants...
It would be crazy to travel through the South and eat only banana pudding, but every place that serves it at its best precedes it with an excellent well-rounded...
Of the hundred five-star barbecue parlors around the U.S.A. this dozen is the crème de la crème. .
Pancakes are especially appreciated by travelers in search of significant breakfast. While fair to middling ones are on the menu virtually everywhere, restaurants that serve four-star flapjacks are rare....
Bologna sandwiches are common. Great bologna sandwiches are rare. The very best of them, in particular the one served at the legendary G&R Tavern of Waldo, Ohio, are worthy...
Fried chicken is popular all across America and so different everywhere that it is not possible to say what city, state, or region does it best. While the process...
While the old-time boarding house is history, boarding house meals remain a highlight of eating one's way through the south. Seating usually is communal: friends, family, and strangers gathered...
Lima beans are known everywhere, loved mostly in the South, and a signature dish of Charleston, South Carolina. Soul food cooks simmer the khaki-colored pods with plenty of pork,...
There are few desserts simpler than basic chess pie and, when it's made right, nothing better. A congress of eggs, butter and sugar with a dash of cornmeal and...
There is plenty of yummy comfort food in Nashville, from buttermilk biscuits in the morning to banana pudding for dessert; but one of the Music City's lesser known culinary...
