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Loveless Cafe, Nashville, TN

Photo: Gourneau, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Eat & DrinkFoodie FavoriteIconic

Loveless Cafe

8400 Highway 100 · Nashville, TN

Why you should go…

Lon and Annie Loveless opened this cafe on Highway 100 in 1951, and it still cooks from their original recipes. You come for the scratch biscuits with fruit preserves, country ham, red-eye gravy, fried chicken and hickory smoked barbecue. It sits just before the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge, and the Hams & Jams Country Market, set in old motel rooms, sells biscuit mix and preserves. The Loveless Barn on the grounds hosts events and concerts.

  • #southern food
  • #biscuits
  • #breakfast
  • #country ham
  • #natchez trace

Good to know

General eat & drink guidance

Habits that pay off across this whole category, not rules for this one venue. Always check the official site for the specifics.

  • Go early or go late

    The simplest way around a wait at a popular room is to sit down before the rush or after it.

  • Reservations open on a schedule

    Where bookings are taken, tables tend to be released a set number of days in advance, often at a fixed hour.

  • Menus move with the season

    Treat any dish you read about online as a maybe, not a promise, especially anything local and seasonal.

  • Ask what the place is known for

    Staff will point you at the thing worth ordering faster than any list will.

What's around here?

The closest stops to Loveless Cafe, ordered by straight-line distance.

  • Sightseeing
    Date Night

    Cheekwood Estate & Gardens

    $25–$50

    Stroll 55 acres of themed gardens and tour a 1930s Georgian-style mansion that now houses art exhibitions on Nashville's west side.

    6.5 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Sightseeing
    History Buff

    Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery

    $25–$50

    Tour an 1853 Greek Revival mansion that anchored a famed thoroughbred stud farm, then taste wine at the on-site winery.

    7.7 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Theatre & Events
    Iconic

    The Bluebird Cafe

    $25–$50

    Hear Nashville songwriters play their own songs and tell the stories behind them in a 90-seat listening room.

    9.8 mi awaySwitch it up: Theatre & Events

  • Sightseeing
    Iconic

    The Parthenon

    Under $25

    Step inside a full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon to see a 42-foot gilded Athena and an art museum.

    12 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Attractions
    Family Favorite

    Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

    $25–$50

    Meet capybaras, giant anteaters and thousands of other animals, then tour a historic 1810 farmhouse on the same grounds.

    13 mi awaySwitch it up: Attractions

  • Museums
    Rainy-Day Pick

    Frist Art Museum

    Under $25

    See rotating art exhibitions and hands-on art making inside Nashville's former main post office, an Art Deco landmark on Broadway.

    13 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums