4 Nashville Breakfasts That Got Me Out of Bed (and Out of My Feelings)

Because in my book, breakfast can be more than a "hangover meal" -- it can be a miracle. A reason to get up and get dressed to meet that childhood friend you lost touch with. Reason to cry in public over a biscuit and gravy that reminds you of your Sunday breakfasts-for-dinner that feel like a whisper of memory after burying two parents. A reason to slowly, heal and believe in good again.

After 16 years in food blogging, journalism, and accidental content creation, I'm just "over" the basic listicles that can be generated by a robot and a Yelp search. These aren't just "best breakfasts in Nashville", these are the places that saw me when I needed a biscuit more than a breakthrough.

*These lists are never ranked, and are listed alphabetically.

Big Al's Deli

1828 4th Ave N, Nashville

Big Al's food is only bested by his personality. I'm convinced his rosemary Parmesan biscuits, shrimp and grits, and iced tea helped heal me --but the hugs and Big Al's stories and seeing his family and friends, both working and visiting alongside him -- restored hope that good people can follow impossibly hard nights that tried to destroy me.

The Butter Milk Ranch:

2407 12th Ave S, Nashville

At Butter Milk Ranch, breakfast isn't just a meal, it's performance. And behind the pastry case is a literal gluten-sensitive sorceress: a celiac pastry chef is baking some of the most jaw-dropping laminated doughs in the South. (Yeah, read that again). Her croissants alone deserve their own drink menu -- which, by the way they have. Croissant drinks. This place is unhinged in the best way. You savory lovers like me can also rest easy (or cheesy) with a biscuit and gravy FLIGHT that will make you rethink every brunch decision you've ever made. Savory or sweet, delicate or decadent, everything here taste like a celebration that knows where you've been.

Nashville Biscuit House

805 Gallatin Ave, Nashville

Here, the biscuits don't just flake -- they hold. This Gallatin Avenue diner is old-school in all the right ways: sausage gravy poured heavy, coffee served quick, and no one asking questions if your eyes look a little red that day. I ate here for the first time with my friend Harrison, just hours before we lost him to his addiction. I didn't know I'd be one of the last people to hug his neck, but I know that the breakfast we shared carries his recovery story with me. I can still see him every time I pass -- remembering the booth and his insistance to buy my biscuits and gravy on the morning it was he who truly needed to be fed. Broken people deserve full plates. Thank you Nashville Biscuit House, for feeding those two lost souls that 2022 day.

Wabash Southern Kitchen

7301 Nolensville Rd, Nolensville

Wabash feels like the kind of place you've known your whole life -- even if you've never been. For me, the name alone pulls me straight back to Opryland, where the Wabash Cannonball was the first roller coaster I ever dared ride. To my mama's dismay, I marched right onto that coaster like I wasn't 50 lbs soaking wet. She worried, I soared, and we laughed about it later. These Opryland "vacations" were everything to me -- and all these years later I find myself with a different sort of Wabash rush -- this time grounded by a plate of beignets instead of a lap bar. The family-owned spot serves up Southern comfort with Louisiana flair. The influence is bold, reverent, and tender-- like someone who knows what it means to carry flavor from home and still serve it with true hospitality. The Music City Coffee Club counter inside is just an added golden ticket to my amusement park for Nashville breakfast.