RIP meat-and-three

January 7, 2023 6:35 PM

If you've been to Nashville, chances are you've eaten at Arnold's Country Kitchen. The iconic restaurant (winner of a James Beard Foundation America's Classics Award) closed today after a 40-year run. Owners Rose and Kahlil Arnold explain why they chose to step away, Mike Wolf explains why Arnold's was Nashville's best restaurant, and other locals explain why it's hard to imagine Nashville without it.

Bonus link: John Prine explains why he always eats at Arnold's on Tuesdays.

posted by verstegan (11 comments total)

My wife texted me when the news came out and we ended up going over for a last meal right away. I'm sure they'll do quite well from the sale of the property, at least. It's been a tough go for the classic meat and threes. We lost Dandgure's last year and Sylvan Park Restaurant probably a decade ago. God help us if anything ever happens to Monell's
posted by ghharr at 7:37 PM on January 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

That John Prime bonus link needs a "very dusty room" content warning man (mainly on account of the song it leads into). But damn, thanks, I needed that.
posted by Richard Upton Pickman at 8:06 PM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don't know about this restaurant but my hometown is losing a shoe store that has been here for well over 50 years and a dry cleaner that I'd say has been in business for at least 80 years (and probably closer to 100). With those two gone, about the only thing left in the town I grew up in are one Chinese restaurant, one bank and one candy store (even though it's not in its original location). That's it. Pretty much everything else is gone. Even the place my dad worked when I was a youngster was torn down a few months ago. It's a really weird feeling seeing everything vanish before your eyes.
posted by sardonyx at 9:13 PM on January 7, 2023 [5 favorites]

Oh and a fish-and-chip place that had been around for about fifty years (although it could very well have been a decade or two longer) also closed up last year (but it's not in the downtown area, so I left it out of my previous post).
posted by sardonyx at 9:15 PM on January 7, 2023

It only speeds up.
posted by y2karl at 8:31 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nashville also recently lost Exit/In, a music venue.

We still have Monell's, Puckett's, and Swett's. I never really go to any of these places, including Arnold's, because they're not close enough to my house to get delivery and we hardly ever eat out anymore due to the pandemic. I'm making a note to go to Monell's (of the three, it's the one that I feel the most affinity for) more often!
posted by joannemerriam at 9:49 AM on January 8, 2023

Oh dang, that's a real heartbreaker.

.
posted by TheCoug at 9:50 AM on January 8, 2023

I regret the loss of the institution even as I'm glad they're going out on their terms.
posted by fedward at 10:58 AM on January 8, 2023

every time i read about the shuttering of institutions that have been open fifty years, i remember that i am an institution that has been open almost fifty years. it’s sobering.
posted by ovenmitt at 12:03 PM on January 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

What makes the losses worse, at least in my home town, is that nothing has been coming in to replace what was being shuttered. Approximately half (give or take a bit) of the real estate on the main street is empty, and this has been the case for years and years--decades if I'm being truthful.

Over the course of the last year or so, there has finally been a tiny bit of positive economic activity, but I can't say if it is a blip or a trend in new businesses finally establishing themselves. I hope it's the latter, but I suspect it's the former.
posted by sardonyx at 6:10 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

> We still have Monell's, Puckett's, and Swett's.

For what it’s worth, Puckett’s seems to be evolving into a meat-and-three dining empire. Their three locations in downtown Franklin no longer all have “Puckett’s” in their name, though.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 6:44 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]