Loveless Cafe

Last night, Giraffe and I met Victoria and Bo to eat a local favorite, the Loveless Cafe. It's the "meat-and-three" to end all meat-and-threes. With its rustic charm and Southern appeal, it's one of the city's hot spots and causes a 2+ hour wait on Sunday afternoons. Here's a snippet of their history from their website:

Originally known as the Harpeth Valley Tea Room, The Loveless Motel and Cafe first started serving its famous fried chicken and biscuits in 1951 when the property was purchased by Lon and Annie Loveless. They set up picnic tables in the front yard and sold chicken from the front door to travelers driving up and down US Highway 100. Soon the Loveless family converted the rooms of the early 1900's home into the dining room and kitchen of the Loveless Cafe and enlarged the menu to include country hams that were cured, smoked and carved on the premises. Lon Loveless ran the motel and handled the hams while hungering crowds were drawn to Annie's homemade preserves and from-scratch biscuits - one of few secret recipes that has remained unchanged to this day.

Vicki and Bo had never been so it was a lot of excitement to try to contain. As you can see, Vicki couldn't hide it any longer once we visited the Hams and Jams gift shop.


Around the restaurant are other shops including a bicycle shop, art store, and a clothing boutique. Not to mention, other items of interest including:

Photo opportunities,

swings (looks like she's got a secret, eh?),

and a tractor.

Before we had left from work, another friend, Foodie, was giving us the rundown on what to eat. He suggested fried chicken, meatloaf, hashbrown casserole, lima beans, and sweet potatoes. Not all at the same time. I don't think. He also took a picture of the neon sign at night that inspired me to do the same. Although his was taken in the rain and reminds me of the Bates Motel, which makes me very happy in my warped mind. Let's compare! Mine is first, his is second.



I also recommend that you go listen to The Red Stick Ramblers' song "That's What I Like About the South." It's as if they came to the Loveless for dinner and wrote this song at the table.