You've read up on the best historic town in Tennessee, as well as the vintage eatery named among the best road trip restaurants in America. Now, find out which eatery is the oldest restaurant in the Volunteer State. Food & Wine searched for the longtime restaurants that have been serving their communities for decades (or even a century!), compiling a list of the oldest restaurant in each state. According to the site:
"In nearly every state, from Revolutionary War-period taverns in New England to Gold Rush holdovers in the West, America's oldest restaurants offer us a direct line to days gone by in a country — and an industry — typically preoccupied with the now and the next."
So which restaurant in Tennessee is the oldest in the state?
Varallo's Restaurant
Tennessee has plenty of restaurants found around the state that have been community staples for years, but it's not every day that you find one still standing that has been around for more than 100 years. Located in Nashville, Varallo's has been a part of the Music City community in some capacity for over a century.
Varallo's Restaurant is located at 239 4th Avenue in Nashville.
Here's what the site had to say:
"Nowadays, it's a safe bet most people aren't visiting Nashville for the chili but no local restaurant has managed to hang around quite so long as this Church Street institution, even if it is no longer on Church Street. A location on Fourth Street in the sole surviving outlet of what used to be a slightly larger operation established in 1907. (At least it's still family-owned.) The chili — not Cincinnati-style, not Southwest-style, but rather in a world of its own, and you can get spaghetti and a tamale with it — is certainly a staple here but plenty of locals come in for the fried catfish, the meat-and-two veg combos, simple Italian-American fare, and hearty breakfasts. The space as you see it here may only have been in existence since the 1990s, but somehow feels much older."
Check out the full list at Food & Wine to see more of the oldest restaurants around the country.