Howdy Nash

A meat-and-three is a Southern restaurant style where you pick one meat and three side dishes from a daily menu. It is a Nashville lunch tradition: affordable, home-style, and built around what the kitchen cooked that morning.

How it works

You walk up to a counter, often cafeteria-style, and look at the day's board. You choose one main, the "meat," and three "sides" from a longer list. The menu rotates daily, so what is offered changes through the week. You pay, you carry your tray to a table, you eat. It is fast, cheap, and unpretentious.

The "three" is loosely defined. In a meat-and-three, mac and cheese counts as a vegetable, and nobody argues. The sides lean into Southern cooking.

What is on the menu

The meats run to Southern classics: fried chicken, meatloaf, country-fried steak, baked or fried fish, pork chops. The sides are the heart of it:

• Greens, green beans, and other cooked vegetables
• Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and dressing
• Black-eyed peas, fried okra, and creamed corn
• Cornbread or a roll, usually included

Why it matters in Nashville

The meat-and-three is one of the most authentically local ways to eat in Nashville. While visitors line up for hot chicken, the meat-and-three is the everyday Southern lunch locals have eaten for generations. It is plain in the best way: real cooking, fair prices, no show.

Read Next

• What Is Nashville Hot Chicken? - the city's signature dish
• Nashville Brunch Guide - the weekend table
• All Nashville Guides - browse every guide