Nashville Eats

Acts from Zac Brown (and his trusty sidekick, Rusty) to the Followills of Kings of Leon have allowed the pretentious term “foodie” to amble its way into the cowtown.

“Not only did the music [industry] bring money, stable money, into this town, it also brought people, people from all over the country and the world, to live in Nashville,” said Roderick Bailey, who recently was named the Southeasts’ best new chef by Food & Wine magazine.

The Followill brothers recently brought in top chefs from the Food Network, New York and Los Angeles to serve food alongside local restaurant chefs at the band’s inaugural Music City Eats festival. “

A lot of the people in the food industry are also big music fans,” Matthew Followill said. “We kind of felt like Nashville didn’t have a really good food scene going on. And it has changed for sure, in the past three, four, five years and there have been a lot of great restaurants that have come in.”

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and Taylor Swift have also been known to tout the city’s cuisine, and Tandy Wilson of the City House said it helps to have musicians as regular customers.

“It’s kinda opened some doors to a little bit of friendship and you figure out that we’re not all that different,” Wilson said. “I find a lot of these guys we can have the same conversations. When they go to a different city, they go eat somewhere. They want to talk about that. I have been taken to some really awesome meals by rock stars that I never would have found if they couldn’t take me there.”

And, of course, there’s Chef Rusty Hamlin and the “Eat & Greets” at Zac Brown Band’s festivals.

“We learned from Nashville last year,” Hamlin said. “We tripled the food we had last year. Nashvillians love to eat. And I love that about Nashville. It’s not only the Music City, it’s also the Food City.”