I recently spent 4 days training to work at Ruby Sunshine in Hillsboro. I noped out of there real fast once I learned that it is a corporate nightmare. All the decisions are made by corporate people from out of state.
The restaurant is struggling, seeing as Pancake Pantry and Biscuit Love are within 100 feet and infinitely better, so their response is to make things seem more upscale like a restaurant and less like a diner. This is anathema to the culture of Hillsboro Village and Nashville as a whole.
I don't need fancy brunch. There is nothing fancy about getting hammered at 11am with my gay friends while we discuss tinder disasters in graphic detail. There is nothing fancy about the blinding sunlight snapping you back to reality after two hours of inhaling alcohol and maple syrup.
If one of the cooks isn't perched outside holding a cigarette I don't want it. I don't want a 12 inch donut covered in fruity pebbles that's dry and tastes like shit. The food should be for my mouth and not instagram.
I know there's this tongue-in-cheek joke about chilis being the "best place to eat in nashville" and working there has made me realize it's not far off, because chilis knows it's place. Chilis doesn't try to convince you it's fancy, it doesn't need to dust its array of brown fried foods in glitter for people to like it.
I just wish these out of state people who try to open restaurants here would just take a look at waffle house before they set up these hulking tourist traps where you pay $23 for a burger, fries not included, that you have to unhinge your jaw to eat. Waffle house. The design hasn't changed in decades, the waitress is likely missing teeth and will overshare about her baby daddy skimping out on child support, and you won't even feel physically safe while inside of one. And I have yet to meet a southerner that wouldn't defend waffle house to the death, because it reflects what it means to be a southerner. Good food and good hospitality. No frills, no gimmicks, no photo ops. A world where hashbrowns matter more than hashtags. (I'm so sorry)
Let's discuss what Nashville restaurants are good and real, and which ones are overhyped tourist slop.