Monell's Family

Monell's Family Style Dining
1235 6th Ave North
Nashville, TN
615-2484747

The original Monell's is located in the historic district of Germantown in Nashville. There are lovely huge homes from the 1800's in this neighborhood, and some of them have been converted into business fronts, like Monell's. Monell's opened in 1995, not that long ago, but it was opened before I moved here, so I thought it has been around for ages. Anyway, the stats on Monell's is that it is a family style restaurant, first come first server, and the food is traditional southern. It is a great place to go with a group for lunch because there has to be at least one dish that appeals to each person. The quality of the food seems to be rather good too.

The owners of this place got it right. It is country home kitchy with all the best components of country kitch. There are no manufactured blue and white ducks here. The window glass ornaments are cute and for sale. The tables and chairs are straight out of the Walton's (the tv show, not walmart).

A friend won a meal for 6 at Monell's at a fundraiser silent auction. I was so thrilled to be invited to dine for free with my friend and 4 other people. This time at Monell's we went for a Saturday Breakfast, and I have only gone for lunch. We got there at 8:30 am, and we were the 1st to be seated next to the big sunny window that you see above. It was like stepping into a lovely breakfast nook in Emily Dickinson's house with the sun shining onto us on a winter day. The room felt like home from days gone-by.

On the menu this day were fresh bisquits, milk gravy, steaming hot cheesy grits, Virginia ham, thick cut applewood smoked bacon, country sausage patties, scrambled eggs, corn pudding (my personal favorite), Monell's famous fried chicken, pancakes, country potatoes, orange juice, real butter, homemade peach preserves, iced tea, hot tea, and coffee. I know I am forgetting something.

This was the basket of meat items to choose from. If we ran out of something, Monell's is right there to refresh our supply.

Here is a plate of perfect pancakes.

Here is a photo of our country table filled with lots of good country food. This meal with friends, and stranger at the other end of the table, was really quite nice. We had to engage the new people to ask for them to pass the food or drink. It really helped remind me about all the good things about people I haven't met yet. I have to remember that the social deviants seen on the nightly news are just that, and most of humanity really wants to interact in a nice way, break bread and connect with others.


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