Change at the Meat-and-Three
By Mark Blankenship, Nashville Bureau Chief of The Food Section
One of Nashville’s best meat-and-threes is only open 90 minutes a day, four days a week. It doesn’t take reservations. It doesn’t have a sign out front. In fact, it’s not even really a restaurant. It’s Community Lunch, a program hosted by The Scarritt Bennett Center since 2018.
A nonprofit conference, event, and community space, Scarritt Bennett sits on an 11-acre campus in Music Row. (It’s on the former site of Scarritt College, which closed in 1988.) In an area filled with cars, people, and banners announcing the latest number one song on country radio, its weathered brick buildings, and well-maintained grounds are invitations to sit still. There’s even a labyrinth on the quad, with a placard encouraging passers-by to ponder their spirits as they walk the maze.
“We offer a sacred space amidst the hustle and bustle of midtown,” said Rev. Dr. Sondrea L. Tolbert, Scarritt’s Executive Director. The organization rents land owned by United Women in Faith, and it focuses on four pillars: Racial justice, women’s empowerment, transformative education, and spiritual formation. In my experience, though, nobody expects guests to have any particular views. “We call it radical hospitality,” Tolbert said. “No matter what you believe, we want you to enjoy yourself here.”
Community Lunch epitomizes that idea. Every Tuesday through Friday, from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., anyone is welcome in the Susie Gray Dining Hall. For $15, diners can help themselves at a hot bar, salad bar, beverage station, and buildyour-own-sundae table.
Guests can take their food to go, but for me, eating in is half the fun. For one thing, the Susie Gray Dining Hall is a beautiful place to enjoy a sundae. Built in the 1920s, it’s got high ceilings, wood-paneled walls, and ornately carved chairs. The windows are so tall they flood the
room with sunlight, which filters through wine-colored curtains. It’s the kind of place conjured in movies like Dead Poets Society and Mona
Lisa Smile.
Plus, it’s easy to make friends there. Over my four visits, I’ve had easygoing conversations with an administrator at Africa University in Zimbabwe, a group of women attending a spiritual leadership conference, and Big Joe, a military veteran who plays music every Thursday at a dive bar called Bobby’s Idle Hour. Meeting these people in this space would be rewarding enough, even without the food.
But the food is worth coming back for. Executive chef Joe Irwin gives each day’s menu a theme. Tuesday is “2 For Tuesday,” meaning two protein options. Wednesday is International Day; Thursday is Soul Food Day; and Friday is “TGI-Fried Day,” which ends the week with indulgence. “I like to play around inside those parameters,” Irwin told me. “I get creative and have fun, and people seem to enjoy it.” I certainly do. On a recent International Day, I was impressed by the chicken marsala, which had an excellent salt-and-umami balance, and by the asparagus, which tasted fresh and had a citrus kick. My first TGI-Fried Day featured a pork schnitzel that wasn’t too oily, and as of this writing, I’m looking forward to the fried chicken coming in a few days. (Menus are posted two weeks in advance on Scarritt’s website and social media channels.
“The one that surprised me was the white cheddar-and-collard green bread pudding,” Tolbert said. “I’m not used to savory bread puddings, and I heard people wondering if that was going to work. Once we tasted it, we were scraping the pan.”
A meat-and-three like Arnold’s or Swett’s thrives by offering the same thing every day. People get attached to the pecan pie or the mac-and-cheese, and they don’t want it to change. Irwin and his staff stand out by delivering so much variation within their themes. Community Lunch is also a respite from Music Row’s onslaught of taco joints and burger bars, many of which originated far from Nashville. If you want a
well-cooked vegetable—or if you just want to eat somewhere without loud music or TVs blaring ESPN — then this could be your oasis. Even if you don’t grab one of the daily prayers that’s waiting by the silver bowl of apples, you may still find your visit sates you in multiple ways.
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