James Beard Recognitions - Nashville 2025

Three restaurants. A national conversation Nashville has been earning for years.

The James Beard Foundation doesn't recognize potential. It recognizes restaurants that have already done the work. Peninsula is making the most ambitious case for what a Nashville restaurant can be right now — Chef Jake Howell's cooking is the kind of thing the recognition is overdue for. Tailor has spent years making the argument for Indian-inflected fine dining in America with the kind of precision and conviction that doesn't need a foundation's blessing to matter — but the blessing fits. The Catbird Seat has been one of the best tasting menu experiences in the country for over a decade. Not a list of restaurants on their way up. A list of restaurants that already arrived.

Peninsula

East Nashville
$$
<span>Spanish</span><span>Modern American</span>
Delicious as F*ck

Peninsula is a tasting menu restaurant in East Nashville helmed by chef Jake Howell — Southern ingredients, global technique, Michelin Recommended, and a structured dining experience that earns every minute of its length.

peninsula

Tailor

Germantown
$$$$
<span>Indian</span><span>Modern American</span>
Delicious

Tailor is a tasting menu restaurant in Germantown helmed by chef Vivek Surti — Indian heritage filtered through global culinary training, one of the best cocktail programs in the South, and a Michelin Recommended dining experience that feels genuinely like a dinner party.

tailor

The Catbird Seat

The Gulch
$$$$
<span>Modern American</span>
Delicious as F*ck

The Catbird Seat is a Michelin-starred tasting menu restaurant in The Gulch helmed by chefs Andy Doubrava and Tiffani Ortiz — Nashville's most acclaimed restaurant, now in a spectacular new multi-floor space, with 13-16 courses and the most coveted reservation in the city.

the-catbird-seat