The #1 question I got from friends and family was, “How are you going to eat down there??”
If you’re new here, I’m a vegetarian. Hence why people were asking what I was planning on eating in the land of fried chicken. It really blows me my mind how hard people think it is to be a vegetarian in general. Spoiler: It’s not. I digress: Shockingly it wasn’t that hard to find food to eat. Even at the famous Hattie B’s in Nashville.
Hattie B’s is *the* place to go for fried chicken in Nashville (or one of them, actually) so when we found ourselves in the vicinity of one after the awe-inspiring Parthenon, I insisted we go because I love my boyfriend and he’s not a vegetarian so he deserved to eat the famous fried chicken.
On our way there, I checked out the menu of sides and spotted what I’d order.
Pro-tip: If you’re a vegetarian (or vegan) always make sure that you check out the sides menu to find food. More often than not there will be a plethora of options for you to pick from.
Pro-tip #2: If you’re going to Hattie B’s, order online and just pick it up.
We didn’t follow the advice of our bartender so when we walked up to Hattie B’s, we waited in a long line to order our food.
What did I eat as a vegetarian as a famous Nashville fried chicken spot? Hot mac’n’cheese and french fries.
I also ate the bread that Nick’s chicken came on top off because it had the “regular” hot sauce on it. It was incredibly spicy. Does this make me a bad vegetarian? Maybe. But I should’ve ordered two sides of the mac’n’cheese, so I was making up for the lack of carbs.
I was told that the “regular” level of hotness at Hattie’s was mouth-numbing and Nick confirmed this when he was almost done with his first piece of chicken and had to take a break and wipe the sweat from his forehead.
All in all, I did not feel like I missed out on the food in Nashville at all. If there’s something that the south does well besides fried food, it’s mac’n’cheese. If you’re thinking you can’t go to either city and enjoy it because of the lack of food choices, it just isn’t so. There are also a number of vegan restaurants in both cities but be prepared to pay for Lyfts or Ubers to these spots because they are located quite far outside the centers of both cities.
Happy eating!
[…] What I Ate At Hattie B’s As a Vegetarian: You guys LOVE this post. Or at least people searching on Google do. As more and more of the population (hopefully) stops eating meat, I guess people are doing more research on what there is to eat in places that are usually challenging for vegetarians. Given that Hattie B’s is one of the famous hot chicken restaurants in Nashville, I suspect that a lot of vegetarians are being dragged there and are curious about what’s on the menu that they can eat. I’m honored to be a resource! (Click here if you need some tips about how to find places to eat if you’re vegetarian!) […]