These 7 Restaurants In Nashville Have Been Nominated For James Beard Awards In 2020
By Meghan Kraft|Published March 06, 2020
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Meghan Kraft
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Meghan Kraft loves to travel the world, but she makes her home right here in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a degree in English, and has worked in the digital marketing realm with companies such as Apartments.com, USA Today and HarperCollins Publishing.
The James Beard Award is given in quite a few categories, from restaurant design to the aplomb of individual chefs. Both prestigious and highly respected, when the nominations come out every year the service industry takes note. This year, Nashville was honored with SEVEN local restaurants honored as semi-finalists. We’ve included them below so you can take a look, and perhaps you might even consider making a reservation. There’s no better way to support local than to eat local, and these Nashville eateries have earned their stripes. Check them out below, and leave your dining tips and tricks in the comments.
Nashville has experienced an incredible upheaveal in dining options in the last few years. Where it once was a small country city dotted with Mom and Pop meat-and-three joints, it's swelled into a contemporary mecca for foodies.
Nashville was honored in six different categories as James Beard Award Semifinalists. One of them is the seafood-centric Germantown eatery, Henrietta Red, pictured above.
This year, the James Beard Awards were pointedly decided based on geographic diversity, which means that there are now twelve categories for Best Chef Awards, including Best Chef: California and a new Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific category.
The foundation noted that these expansive changes were implemented to address "population data, restaurant demographics, and culinary trends." Five finalist nominees per category will be announced on March 25th, and the winners will be honored in Chicago on May 4th.
Nashville was represented in spades with restaurants like Bastion, Folk, The Catbird Seat, Henrietta Red and Tailor making the list in the Southeast category.
Philip Krajeck of East Nashville's Italian-inspired restaurant, Folk (pictured), was honored as one of the finalists for the Best Chef in the Southeast, as well as Josh Habiger of Bastion, Julia Sullivan of Henrietta Red, and Vivek Surti of Tailor.
Will Aghajanian and Liz Johnson of The Catbird Seat were both honored as semifinalists for Rising Star Chef of the Year, a grand honor for those who helm the acclaimed Midtown restaurant.
Strategic Hospitality, helmed by Benjamin Goldberg and Max Goldberg, was honored in the Outstanding Restaurateur category. Their famed eateries include The Catbird Seat, The Patterson House and Henrietta Red.
