Midtown Café: Staying True to Nashville
By Jennifer Thompson
Nashville is made of many neighborhoods, each with a unique character to meet different needs, including celebrities, families, up and coming artists, students, visitors, and everything in between. But it’s the Broadway/West End area that personifies our city as the place to find Nashville’s calling card. Here you can walk to Music Row, Midtown, Vanderbilt, and numerous eateries and bars. There are hotel options to meet any desired accommodation, a medical center, universities, music, and the Nashvegas style we have come to know and love.
Midtown Café is found in the heart of this. Located between West End and Broadway at 102 19th Ave S in the West End/Vanderbilt/Music Row/Midtown/Medical Center neighborhoods, this one-story restaurant has provided casual fine dining since 1987. Originally offering family recipes, the Café was purchased by restaurateur Randy Rayburn from John Petrocelli in 1997.
“I tell people I loved it so much I had to buy it,”
Rayburn laughs. It was also the Café’s size that appealed, as it was similar in footprint to another of Rayburn’s restaurants, Hillsboro Village’s landmark Sunset Grill. Holding only around 17 tables, Rayburn loved the intimacy and concept.
He also saw the potential of elevating the menu; but all in due time. Rayburn did not buy Midtown Café to reconceive it but to help it grow. Indeed, a requirement of the sale was the lemon artichoke soup family recipe had to be included. To this day it remains one of the signature dishes of Nashville, and the recipe was pointedly omitted from the book published by the Café in October of 2022. “People have to come in to get it,” Rayburn says.
Grow the Café has from its original family recipe foundations. Midtown Café now has 22 tables and 6 bar stools with a total of 80 seats. Though small, it is mighty and served 110,000 guests in 2022, with a mix of first timers, tourists, and local regulars depending on the day and meal.
In 2018, Food and Wine magazine noted the consumer app Open Table TOP voted Midtown Café one of the top 50 Southern restaurants in the US. The Cafe garnered a Traveler’s Choice from TripAdvisor in 2022 and currently is ranked as Nashville’s fifth best overall restaurant, fifth best in food, and third best in service on Open Table.
It’s easy to see how these accolades were earned. Rayburn’s staff has been with him for decades, unheard of in the food industry. GM Doug Stevenson and head server Dale King have been on board 27 years. Chef Max Pastor started as a sous-chef at Sunset Grill and Cabana, another of Rayburn’s restaurants, before coming to Midtown Café. Rayburn credits the team for Midtown’s longevity, saying a bottom-up approach empowers the staff and gives them a sense of ownership. The result is intangible to the spreadsheet but unmistakable in the diner experience.
But it’s also the food. The menu has organically expanded over the years. In addition to the Maryland-style crab cakes that remains from the original menu, favorites include a Creole-style shrimp and grits and an amazing sea scallop with lobster mac and cheese. The latter is so good it is featured in the New York Time’s Nashville in 36 Hours story (along with the lemon artichoke soup of course!). New dishes are offered as specials and if popular enough, stay on. For example, a current off menu creation is a pan-seared sea bass with lobster risotto and champagne Beurre Blanc. The Café also offers 40 wines by the glass and 150 selections.
There have been service changes as well. Breakfast/brunch has been added 7 days a week. And taking advantage of the prime location, Midtown Café offers customers a free shuttle service to events at TPAC, Ryman, the Symphony, and Bridgestone. The convenience of starting and ending the evening at Midtown and avoiding the parking and fees associated with special events make this a must for everyone. (Note you must call the Café directly to reserve the shuttle; Open Table cannot guarantee this due to limited space and there is a $40 check minimum.)
We have seen Nashville’s evolution, a pandemic, the rapid fall and slow rise of tourism and business travel. Through it all, for 35 years and counting, Midtown Café has adapted but also remains unchanged at heart, providing a taste of old Nashville. Restaurants come and go but it’s a good bet that Midtown Café is here to stay with Nashville’s dean restaurateur Randy Rayburn at the helm.
Hours: Breakfast/brunch 8 am – 2pm 7 days a week. Lunch 10:30 am to 2 pm. Dinner 4:30-8:30 pm Mon-Wed., 4:30-9 pm Thurs-Sat. No dinner on Sunday. Call 615.320.7176 or go to https://www.midtowncafe.com/ to make a reservation.