In Tennessee, a big Sunday plate of fried chicken, turkey and dressing, greens, and cobbler does not have to wait for Sunday. Meat-and-threes are the steam-table restaurants where you pick one main dish and three sides, and they have fed working families, students, and road trippers across the state for decades.
This list covers seven of them, from a Nashville cafeteria line with roots in the 1950s to a small-town cafe on a railroad square, each with its own reason to earn a spot. Save it for your next drive across the state, because a good plate lunch on a Tuesday is one of the best deals in Tennessee.
1. Swett’s, Nashville, TN
Nashville has changed a lot since the 1950s, but the cafeteria line at Swett’s still works the same way. You grab a tray, point at what you want, and walk out the other end with a plate that looks a lot like Sunday at a relative’s house.
The family-owned restaurant on Clifton Avenue is one of the city’s longtime meat-and-three institutions. Fried chicken, catfish, meatloaf, pork chops, pulled pork with homemade barbecue sauce, and turkey and dressing rotate through the line, along with collard greens, cornbread, fried apples, and casseroles…