If you're worried about upwardly mobile sprawl endangering the gritty intersection of Riverside and McGavock, fret not. Take just one step inside Bailey & Cato Family Restaurant, and all the pendant lights, specialty roast coffees and sopressata sandwiches of nearby Riverside Village may as well be miles and decades away.
That doesn’t mean the Bailey family doesn’t applaud the development efforts that are reshaping their once-sleepy Inglewood crossroads. On the contrary, owners Linda and Robert Bailey say the emergence of Riverside Village—home to Sip coffeehouse, Mitchell Delicatessen, Castrillo’s Pizza and a coming-soon sushi restaurant—only helps them lure a new audience to their traditional meat-and-three. For the last eight years, Linda and Robert—along with their five children—have been dishing up ribs, meatloaf and some of the best fried chicken in the city in a tiny concrete and aluminum-sided cottage that only halfway looks like it might actually be open for business.
Don’t let the quiet exterior fool you. Inside the faded-salmon house—kitty-corner from the foodie strip where David Mitchell doles out Italian meats by the pound and Sip scoops homemade ice cream—the Baileys are hard at work, smoking ribs, cleaning greens and stewing yams for a rotating menu of Southern and soul classics. At any given minute, Robert Bailey Sr. is behind the counter, hacking away at slabs of grilled pork ribs or whole chickens, which he smokes in house. Or he’s making dense hot-water corn cakes shaped like marshmallow circus peanuts. Meanwhile, Linda might be cleaning turnip greens from The Produce Place across town on Murphy Road, or baking the desserts, which are mostly made from scratch, with a little help from some store-bought frostings. Sons Robert Jr., Derrick and Joseph and daughters Patience and Elizabeth also pitch in, and photographs of Bailey and Cato siblings watch over the small dining room, which is outfitted with a handful of mismatched tables and chairs, a gum-ball machine, a refrigerator filled with sodas, and a TV on the back wall.
If you’re a first-timer, don’t let the dizzying menus on the wall confuse you. With meatloaf on Sunday and Tuesday, smoked chicken on Sunday and Wednesday, neck bones on Tuesday, ox tails on Friday and Saturday, pig’s feet on Saturday and chitterlings on the first Friday of the month—among other hearty offerings—there’s no telling what kind of algorithm determines the rotating schedule. Most days, there are turnips greens, green beans, mac-and-cheese, mashed potatoes and fried corn in a syrupy broth. Throughout the week, white beans, spaghetti, baked apples, cheese potatoes and black-eyed peas all make appearances alongside a half-dozen meat choices.
When it’s your turn to order at the counter, it’s a good idea to know what you want, because in our experience the Baileys aren’t avid conversationalists. They’d prefer to dole out the food than to proffer recommendations. And for the love of all that is slow-cooked with hog jowl, don’t be on your iPhone when you’re up. Mr. Bailey Sr. has posted several notices to the effect that cell phones are frowned upon. He also asks, via a note on the menu, that you please taste food before adding salt.
If you ask Linda what she likes, she might steer you to her favorites—chicken and dressing and candied yams that could put most Thanksgiving dinners to shame. Tender pulled chicken is served with a fluffy bed of moist homemade cornbread dressing and smothered with smooth yellow chicken gravy. Laced with hints of nutmeg, the stuffing gives the meal the comfortable flavor of the holidays, so, come Thanksgiving, it’s worth remembering that the Baileys cater.
Chicken and dressing and yams are available Sunday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and most of those days overlap with the deliciously creamy mashed potatoes. But if you can’t commit the schedule to memory, you can always rely on barbecue ribs and fried chicken. The staple Southern entrées are available daily, and in our experience they were reliably outstanding.
A generous slab of ribs overflows the plate, plump with smoky meat and seasoned with a secret blend of garlic, cayenne, salt and other flavors that Bailey Sr. is not inclined to divulge. A tomato-based sauce comes on the side for dipping, which makes the ribs a relatively tidy finger food compared to so many sloppy, over-sauced examples. With a consistency somewhere between a thick tomato paste and a thin vinegar-based dressing, the sweet-and-tangy sauce is a light and flavorful complement to the smoky meat.
On one lunch visit, our table agreed unanimously that the fried chicken was possibly the best we have found in Nashville. With a deep reddish-brown hue, the skin was thin and crisp, laced with Bailey Sr.’s same secret seasoning mixture and a thin sheen of oil that was luscious without being greasy. (When asked the secret of his fried chicken, he explained simply, “It’s deep-fried.” Good luck getting anything more from him.) Underneath the gritty crackling of skin, which all but melted across the tongue, the plump white meat was juicy all the way through—a perfect vehicle for scooping up creamy mashed potatoes or decadent yams steeped in cinnamon, brown sugar and butter.
It’s not just the traditional comfort food and the unembellished setting that make Bailey & Cato a charming relic among so many gentrified food offerings in Riverside Village. The prices are also a welcome throwback. Most days, a daily special of meat and two sides runs just $5, and a slice of pie is $1.25. On weekdays, free delivery is available within a 10-mile radius, for lunch orders of $60 or more. The Baileys will deliver farther than that for orders of $80. That’s a tempting proposition for a Southern-style feast. After all, there’s no rule that says your own family has to do the cooking to make it a family-cooked meal.
Bailey & Cato Family Restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
