In case you haven’t been paying attention, Edley’s Bar-B-Que has been on a hot streak of late. Since Will and Catharine Newman founded the first location in 12South back in 2011, the family-owned-and-operated business has expanded to new outposts in East Nashville, Sylvan Park, Franklin, Donelson, Nolensville, Gallatin and Chattanooga — and even two franchise locations in Illinois.
The Newmans have built their business around family recipes, Southern hospitality and excellent smoked meats, but they still wanted to leave their stamp on the world of barbecue. After years of internal experimentation and trial runs at several locations, they think they’ve come up with an absolute category buster — Nashville-style barbecue.
I first encountered this spicy ’cue when they were running it as a Friday special a few years back, but it has evolved considerably since those early days. The Edley’s team thought to deconstruct what “Nashville hot” really is. Everyone has their own interpretation of hot chicken, and the secrets behind those recipes are passed from generation to generation. In fact, Edley’s serves its own version of Nashville hot chicken, but it’s different from the Nashville-style barbecue.
They began to examine what sort of heat levels they wanted and where they would come from, thinking of “Nashville-style” as more of a flavor class than a specific dish. Think of it like you would “Buffalo,” which has extended far beyond just chicken wings from upstate New York.
Through focus groups and more than a thousand feedback cards from guests, they settled on a combination of a smoked-paprika-forward dry rub plus the addition of a fermented red habanero mash in the sauce to create something that lives in the 100,000- to 300,000-Scoville unit range, similar to a Scotch bonnet pepper but below a ghost pepper (thankfully). For comparison, cayenne pepper — which is the base of many Nashville hot chicken recipes — comes in at around 50,000 Scoville units.
Pretty much all of the smoked meats on Edley’s menu are now available with the option to torque them up to Nashville-style heat levels. These would include Edley’s fantastic brisket, chicken platters, smoked wings, pulled pork, ribs — even fried pickles and shrimp and grits. Embracing my job as “stunt food writer,” I tasted through almost every option, and I think they’ve definitely come up with something. While I enjoyed them all, I feel like the balance of sweet, smoky and spicy worked best with the pulled pork, but your mileage may vary.
Since launching the Nashville-style option at the end of May, Edley’s has seen a steady rise of customer orders, and it continues to grow. This isn't just a gimmick. Edley’s hopes that other restaurants and foods will jump on the bandwagon to help make the term "Nashville-style" something like "Buffalo" has become.
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Some of us thought that Nashville hot chicken had officially jumped the shark when KFC co-opted it, but the category continues to grow across the country and internationally. In fact, earlier this summer, the investment group that owns Subway purchased Dave’s Hot Chicken and its nearly 300 locations for a number that is reportedly close to $1 billion. (Man, I wish Ms. André had gotten her deserved chunk of that change!)
There’s definitely equity in the concept of Nashville-style, so why shouldn’t Edley’s seek to capitalize on it while at the same time working to expand the reach of our city’s culinary legacy? I’m sure that the descendants of Jacob Frank are still living large on that McCormick money after they sold out in 2017. Could Nashville-style and Nashville Hot be the next biggest things? I wouldn’t bet against it.
