The Wild Cow Helped Inspire a Now-Thriving Vegan Scene

When longtime East Nashville restaurant The Wild Cow closed in December, it left a buffalo-beans-and-greens-shaped hole in the city. For 14 years, The Wild Cow was the heart of vegan and vegetarian living in Nashville. Not only did the restaurant feed folks a plant-based diet (including spinach dip, vegan Reuben sandwiches and the aforementioned buffalo beans), but The Wild Cow and its owners also helped launch many other like-minded projects and restaurants.

Walker Brothers Kombucha co-founder Luke Walker interviewed for a job as a prep cook at The Wild Cow the week he moved to Nashville. He started working there the following week.

“The Wild Cow’s greatest gift to Nashville was the incredible community it fostered,” says Luke. “It offered an environment in which there was no pressure for employees to prove themselves, [with] an unspoken understanding that they would show up, work hard and be themselves. The philosophy seemed to be something along the lines of, ‘Assume the best in people, and the best will follow.’”

And the best did follow. When Luke and his brother Sam Walker were ready to start their own business, The Wild Cow supported them. 

“They helped Walker Brothers Kombucha get off the ground, taking a chance on us and our product from the very start and being true ambassadors of what we do,” Sam says of The Wild Cow co-owners Ryan Toll and Melanie and John Cochran. In addition to Walker Brothers, many beloved vegetarian- and vegan-friendly Nashville staples — including High Garden Tea, The BE-Hive Deli & Market and Graze Nashville, the latter an East Nashville vegan bistro co-owned by Nick Davis, a former Wild Cow employee — were launched with the support of The Wild Cow.

The Wild Cow wasn’t just about the food, says Toll, who started cooking at the restaurant in 2014 and became a partner in 2019.

“It was about the vegan lifestyle,” he says. “There are lots of reasons that people become vegan. For John and Melanie, it was animal welfare. For me, starting as a teenager, it was personal health and health of the environment. But for everyone, there is a philosophy behind it, and The Wild Cow helped create a community for people who had a vegan lifestyle.”

“The Wild Cow was a place of kindness and warmth, toward customers, the earth and life,” says Lindsey Bathke, an East Nashvillian who lived two blocks from The Wild Cow when she moved to town in 2013. She had been a vegetarian for more than a decade at that point (though not yet wholly vegan) and remembers the comfort she felt being able to eat anything on The Wild Cow’s menu.

Photographer Emily April Allen remembers The Wild Cow as her pick-me-up after a long workday, a motivation to get through the day to dinner. She used to be wistful on Tuesdays because The Wild Cow kitchen was closed that day. Now every day feels like a Tuesday, without a taco salad or gyro salad.

In a joint statement in December, Toll and the Cochrans cited rising rent and food costs as some of the reasons for their difficult decision to close. In addition, just four months before the March 2020 tornado and the onset of the COVID pandemic, the team moved into a bigger restaurant on Fatherland Street — a larger space to support during the months when they could not be open.

When The Wild Cow opened on Eastland Avenue in 2009, vegan and vegetarian options in Nashville were much more limited. Comedian Aziz Ansari even had a bit about it in a 2015 episode of his Netflix series Master of None: The dining options for his vegetarian date are limited to a cup of pickles, a banana and a square of cornbread.

Today, though, Nashville has a “great vegan scene,” Toll says.

Many restaurants with omnivore menus have more than pickles and bananas as options for those who want to eat a plant-based diet — from vegan sausage at Retrograde Coffee Co. to many juice and smoothie spots, to the Vegan Supreme pizza at Nicky’s Coal Fired and the sublime Veggie Bún Riêu at East Side Pho. Downtown Nashville’s House of Cards speakeasy offers perfection in a vegan surf-and-turf. And the city has a healthy lineup of all-vegetarian or vegan kitchens (see our list).

Next week, Toll — along with his business partner John Wood — is launching Season Nashville, a vegan meal service of prepared and easy-to-complete dishes available for delivery. Eventually, Toll and Wood hope to expand into a physical space for pickup options. But they’re taking things slowly at first, with a small kitchen and a limit of 30 customers at a time. (There will be a waitlist to accommodate others.)

The meal-plan service model will allow Toll to experiment with new recipes, which was his favorite part of cooking specials at The Wild Cow. He expects there may also be a few recipes customers like Bathke and Allen will remember.

“I think we can make it easier to become vegan,” says Toll. “It can be intimidating to cook with tofu and seitan, and those are things I nerd out about.”

Where to Go for Vegetarian Eats

If you’re inclined to lament The Wild Cow’s closing by thinking there aren’t other vegan or vegetarian options in the city, try one of these 22 meat-free alternatives.

AVO: Located in the OneC1ty complex, AVO serves cooked and raw vegan dishes with an emphasis on gluten-free and locally sourced ingredients. It is perhaps best known for its avocado margarita. 4 City Blvd. 

The BE-Hive Deli & Market: If you’ve eaten vegan pepperoni, Italian crumbles or other faux meats at a Nashville restaurant, you’ve likely eaten something from BE-Hive. Their East Nashville deli makes sandwiches with their faux meats, including crunch wraps and fried chxn. 2414 Gallatin Ave.

Copper Branch: One of downtown Nashville’s affordable secrets, this chain sells beet-and-brown-rice burgers, falafel, chili and more. 601 Church St.

Deep Sea Vegan: Open one weekend a month at Hunters Station and other pop-ups across town. Look for the Calamari Po’boy and fried seafood substitutes made from hearts of palm. 975 Main St.

E+ ROSE Wellness: Multiple locations (including the Gulch, Wedgewood-Houston and Brentwood) make it easier to find plant-based food across town. The Nashville Hot Kale is a perennial favorite. 610 Merritt Ave. and other locations

Golden Plant Vegan: Find this food truck in the Easy Money Cash Center parking lot four days a week. Try the birria tacos or the jerk mushroom tacos. 718 Gallatin Ave.

Graze Nashville: Nick Davis’ East Nashville bistro serves a popular weekend brunch. 1888 Eastland Ave.

Grins Vegetarian Cafe: Located on the Vanderbilt campus but open to the public, Grins (pronounced “greens”) was the city’s first all-vegetarian restaurant. It is also certified kosher. 2421 Vanderbilt Place

Hey Hey: Plant-based Asian fusion from the AVO team. 4 City Blvd.

Jamaicaway Restaurant: While not exclusively plant-based (meat is on the menu too), this spot inside the Nashville Farmers’ Market is popular with vegetarians for its meat-free Jamaican specialties, including spicy jerk seitan. 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.

Lucky Vegan: Mushroom miso soup, teriyaki chick’n onigiri and other dishes are available Saturdays at the Richland Park Farmers’ Market. Order in advance and your dishes will be waiting for you. 4711 Charlotte Ave.

Morsel: Morsel makes all-vegan and gluten-free baked goods — including scones, doughnuts and brownies — sold at shops around town. Look for the pastries at Crema, All People Coffee, Matryoshka Coffee and elsewhere.

Radical Rabbit: Vegan soul food (don’t skip the fried jackfruit) sold at pop-ups around town and for home delivery.

Season Nashville: Ryan Toll and John Wood’s new vegan meal delivery service.

Succulent Vegan Tacos: Mexico City-style vegan tacos can be found inside the Nashville Farmers’ Market. It is also certified kosher. 900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.

Sunflower Bakehouse: Donelson’s vegan and gluten-free restaurant is stocked with savory burgers, salads, sandwiches and lots of sweets. 2414 Lebanon Pike 

Sunflower Cafe: Essentially a meat-and-three without the meat, this cafeteria-style vegan spot in Berry Hill offers a large menu, with lots of choices. 2834 Azalea Place

The Southern V: Using in-house seitan, The Southern V creates Southern-style vegan dishes. Use the self-serve kiosk for dining on site. (Takeout is also available.) 1200 Buchanan St. 

Trippy’s Plant-Based Diner: Crunchwraps, sandwiches and loaded fries, plus daily specials. 811 Dickerson Pike

True Food Kitchen: This Green Hills outpost of the chain isn’t entirely meat-free, but its menu includes many vegan and vegetarian dishes, with an emphasis on reducing inflammation. 3996 Hillsboro Pike

Vegelicious: Offering vegan soul food with two locations — one in Antioch and one near Fisk University — this is the place to get your vegan mac-and-cheese fix. 793 Bell Road and 513B Fisk St.

Woodlands Indian Vegetarian Restaurant: Since 2004, Woodlands has been Nashville’s go-to vegetarian restaurant. The lunch buffet is particularly popular. 3415 West End Ave.