Whatever you’ve heard about Sperry’s, it’s probably true.
This month, the Belle Meade English pub/steakhouse/special-occasion magnet turns 50. And Nashvillians have a lot of opinions about it.
You might have heard that the restaurant has remained basically unchanged over the past 50 years. It’s been in the same small building on Harding Pike, with the same decor and the same menu (don’t come here looking for avocado toast or flash-fried Brussels sprouts), since 1974. That is true. You might have heard that it’s a place people go for anniversaries only. And it is indeed a special-occasion restaurant — a place to celebrate birthdays, weddings and good report cards.
But that’s not all Sperry’s is. Yes, it is a place for people of a certain age. But new generations are flocking to the restaurant, which now has two locations (the original in Belle Meade and a second in Cool Springs), as well as a Sperry’s Mercantile market with dishes to go and another Mercantile and a new coffee shop to open soon in Bellevue. As the restaurant hits the big 5-0, it’s worth a look at how they got here and what’s up next. (Spoiler: still no avocado toast or flash-fried Brussels sprouts.)
Brothers Houston and Dick Thomas opened the business in 1974 on the site of what had once been Garden Gate Garden Center, owned by Houston’s wife Sue. They named their new restaurant after their great-grandfather, Burton Sperry. It wasn’t anything particularly fancy — steaks, seafood and what has been purported to be the city’s first salad bar. The Nashville dining scene then was nothing like the embarrassment of riches it is today, and the menu, plus the existence of a dance floor and a full bar, made Sperry’s the go-to for a night out.
While the brothers had several children, it was Al Thomas, one of Houston’s sons, who was smitten with the restaurant from the beginning. As early as age 13, he was begging to work in the restaurant. His dad said he needed to be at least 14 to do so, so he went to work at Varallo’s until he was old enough to vacuum the floors and execute other clean-up tasks. In those days, Sperry’s was a “party bar,” so there was a lot of cleaning to do — but Al didn’t mind. Eventually, he started washing dishes and busing tables, working his way around the restaurant until he left for college.
“This is in my blood,” Al says. “I’ve always been in the restaurant business. So it’s in my DNA. If you cut me, I bleed au jus.”
Working at a restaurant in college, Al met Trish, the woman who would become his partner in life and in business. They wrote each other daily (on paper — there was no email then) while Al got a degree in hospitality management. They moved 17 times in their first 10 years of marriage, managing, operating and then owning restaurants in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama.
Houston and Dick were getting older, and their employees (some of whom are still with the restaurant, with tenure of more than three decades at this point) told the kids that someone needed to do something. So Al and Trish started the process of buying the restaurant.
While many second-generation restaurateurs have visions for putting their mark on things, that wasn’t Al’s goal. He and Trish leaned on their experience to implement new processes to make the restaurant run more smoothly; they didn’t overhaul the menu or the decor.
“I wanted to honor my dad and my uncle by not doing anything — excuse me, by not changing anything,” he says. “I grew up here, and there wasn’t any way I was going to come in here and change everything. I want it to be just the way it was.”
In fact, when Al and his team opened a second Sperry’s in Cool Springs in 2006, they replicated as much of the decor as they could. That meant making an exact copy of the art from Belle Meade (being careful only to copy those that they could under copyright law). They did remove two portraits of Confederate generals that the original owners bought. (“Times change,” Al says.) “We didn’t want it to lose the warmth,” Trish says.
Trish was nervous about the expansion at first, but when she learned that the property on Frazier Drive had private dining space, she felt good about it. The small Belle Meade footprint doesn’t have room for weddings or other events, and that’s something that Sperry’s diners want.
The commitment to not changing things is true of the menu too. The menu is filled with dishes that have fed diners for decades, including crab cakes, twice-baked potatoes, prime rib and the salad bar. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been tweaked at all. Al is proud of the crab cakes recipe, made with 98 percent crab meat. Al calls his favorite order, which includes those crab cakes, “steak and cake.” The kitchen, he says, makes more than 1,000 twice-baked potatoes a day for the restaurant and the Mercantile.
One of Al and Trish’s daughters, Cate Buchanon, works in the business today, having gotten her start early, just like her dad. She remembers stuffing mushrooms (for the popular mango-sausage-mushroom appetizer) at the age of 5 and believes in the brand’s continuity as one of its cornerstones. Friends of her generation like the old-school/retro vibe of the place. In a time when rooftop spots with city views reign, many gravitate toward Sperry’s — it doesn’t have a view at all, with dark stained glass filling the panes.
As the restaurant approached the half-century mark, the Thomas family brainstormed how they could celebrate with their loyal customers. Someone suggested putting some menu items from the past five decades back on the menu. But, Al says, if something has ever been taken off the menu, it is because it didn’t do well. Instead, the team decided that bottles of wine would be half-price during the month of March. They’re also working on a coffee-table book of tales from customers over the years.
Many of those customers are celebrities. Ask a Nashvillian about Sperry’s and they’ll tell you which celebrity was dining there when they were: Wynonna, Chris Stapleton, Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady) and Post Malone all have been sighted. Dax Shepard detailed a trip with his wife Kristen Bell in an episode of his Armchair Expert podcast last year. (If you’re concerned about the dress code, it’s worth a listen.)
In addition to the restaurants (as well as their other businesses, Sam’s Sports Grill and Sam’s Place), the Thomas family is ready for the Mercantile expansion and the launch of the coffee shop. The first Sperry’s Mercantile opened in 2015. It offers take-home-and-make versions of many of the restaurant’s popular dishes, as well as pimento cheese, cakes and other dishes made by Al’s sister Anne Clayton, a well-known caterer, baker and event maven in Nashville. The shop, which looks tiny from the outside but is jam-packed inside, is located in the parking area behind the Belle Meade restaurant. It was moderately successful until the pandemic, when cooking food from favorite restaurants at home became a national pastime. Since then, the shelves of refrigerated twice-baked potatoes, frozen signature peppermint stick ice cream, green goddess dressing and other items are in demand. The Mercantile also serves as a butcher shop, selling Sperry’s Meats, which can also be ordered online and shipped nationwide.
“We work together,” Al says of the restaurant and the Mercantile. “We operate as a unit. If we get any fresh fish in the morning over there, we bring it over here to cook it.” Trish adds that the system helps them reduce food waste.
Both the new Mercantile and Cafe Sperry’s will be located in a former Shoney’s, with lots of square footage. Cafe Sperry’s will also have drive-thru service. Buchanon is helping design the coffee shop. The cafe will have a similar look and feel to the restaurants, with dark wood, a library and a fireplace.
“I’m nervous as hell opening this new coffee shop and Mercantile,” Al says of the project coming to Bellevue. “I might have $3.5 million on the line by the time I get that thing open. So it needs to do good.”
