Sally’s Stay Awhile Invites You to Do Just That

In the early 2000s, I was often asked to be the speaker for Leadership Nashville’s Quality of Life Day dinner, the tail end of participants’ long day engaging with leaders on serious issues like healthcare, housing, hunger, education and public transportation. 

After all that it was me — restaurant critic. I know. I did my best to lighten their load.

I offered my point of view on how restaurants impact a city’s quality of life, pointing out how generic and same-same the contributions of national chains like Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden were, compared to the excitement of the emerging wave of chef-owned, independent neighborhood restaurants that expressed the heart, soul and personality of their owners. I urged them to visit Margot, Caffé Nonna, Mirror, Mad Platter, Germantown Café, Eastland Café and Park Cafe, pioneers in pockets of Nashville with one foot in the old and one foot stepping into the new. 

This is the path laid more than two decades ago that leads us to the door of Sally’s Stay Awhile, a new restaurant in an old building within walking distance of old (The Fairgrounds Nashville and the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway), new (the 30,000-seat Geodis Park) and exploding (Wedgewood-Houston, turned WeHo for branding purposes).

Speaking of branding, when 12South was still known as The Bad Side of Belmont, the diverse residential tract was a fertile field for scrappy upstarts like Mirror, Rumours, Portland Brew, Frothy Monkey and Mafiaoza’s.

Chef Andy Little and his wife and partner Karen Van Guilder Little arrived from Lancaster, Pa., in 2013 (pre the Bartaco shark-jump), oblivious to the prolonged and heated battle between residents and developers that preceded the construction of the building — 12South Flats — where their restaurant Josephine would claim part of the ground floor. Little recalls, “Karen and I weren’t there for that fight, but we learned about it, so we doubled down on hospitality and being there for the neighborhood.”

Ten years later, when Josephine couldn’t make the numbers work to sign a new lease in the linear luxury mall 12South has become, residents mourned their departure.  

Chef Little segued into a position as director of culinary operations for Strategic Hospitality, creators of multiple hometown restaurants that cover culinary and socioeconomic bases from The Catbird Seat and Bastion to Babychan and The Band Box. 

Sally’s Stay Awhile lands in the happy middle of that spectrum. The building from which it emerged was Smokin’ Thighs, an endearing and enduring neighborhood favorite run for a decade by Matthew Carney, tragically killed in a hit-and-run in the summer of 2024. Ben Goldberg, co-owner of Strategic Hospitality with brother Max and chef Josh Habiger, lived nearby, knew Carney and patronized his place. When it closed, he felt called to preserve its spirit and shepherd its next iteration.

“Often a restaurant opens and the owners call it a neighborhood restaurant, but it’s not,” Little says. “It’s in a neighborhood but not for the neighborhood. The golf carts in our parking lot, the strollers, the repeat business all day, tells us we are truly a neighborhood restaurant.”

However you travel to Sally’s, you can’t miss the large retro sign looming over the parking lot, the restaurant’s name neon-lit. Painted clean, crisp white with hunter-green accents, the squat cinder-block building offers two outdoor seating areas. Inside, the two dining rooms lean into a family-restaurant, midcentury-diner aesthetic, banquettes lining walls and forming half-moons, stand-alone tables with sleek tops and sturdy chairs.

Artist Jeff Stamper’s framed pencil drawings of present and departed local luminaries like Jody Faison, Eddie George, Pat Martin, Sunset Grill, Family Wash, F. Scott’s, Filip Forsberg, Knife & Fork and, yes, Dolly, are a nice touch on one wall — one hopes they’ll keep adding to it.

Sally’s indeed invites guests to stick around — breakfast through lunch, happy hour (Hot Dog Du Jour from 3 to 6 p.m. is an irresistible lure) and dinner if so inclined. The restaurant is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Little says the large kitchen is dark only about three hours in a 24-hour cycle. Ace pastry chef (and Josephine alum) Zach Winchester arrives about 3:30 a.m. All baked goods are produced on site — breakfast doughnuts and croissants to brown-butter brioche pull-aparts at lunch and dinner and chocolate layer cake with peanut butter frosting for dessert.

Breakfast covers baked goods, eggs, griddle classics and meat and potatoes. The lunch and dinner menus are similar, though the former triples the sandwich board. 

At a recent visit, the spread of appetizers on our table shot me back to the Saturday night parties my parents used to host in the ’60s — in our basement rec room, albeit with more elevated techniques and presentation than my mother-of-five managed. They hit the memory button: tangy sour cream and onion dip with housemade chips as good as the Charles Chips I remember; smoky mini hot dogs in puff pastry; a bowl of warm Gruyère cheese dip that evoked the fondue pot we found so exotic. Mozzarella schnitzel — planks of cheese dredged in herbed breadcrumbs, pan-fried and served with a ramekin of marinara — won the hearts of my cheese-loving companions. 

Nostalgia, comfort, simplicity and authenticity inform and guide Sally’s menu, a team project led by Little, for a busy kitchen run by chef de cuisine Brandon Mook (also from Josephine). It’s all about relatable dishes and familiar food done extremely well: steak and fries, wedge salad, burgers, pasta, rotisserie chicken and macaroni-and-cheese deliver something for everyone.

Simple doesn’t mean easy — the chicken is a three-day process, starting with a 24-hour brine. A pan lined with sliced onion, garlic and cream under the poulets spinning on the French rotisserie catches the savory drippings. That is cooled, pureed and turned into the soon-to-be-famous Sally’s chicken sauce.

I’ve had the pan-roasted salmon as an entrée with fingerling potatoes and leeks and added to the kale salad with mandarin orange segments, shaved mimolette cheese, toasted almonds and date vinaigrette. Not in a million years would I expect to say I’d order it again on the salad, but it was an impeccable composition of texture and flavor.

I wasn’t the only person at the table to remark about how the shoestring fries had improved since earlier visits, notably in the change from room temp and limp to hot and crispy the way the gods intended. They’re offered as an appetizer, side or piled high on some of the main plates. (Well done on the diner-style tableware and cutlery!)

Whatever your frame of reference for macaroni-and-cheese, Sally’s creamy, cheesy, dreamy, lightly browned version might knock your grandma off the throne. We won’t tell. The only disappointment was the French dip; gristly slices of beef were not worthy of the crusty roll and delicious horseradish sauce. I’m sure that, had I asked, it would have been corrected. I longingly eyed the double-smashed-patties cheeseburger on several nearby tables.

Little says some items will seasonally change out — goodbye BLT and zucchini sauce on the excellent radiatori — but Sally’s rice pudding must never, ever leave. Rice pudding goes to Le Cordon Bleu, stirred with caramel cream and crowned with tart dried cherries and pistachio crumble. 

During our two-plus hour occupation of a primo corner table, we saw parties come and go — parents with young children, couples, groups of four and six, singles at the bar. We never felt rushed but were encouraged to relax and enjoy.

In this time of complicated menus, skyrocketing prices, strained service and rapidly changing neighborhoods that make even longtime Nashvillians feel fully unmoored, Sally’s Stay Awhile is a comfort zone, a haven from the noise and razzle dazzle, an anchor for this neighborhood and a welcome respite for all. Come hungry, leave happy. It’s the Sally’s way.