TV Restaurants

What Happened to Arnold's Country Kitchen After Best Thing I Ever Ate?

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Arnold's Country Kitchen has closed — confirmed via wsmv.com, January 7, 2023.

Primary source
wsmv.com ·
Secondary source
wkrn.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: WSMV reported the meat-and-three served its final regular-hours plates on Jan. 7, 2023; WKRN separately reported the family has since run occasional pop-up service, including a brief 'temporary' lunch return in January 2024, but not standing daily hours.

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What happened after Best Thing I Ever Ate?

In the episode 'The Closers' (S9E14), the series featured Arnold's Country Kitchen, a cafeteria-style meat-and-three restaurant on 8th Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee, known for a rotating lineup of Southern entrees and sides served at lunch. According to arnoldscountrykitchen.com, checked 2026-09-08, the restaurant's own site listed Monday-Friday lunch hours of 10:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m. and a Saturday brunch from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., along with a plates-to-go option, delivery, catering, and an active online ordering widget.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured Arnold's Country Kitchen in the 2010-08-09 episode "Old Time Attitude" (S9E13), highlighting the restaurant's Southern meat-and-three cooking, including greens, cornbread, black-eyed peas, and chess pie. Arnold's Country Kitchen is a Southern restaurant at 605 8th Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee's Gulch neighborhood, according to Wikipedia (revised 2026-07-11), which also notes the restaurant received a James Beard Foundation American Classics Award in 2009. The restaurant's own website, checked 2026-09-08, listed lunch hours of Monday through Friday 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and Saturday brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., along with an active online-ordering option for plates to go.

In the same episode, Casey Webb visited Arnold's Country Kitchen, the Nashville meat-and-three where chef Kahlil Arnold ran the cafeteria-style line, according to the episode's cast listing. Arnold's had served Nashville from its 8th Avenue South location for roughly 40 years, per WSMV's coverage of the restaurant. WSMV reported that Arnold's served its final meat-and-three plates on Saturday, January 7, 2023, with the family citing rising downtown property taxes and a stalled real-estate sale. Nashville Post reported in 2024 that the Arnold family was eyeing a sister restaurant on the city's north side, and WKRN reported that the family has since brought the kitchen back for occasional pop-up service, including a Thanksgiving run and a "temporary" return to lunch service in January 2024.

Featured on Best Thing I Ever Ate

Season / episode
Season 9, Episode 14
Original air date
Not confirmed
Episode title
The Closers
What was featured
Nashville meat-and-three lunch spot's Southern plate-lunch classics
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Arnold's Country Kitchen
Season / episode
Season 9, Episode 13
Original air date
Episode title
Old Time Attitude
What was featured
Southern meat-and-three plates and chess pie
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Arnold's Country Kitchen
Season / episode
Season 6, Episode 13
Original air date
Episode title
—
What was featured
Meat-and-three cafeteria-style Southern cooking at a Nashville institution
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Arnold's Country Kitchen

Frequently asked questions

Is Arnold's Country Kitchen still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Arnold's Country Kitchen has closed — confirmed via wsmv.com, January 7, 2023.

What happened to Arnold's Country Kitchen after Best Thing I Ever Ate?

In the episode 'The Closers' (S9E14), the series featured Arnold's Country Kitchen, a cafeteria-style meat-and-three restaurant on 8th Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee, known for a rotating lineup of Southern entrees and sides served at lunch. As of September 2026, Arnold's Country Kitchen has closed — confirmed via wsmv.com, January 7, 2023.

Is Arnold's Country Kitchen permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Arnold's Country Kitchen has closed — confirmed via wsmv.com, January 7, 2023. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Arnold's Country Kitchen located?

605 8th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate featured Arnold's Country Kitchen?

Season 9, Episode 14 of Best Thing I Ever Ate. The episode is titled “The Closers”.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
605 8th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203
Venue type
restaurant

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • arnoldscountrykitchen.com — https://www.arnoldscountrykitchen.com
  • Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%27s_Country_Kitchen
  • imdb.com — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8003126/fullcredits/
  • wsmv.com — https://www.wsmv.com/2023/01/07/arnolds-country-kitchen-says-goodbye-after-decades-nashville/
  • nashvillepost.com — https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/arnolds-sister-restaurant-eyed-for-city-s-north-side/article_879b4a10-59bf-11ef-8299-af5df592a3cd.html
  • wkrn.com — https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/family-of-arnolds-country-kitchen-closes-one-chapter-looks-to-start-another/

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