These Nashville Restaurants Have Thanksgiving Dinner Covered

Back in the days when this restaurant really was a hotel that provided lodging for merchants buying and selling wares off of barges docked on Nashville’s riverfront, you can imagine a tired salesman looking for a good meal while away from home on Thanksgiving. Merchants was there for their lodgers then, and they are there for you now. They’ll be offering their regular menu on Thanksgiving Day, plus a special $32 Thanksgiving plate option in the first-floor bistro as well as a more elaborate three-course holiday dinner in their steak house dining space on the second floor. Serving up comfort has been a Merchants tradition for more than a century.

This new restaurant at the 1 Hotel Nashville is focused on sustainability, just like the rest of the property. They source ingredients locally and seasonally whenever possible, and Thanksgiving dinner is the ultimate taste of autumn. Enjoy a three-course prix fixe dinner of whiskey-glazed turkey with local herbs and butternut squash stuffing. As a thank you, 1 Kitchen will donate a meal to a local family for each table reserved. 1 Kitchen is also offering a carryout deal to feed up to eight diners with a classic holiday menu including turkey, sides, and dessert.

Ellington’s is another hotel restaurant, right in the middle of the central business district in The Fairlane Hotel. For just $69 per person, they’ll provide everything you need for a memorable Thanksgiving feast. Serving from 11 am until 7 pm, Ellington’s is offering soup as a starter followed by salad and your choice of three entrees. Finish up your meal with two different dessert options, but we’re guessing your eyes won’t stray past the peppermint creme brulee. Walk-ins are invited, but reservations are strongly suggested.

Chef Sean Brock’s homage to classic mid-century continental cuisine normally only serves brunch on the weekends, but they’ll be offering the à la carte menu from 11 am until 2 pm Thursday through Sunday during Thanksgiving week. Even more inviting will be a special Thanksgiving Day menu prix fixe dinner from 3 pm until 6 pm for $145 per person. Five courses plus available add-ons include extravagant dishes like pâté en croûte and entree choices of prime rib, turkey roulade or Ora King salmon. The incredible pastry team at The Continental will also whip up some special desserts and beverage pairings will be available.

Oak Steakhouse will be open from noon until 8 pm on Thanksgiving serving a slightly limited menu of their regular fare, but that doesn’t mean that the steak, lobster, crab, mac n’ cheese, mashed potatoes and the like aren’t excellent. They are. But they’ll also offer a fixed menu option of all the holiday classics like turkey with stuffing and gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, root veggies and bread pudding for dessert. The meal is just $80 per diner, and they’ll do the dishes.

Luogo is a new Italian ristorante in the Gulch, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, Thanksgiving would be an ideal opportunity for your first visit. They’ll be offering a four-course menu for $95 featuring some of chef Anthony Scotto’s iconic dishes like grilled pizza margherita, eggplant and zucchini pie, and vegetable lasagna, as well as traditional favorites like sweet potato ravioli and roasted turkey with Anthony’s sausage Stuffing. A kids' menu is also available for $45.

Why not go Polynesian for Thanksgiving this year? Chef Ryan Costanza has created a tropical menu that will feed eight hungry diners at home for just $300. Pick your choice of two whole roasted Peking ducks or a Kalua pork plate with roasted ribs, banana leaf pork shoulder and char siu belly plus a raft of side dishes and condiments. Serve up your protein with roasted and grilled pineapple, cucumber chili crisp salad, Hawaiian sweet cornbread stuffing with Portuguese sausage and Maui onions, kimchi BBQ-glazed brussels sprouts and charcoal-roasted sweet potatoes with miso caramel and you’ll feel like you made a trip to the islands for the holiday!

While Christmas is the traditional holiday to celebrate the virgin birth, the Virgin Hotel Nashville is getting into the Thanksgiving spirit with a complete to-go meal option from their Commons Club restaurant. Order enough for a family of four for $200 (plus $65 for extra individual packages) and receive an oven-roasted turkey with all the fixings, including mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and a delicious pumpkin pie for dessert. In the spirit of giving during the holiday season, for every to-go package sold, Commons Club will donate a turkey to the Mary Parrish Center.

If you’ve ever fried a turkey at home, you know that it is a delicious way to prepare your bird, but it’s also a little bit daunting to deal with all that hot oil to avoid showing up on a YouTube video of yet another Thanksgiving deck fire catastrophe. The Gumbo Bros. will happily face that danger for you and sell you a Cajun-fried turkey, flavored with their signature spice and sage brine and cooked until the skin is perfectly crispy. As an appropriate accompaniment, order a batch of their turducken gumbo, featuring a dark roux, homemade turkey stock, and roasted turkey, duck, and chicken with cajun spices. It comes chilled with white rice on the side for you to heat up on the big day.

Renowned chef Tony Mantuano and his team have created a feast of regional Italian specialties and Thanksgiving-inspired dishes to put a little European spin on the holiday. The extended à la carte menu includes delights such as patata dolce with whipped lardo, watercress, pickled ramps, Tacchino, a turkey terrine with sunchoke, Brussels sprouts and gravy, and spezia dolce with spiced blue hubbard squash, caramelized puff pastry, espresso, and pecan milk. We’re just guessing none of those were on your grandma’s annual Turkey Day menu.

Marsh House in the Thompson Hotel in the Gulch is known for Louisiana-inspired cuisine that includes a lot of seafood. They’ll be serving a Thanksgiving breakfast from 8 am followed by dinner from noon until 7 pm which will feature plenty of interesting tastes of the Bayou State. The four-course prix fixe offers a choice of starters from options like shrimp toast, venison tartare, blue gouda cheesecake, grilled octopus, or sweet potato frites. Follow that with gumbo, pumpkin soup or a few different salads before plunging into the heart of the meal. Main course entrees include heritage breed turkey with traditional fixin’s, lamb shank, shrimp etouffee or hanger steak and then pick from a trio of desserts. Wine pairings will also be available.

As the flagship restaurant of the Kimpton Aertson Hotel in Midtown, Henley has a responsibility to provide a menu for their guests on Thanksgiving, but you can also take advantage of their generosity. They will feature a decadent holiday buffet on Thanksgiving with seatings from 11 am until 5 pm. The spread will offer a turkey carving station, smoked ham with an orange and brown sugar/bourbon glaze, smashed potatoes and gravy, mac n’ cheese and a pie bar filled with delicious options.

Long counted among Middle Tennessee’s favorite caterers, Chef’s Market in Goodlettsville has been a go-to source for holiday to-go for years. For Thanksgiving, they’re offering trays of candied bacon-wrapped figs, country ham and biscuits and spinach queso to nosh on while you’re preparing the meal, or you can order the whole menu for carryout with your choice of turkey or ham with enough side dishes to cover the entire dining table, even after you’ve added that extra leaf to accommodate all the family. An assortment of pies and cakes are also available for a sweet ending to the meal.

For a more casual Thanksgiving meal out on the town, depend on all of Puckett’s locations and their all-you-can-eat spread served family-style at the table. The meal kicks off with house salad, barley soup and yeast rolls, followed by oven-roasted turkey, meatloaf and pulled pork. Traditional sides like sweet potato casserole, cornbread pudding and mashed potatoes hit the table at the same time as the mains, and they’ll keep refilling the bowls until you wave the white napkin, err, flag. Wave that flag before you fill up too much to enjoy pie for dessert, though.

The contemporary Southern restaurant at Holston House will offer a traditional Thanksgiving supper with a few modern twists starting at noon on Turkey Day. For $75 per person and $50 per child, diners will enjoy a starter, main course and dessert trio including items like cornmeal orange clover rolls with cardamom butter, a citrus and herb roasted turkey with sage gravy, mashed potatoes with boursin cheese and praline sweet potato souffle.