Nashville Food Blog

There haven't ever been any around here. I think part of it may be the previous prevalence of Shoney's(?). There is one in Cullman, AL. On a lark a few months ago, I stopped in while I was on the road for work and tried their new burger (I think they call it the "Better Burger"), and I was shocked to find that it was pretty darn good. Good fries too, they were a combo of steak fries with a sort of crinkle cut on the outside.

There is one near Metro Center.

Maybe I'm old, or maybe I was just lucky, but my Denny's experiences are all remembered fondly, beginning in the '60s. Who else had ever heard of Kona coffee back then, let alone served it, and at 35 cents? Their Googie style architecture was absolutely thrilling - at night you could almost believe the whole building would take off into orbit. Far from being the ubiquitous basic fare you found in any local coffee shop of the day, they dared you with exotic items like their French Dip sandwiches and British Burgers, and they always served bona fide Roquefort dressing instead of the bland, pedestrian Bleu cheese everyone else had. There weren't many places East of the Arizona state line back then that served hash brown potatoes in the shredded style, let alone offered grits as well. It took Waffle House a hundred years to realize the value in offering biscuits, and they had them all along.

They get a lot of flack for the late 70s/80s promotions that began with the Grand Slam and Moons over My Hammy, and I've heard my share of other people's bad experiences, but I never had a bad meal there, let alone a bad time. I can't count how many of them I was in, let alone in how many states. They just became too corporate - JoJo's, El Pollo Loco, et al were all part of the emerging conglomerate - and seemed to fall apart internally, and it's a shame. Maybe Nashville just isn't a coffee shop venue, but if there's a counter with a stool and a cup of Kona coffee and a familiar menu waiting for me, I'd go. I don't need no stinking free meal.

At least, unlike Shoney's who has permanently lost their way, Denny's remembers what they're about. Googie revival, anyone ?

The last three local ones I can remember were the one at Metro Center, one on Murfreesboro Rd. near the I-440 exit and one on Briley Pkwy at Elm Hill Pike. I have eaten at them all, and I have no idea when they moved on to the great greasy griddle in the sky.

I know the ones in California at least served beer, so that was a plus.

There is one in Bowling Green!

Jack, one of the boneheaded moves they made in the 90s that IMO have led to their demise was when the new CEO decided, hey, our people should be home on Christmas like everyone else. Never mind that those people signed up for work on that day, he decided - all that "Always open" signage be damned - they would now close on Christmas.

And then he had to approve the most ridiculous expense times how many facilities - Denny's restaurants didn't have door locks. Why should they? They never closed. That's how you know the people in charge don't get the most fundamental aspects about their actual products...