After a long day of site visits, walking what felt like one hundred miles, many naps, and snacks we finally made it to the end of the day for our last group dinner in Nashville. Our group dinner was held at Monell’s at the Manor. Monell’s at the Manor is an all-you-can-eat southern food restaurant where food like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, banana pudding, and more was brought out to your table until you simply could not eat anymore. This place also provided our group with some rich history as it was built in the 1890’s for a railroad tycoon and was then acquired by the city of Nashville where it was then leased to the current owner of Monell’s.
The drive from our Airbnb to Monell’s was about 20 minutes to then reach a spectacular view of the Manor on the expanding land. Our group was greeted with nothing but the best southern hospitality and a short wait for a table. One of the best things about the restaurant are the rules that they have. The best rule that was presented to us was having no cellphones at the table. Of course, I had to break that rule to snag a couple of photos of the beautiful experiences to share with all of y’all reading this! The table was ready for us in the blink of an eye and already had coleslaw, cucumber salad, banana pudding, sweet tea, lemonade, and water waiting for us. We were quickly given biscuits, cornbread, and gravy to munch on as we waited for the main course. The biscuits were warm and soft as they got to our table. As soon as you broke the bread in half you could see small crumbs and steam as you waited to take your first bite.
After making conversation and scarfing down some biscuits and corn bread, our food spread had arrived. The spread consisted of nothing but southern delights. Some of the biggest highlights included the fried chicken, mac and cheese, oven cooked chicken, fried porkchops, mashed potatoes, stuffing, fried apples, and Monell’s famous corn pudding.
Our waitress had told us that in order for everyone at the table to get everything on their plate we needed a system to give everyone a chance to grab something. This system was simply passing the plate to our left side as each person served themselves a hefty amount of food. Mouths were salivating and feet were tapping in excitement to start digging into our very own southern family feast. Our group tried our best to impress ourselves by finishing our feast, unfortunately, we were met with disappointment as many of us were so full we need a “halftime break” to keep going. More and more sides flowed in and out of the table until we finally tapped out from stuffing our stomachs with delicious food. The card we were given to go pay was super cute and allowed us to get up and pay whenever we felt we were done with our food.
After our meal we headed outside of the manor only to see a beautiful sunset and an amazing view of the greenery (along with what looked like a half-demolished building which we also enjoyed looking at). Sadly, we were also told that the Manor was going to be closing for good on the 21st of April as their lease was not going to be renewed. Save the Manor signs were posted along the entrance around the manor. This made us appreciate our experiences even more.
Everything about our final group dinner had all of us satisfied. Full bellies, awesome views, interesting history, great food, and even better people to enjoy the end of the day with.
Blog by Izak Sosa