Favorite Food Trucks in Nashville

Ever heard of a bonut? Neither had we until we visited Biscuit Love, a cult-favorite breakfast spot in Nashville‘s happening Gulch neighborhood, where morning queues often exceed an hour on weekends. And bonuts—deep-fried biscuit dough slathered in lemon mascarpone and balanced on a sticky heap of blueberry compote—are just one of the many hits on the menu. The restaurant had its origins in 2012 as a food truck, where husband-and-wife team Karl and Sarah Worley’s made-from-scratch biscuits made them an overnight success. In January 2015, they opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant, where Karl mans the stoves and Sarah runs the front of the house, making sure patrons get their Southern classics while they’re hot. Be sure to order a bonut, along with the sweet-and-spicy Chronic Bacon, shrimp and grits, and the off-menu Nasty Princess, a biscuit topped with Nashville-style hot chicken, gravy, pickles, mustard, and honey.

Mas Tacos owner Teresa Mason helped kick off the modern food truck craze in Nashville from a 1970s Winnebago. Today, she runs her business out of a brick-and-mortar shop in Greenwood, but you can still occasionally find the truck on the road and at local events. Whether you visit the tiny, tastefully decorated restaurant or the Winnebago, look for the tortillas filled with pork, fried fish, or sweet potato and quinoa. And don’t miss the elote and homemade chicken tortilla soup, brightened by cherry tomatoes, avocado, and generous squeezes of lime.

This sprawl of green—132 acres’ worth—is an oasis for urbanites. The park’s centerpiece, the Nashville Parthenon, is a full-scale replica of the Grecian structure and a physical testimony to Nashville’s “Athens of the South” nickname. The park’s bandshell hosts Shakespeare in the Park and occasionally serves as the site of the popular Movies in the Park, but because this is Nashville, a free live music series called Musicians Corner dominates the summer programming. On Saturday afternoons from May through September, music lovers, families, and pets gather to enjoy an impressive lineup of musicians, as well as local food trucks and a beer garden. Recent performers have included Preservation Hall Jazz Band and local favorites Rayland Baxter, Cale Tyson, and Langhorne Slim.

It’s not like the fleet of mobile trucks around town, because this hot dog purveyor working out of a VW bus stays parked in the heart of East Nashville’s Five Points. The menu includes tofu dogs as well as beef and turkey with variations such as the Rebel Yelp (topped with Tennessee hot chow chow, red onion, mustard and jalapeno). It also includes good people watching if you take your dinner to the adjacent grassy patch.