Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Boom.

Oh, my God.

What hurts?

Yeah!

Aww!

What if we just get Dino's, and go to Edgefield

and go to Robert's?

I mean, I'm not trying to screw...

The only thing is Edgefield closes at midnight.

You got to see... have you been to Robert's?

But Dino's definitely starter and that's it.

Saw the hotel, man.

Oh, I know.

Hold on. Time out.

Stop, stop, stop.

You've never hung in Nashville?

No.

You're gonna have a fun time.

I have no doubt.

Nashville, if you haven't been there

you probably know it as what?

A country music capital.

Grand Ole Opry.

And it is Music City.

And there is indeed plenty of country music,

both genuine and fake-ass.

But it's way more than that.

Nashville is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas

in all America.

People who grew up here will tell you the city

is in a state of perpetual, never-ending change,

and the rate at which things are changing is accelerating.

Eighty to a hundred new faces move to Nashville

every single day.

Some things are constants, others in flux.

Even with all the radical cultural shift,

this city still remains traditionally Southern

in its sensibility, for now, anyway.

Because Nashville could just as soon be called

Punk City or Rock City.

You are just as likely to find the word "artisanal"

hanging over the door of a sandwich shop,

or a cupcake shop, or the slow drip coffee laptop zone

as anywhere in the land of man buns

in the cities of the North.

So, of course, the chefs are coming.

Carpetbaggers seeking their fortunes,

attracted by a more affordable business environment

or just looking for a better quality of life.

Sons and daughters of the South

looking to honor the traditions they grew up with,

but with a more modern sensibility.

Here's four chefs who helped change things,

who were instrumental in starting something

truly new and innovative, but, well,

because of their efforts and their mentoring,

their early examples is becoming more

and more accepted practice.

Tyler Brown of Capitol Grille in Southall.

Tandy Wilson, the City House.

Our old friend, Sean Brock of Husk Nashville.

And the distinguished Pat Martin

of Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint.

Sundays are often spent here at Pat's house.

Friends, family kicking back and drinking beer,

and cooking over the fire pits.

All these chefs pride themselves in celebrating local,

seasonal Southern ingredients and close relationships

with farmers and food producers from the area.

Those are 90-day-aged rib eyes from nearby Bear Creek Farms

slowly cooking there.

And they're gonna be topped off with oyster mushrooms,

and bourbon soy, and some nice, runny eggs, and garlic.

Grits, well, of course.

These are called greasy beans, pressure canned in salt water

then heated up with pork fat so I'm not hating that

for sure.

There's also homemade ricotta served with

a cold-smoked sausage and roasted acorn squash.

You better get it, friend, because if you don't,

you're screwed, man.

Let's say everybody gets an egg.

- Everybody cool with that? - Oh, hell yeah.

So it's a must.

It doesn't really matter what I'm eating

if I'm eating outdoors.

Really?

I love eating outdoors.

Yeah, me too.

Oh, yeah, now we're talking.

Thank you.

So who started in the restaurant hospitality business

in Nashville first?

- He started... - October of '06.

'06.

We started in 2003.

'03.

What was it like in '03?

What did people wanna eat in Nashville in '03?

Holy cow.

Well, steak and potatoes.

- Steak house, man. - That's all it was.

Those were the only places to eat.

Which came first, the customer or the chef in this case?

Chef.

Chef showed up first.

How open to new shit?

That's the thing about Nashville.

Always?

People... yeah.

- 'Cause it's artistic. - People are very progressive.

It's such a creative... - It doesn't mean they know

what they're tasting or at that time they knew

what they were tasting, but they wanted it.

Who's here... who's from here originally?

I am.

That's it?

I think so.

So then we're all carpetbaggers at this table?

Yeah.

I mean, right?

Nashville's Lower Broadway or Music Row.

It's what Nashville's selling.

It's what the tourists want.

And the honky-tonks or McHonky-tonks

that line the strip now tend to lean more towards

cover bands than singer-songwriters.

On one hand, it employs a hell of a lot of musicians,

which is a good thing.

On the other hand... Whoo! Yeah!

This place is killer!

Yeah!

Stray from Lower Broadway, and you're bound to stumble

upon a genuine dive bar... Tastes like hipster.

And Nashville's got some real good ones.

So what is this place?

Dino's?

It's a burger joint that's been here for a long time.

A lot of country music history is in here.

A lot of Nashville history is in here.

It's a fun place where you see a lot of new

East Nashville life.

Order up.

I can't tell you how many burgers that I had in here

that I don't remember.

There's a picture of them on my phone.

"Oh, I had a burger at Dino's."

What... what is... what is this?

They call these hot fries.

So it's like the flavor of hot chicken but it's with fries

and Velveeta.

- Wow. - I think it's Velveeta. Yup.

It's like country poutine.

Exactly, man.

This is like redneck poutine.

It's good.

That's good.

Yeah.

Tony, what's cool about, like, these dive bars here

is there's so many studio musicians here.

If you're not a badass musician in this town,

you're not gonna make it.

So everywhere you go, you're hearing the most

incredible players you've ever seen anywhere in the world.

What music rules here still?

I mean, is it country music still?

Well, they've f'd up country music so bad on Music Row,

it's not even funny.

That's not country music. To me, it's not.

It's bullshit.

But there's also so much more than country, you know.

Oh, man, that's the thing that people don't realize

about Nashville is... it's not just country music.

If you're looking for iconic Nashville,

what's bone deep, local, even deeper

than the dive bar culture, you would be talking

about a thing called Meat and Three.

Meat and Three is a cafeteria type institution

offering, for a set price, the choice of meat

and three sides.

I've been thinking about this all day since I've...

Have you?

Oh, hell yeah.

It's the real deal.

Dandgure's in downtown Nashville

is just such an institution.

Doors open at 10:00 a.m.