A love letter, a thank you, and a heartbroken goodbye to one of Nashville's most important…read morerestaurants.
For those unfamiliar: Margot Cafe & Bar opened on June 5, 2001, and will close its doors exactly 25 years later on June 5, 2026. Chef Margot McCormack gave Nashville a full year's notice, so this isn't a sudden gut-punch closing; it's a chef going out on her own terms, after a quarter century of running a beloved restaurant. Bittersweet, but graceful. (Still not over the closing of sister restaurant & cozy brunch spot Marché, which shuttered in June 2020, an early local dining casualty during the pandemic.)
If you haven't read Steve Cavendish's excellent essay "Dish Network" (featured in Greetings from New Nashville, a collection of essays edited by another local, Steve Haruch), do yourself a favor and pick it up. It lays out exactly what Margot meant to this city: how her opening was the lightning rod that shifted Nashville's dining scene from a sea of chain restaurants to the chef- and ingredient-driven landscape that ultimately earned three local spots Michelin recognition in the inaugural South ceremony this fall.
I came in one last time for dinner and one last time for brunch this past week. Brunch has always been my favorite here, and sitting at the bar earlier this week was unlike any other meal I've had in Nashville. The seats around me were filled with locals, many wearing nostalgic Margot merch, who had come as solo diners for one last meal. Strangers were reminiscing with each other and with the staff about what this place has meant to them. It was the kind of communal, slightly teary, genuinely warm experience you can't manufacture; it only happens at a restaurant that has truly been part of a city's fabric for decades, and we're collectively grieving that loss.
A conversation topic that kept coming up across both of my visits is something I'm honestly still wrestling with: so many wonderful restaurants have opened in Nashville since Margot first paved the way, but very few are doing it the way Margot does. The menu truly changes every day. It's hyperlocal, ingredient-driven, based on whatever came in that morning. When I came in for brunch, the bartender told me to nix the strawberries listed on the printed menu in favor of farm-fresh blueberries because that was literally what had been brought in that morning. For dinner, I had a pappardelle (sourced from another excellent local spot: Mr. Aaron's Goods) with gigante beans in a garlicky, comforting sauce that I am genuinely still dreaming about almost a week later. Paired it with a dry pinot gris, on a rainy night, it was pure cozy magic. I can't tell you exactly what to order if you're lucky enough to snag one of the final reservations, because by the time you get there the menu will be different. But that's the whole point. That's the Margot ethos.
Margot has always been comfort food, friendship, and celebrating local to me. I'm heartbroken to see it end, but so, so grateful for the inimitable legacy Margot leaves behind for the Nashville restaurant scene to follow. Thank you, Chef Margot, for everything you've given this city.