Your English lit major friend who graduated from Smith is coming to town and demanding a brunch date. Lou’s is the answer. Located in a craftsman cottage in East Nashville, Lou’s is a homey spot conducive to long-winded conversations about Proustian existentialism. The brunch menu here is interesting and a bit quirky in the best way possible. Exhibit A: the chocolate maple and buckwheat pancake with malt butter.

Adele’s is a long-time, all-you-can-eat brunch favorite that’s a few hundred steps up from what you might find at your typical continental buffet. They have a little something for everyone, making it just right for a big, loud group with cravings that are a bit all over the map. You’ll find different stations throughout the restaurant, from salads and cured meats (hello, Porter Road roast beef) to bagels, yogurts, and hearty mains like whole roasted fish and pulled pork.

Once a blacksmith shop that originally opened in 1886, Geist is a Germantown staple that briefly closed after the 2020 tornado devastated the neighborhood. But it’s back and better than ever—and that includes brunch. Bring some out-of-towners on a Sunday morning for banana bread french toast soaked in bourbon, cinnamon rolls topped with cream cheese icing, and a rich pork belly and short rib hash swimming in runny eggs.

Going to The Butter Milk Ranch is a bit like opening a box of chocolates—you never know what you’ll find behind the pastry case. So while you can (and should) head to this daytime spot for a mid-morning meal of soft scrambled eggs topped with trout roe, it would be a crime to not assemble a box of treats to bring to your table or take home (if they make it that long). On any given day, you might find red velvet croissants and oatmeal cookie sandwiches stuffed with brown butter frosting.

On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Suzy Wong hosts “Drag ‘n Brunch,” a two-hour cabaret-style extravaganza of rhinestones, spandex, lip-synching, and death drops so fierce they’ll make your head snap. You have the requisite bachelorette parties scattered throughout the room along with a few errant boyfriends, but everyone’s having a good time with a bacon-garnished bloody mary or mimosa. While the $29.99 ticket doesn’t include the booze, it does get you and your group a family-style meal.

Common Ground is the platonic ideal of the casual neighborhood hang that you’ll hope to become a regular at someday: simple, unpretentious, and never too busy to squeeze you in. The decor is pretty simple, with some large leather booths and plenty of two-tops, but you wouldn’t want anything to distract you from the crumbly carrot cake french toast or the tender short rib snuggling up to two yolky fried eggs.

If you want to have a quiet, in-depth conversation over brunch, Electric Jane is…not it. But if you’re in the mood to listen to some live music, you can come here to see an acoustically-perfect jam session (the sound system is one of the best in the city) in a swanky supper club. Slide right into one of the velvet banquettes, check out some of Nashville’s finest musicians, and get a breakfast board for the table. Order them with a large-format mimosa or rosé punch.

While this bright cafe is pretty casual, the thought behind the food and coffee drinks is most definitely not. Stay Golden has a variety of proprietary blends that are hand-selected by the owners from farms in top coffee destinations like Costa Rica, so you’re not finding a cup of joe like this anywhere in the city. After ordering at the counter, you’ll wait for your crispy yeasted waffles with vanilla mascarpone at one of the tables in the main dining room or their expanded back room.

Pinewood is the EGOT of restaurants—it can do a little bit of everything. Part-bowling alley, part-summer pool hang, part-cafe, and part-bar, this industrial-chic hang has all of your bases covered, including brunch. On any given weekend, you’ll find a mix of bachelorette parties, families with rowdy kids, and groups of hungover friends. On their tables: crispy tots topped with manchego, everything bagel sandwiches stuffed with scrambled eggs, and a variety of veggie-packed brunch bowls.

Think of Liberty Common as a super-sized French bistro. There’s sunlight streaming through massive windows onto whitewashed walls, powder blue booths and banquettes packed with Emily in Paris wannabes rehashing last night, and outdoor tables for optimal people-watching. But you’re still in Nashville, so naturally, there are fried chicken biscuits and southern-fried pickles on the brunch menu. Along with smashed avocado on toasted baguettes and croque madames on chewy sourdough.

With in-your-face floral wallpaper, oversized bird head mirror sculpture, and a collection of vintage plates used for all your brunch dishes, The Mockingbird has personality for days. That same energy spills over onto the brunch menu, where you can get a cocktail in a plastic pouch, breakfast tacos that measure a foot long, and bagel balls stuffed with gooey scallion cream cheese. It’s a brunch that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

You can’t talk about brunch in Nashville without mentioning Sinema. It’s one of the OG bottomless scenes, and the term “bottomless” doesn’t stop at the mimosas—it extends to all of the food on the menu. Every Saturday and Sunday from 10am-2pm, you’ll find a loud crowd getting into a family-style spread of all-you-can-inhale fried chicken, gravy-smothered biscuits, jalapeño grits, Fruity Pebbles french toast, and cinnamon roll pancakes.

Cafe Roze is kinda crunchy, kinda mellow, and preternaturally cool—basically, the Kate Hudson of the Nashville brunch scene. Leave the group hang for another spot: the space is small, but it’s just right for an intimate conversation with two or three friends over a quinoa-lentil bowl topped with turmeric-soaked eggs, a plate of stout waffles with lemon mascarpone spread, and an espresso martini or turmeric cooler.

If you order nothing else from this sunny Australian cafe, let it be the taro latte. It’s impossible to feel anything but joy while sipping on this sweet, frothy, lavender beverage. But you should also stick around for banana nut bread topped with espresso mascarpone. And that’s just to start. You can proceed to lose yourself in the brassicas salad bowl with charred broccoli, brussels sprouts, hummus, and a tingly chili sauce.