Restaurants in Franklin

John "Chappy" Chapman watched his mother cook for their family while growing up in Alabama and New Orleans. Her techniques inspired him to open Chappy's Seafood Restaurant in 1984 and serve family-style creole cuisine. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, it destroyed his restaurant and his home. Chapman hauled the spirit of creole cuisine to Nashville, opening Chappy's on Church. At the new establishment, red beans and rice, jambalaya with andouille sausage, and crayfish étouffée sizzle with as much spice as ever.

"In New Orleans, we live to eat," says Chapman. Inside the restaurant, he's cultivated an Old World atmosphere ideal for dining slowly and relishing every bite. A refinished wooden bar brings its hand-carved reliefs all the way from Belgium, leaving a bar-shaped hole in Belgium's heart. Century-old stained-glass panels and matching lamps were salvaged from a cathedral in Indiana. Bright paintings adorn every wall but one, where Chapman has hung a photograph of the original Chappy's Seafood Restaurant, surrounded by oak trees in the sunlight.

Each day at Benton's Cafe, staffers unveil a different fresh deli wrap, as diners peruse the permanent menu of classic American sandwiches, salads, and breakfast dishes. The kitchen staff assembles tried-and-true deli cuisine with classic cold cuts, Waldorf chicken salad, and tuna salad. They adapt their sandwich-smithing finesse at breakfast as well, piling eggs, bacon, and sausage atop biscuits and english muffins. A line-up of elegant pastries inhabits a display case that glistens under dangling light fixtures, floor-to-ceiling windows, and the perma-white grin of unemployed game show hosts angling for a complimentary snack.

Before breakfast crowds arrive, chefs at Fish & Grits roll out crusts for key-lime pie and caramel cheesecake and spread icing onto chocolate cakes as they cool. Though diners may not crave sweets for hours, so much of the Southern-infused menu is made-to-order that the cooks need to prep as much as they can before servers start swarming into the kitchen with orders. For breakfast, they flip customized omelets, and for lunch they toss individual portions of creamy tuna or chicken salads. Tilapia fillets blacken to a flaky finish on the grill, while catfish sizzles to a golden brown in the deep fryer. To supplement the savory seafood, grits come in six flavors—one for each chamber of the human stomach.

Eleven varieties of meat, from flank steak and pork ribs to tender leg of lamb, sail off skewers at Bombasha Brazilian Steakhouse, recently dubbed by Urbanspoon as one of America’s most popular high-end restaurants. Speedy tableside service, courtesy of Brazilian gauchos, keeps plates piled high with each succulent slice of meat, which diners can pair with side dishes such as fried bananas and yucca. Fresh greens and smoked salmon from the salad bar prologue feasts, and homemade Brazilian desserts close the evening beside signature caipirinhas conjured from sugar-cane liquor, sugar, and zesty lime.

After honing his culinary chops at restaurants owned by Disney, Marriott, and the Wyndham Union Station hotel, chef Angelo launched a local bistro and steakhouse that makes dining feel like a vacation. Here, he stuffs whole racks of lamb with fresh basil, garlic, and feta cheese and sautés veal picatta in white wine and capers. To accommodate diners with dietary restrictions, they also prepare vegetarian and gluten-free items, such as a baked eggplant with zucchini, squash, organic spinach, and a tomato-based broth as light as cotton candy spun from summer sunbeams.

In addition to delivering grilled beef tenderloins and cowboy rib eyes, attentive servers uncork bottles of wine from around the world during dinner and special events such as tastings and private parties. Live music wafts through the restaurant Thursday–Saturday as the house pianist tickles the ivories from 6 p.m.–9 p.m.