Fish & Grits, Nashville

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.