Some sandwiches inspire loyalty. Others inspire something closer to evangelism.
The latter category includes a collard green melt, locally made pretzel sandwiches and a few old-school deli favorites that have drawn hundreds of glowing customer reviews online.
The restaurants behind them are wildly different. Some are new arrivals with considerable hype, while others have been feeding Nashville for years. What they share besides attention to detail is overwhelmingly enthusiastic attention from customers.
These are some of the Nashville sandwich spots people can't seem to stop talking about.
Turkey and the Wolf Icehouse
Turkey and the Wolf arrived in Nashville with considerably more name recognition than the average sandwich shop.
Chef Mason Hereford opened the original Turkey
and the Wolf in New Orleans in 2016, where it swiftly became a community darling. Its Nashville outpost brought the signature collard green melt to Meridian Street.
With slow-cooked collards, Swiss and a pickled cherry pepper Russian dressing on toasted marble rye, it's messy and just right. Then there's the fried bologna sandwich, another Turkey and the Wolf signature and proof that even a lunch-box staple can become an object of considerable attention. www.turkeyandthewolficehouse.com
Fatbelly Pretzel Bakery & Deli
Fatbelly has nearly a five-star Google rating, and the East Nashville bakery and deli has an obvious advantage: It makes its own bread. Pretzel buns, Dutch crunch hoagie rolls and focaccia provide the foundation for a rotating selection of substantial sandwiches including a fantastic muffuletta that goes the Tennessee route with smoked bologna joining the usual pork-product suspects.
The KDub, a piled-high turkey, bacon, Swiss and chip combo is also among the sandwiches that pop up repeatedly in the most glowing reviews, along with a Cuban with all the proper ingredients on proper bread. It is, clearly, proper. fatbellypretzel.com
Bill's Sandwich Palace
Choosing the most hyped sandwich at Bill's Sandwich Palace is complicated by the fact that Bill's keeps changing the sandwiches. That's part of its appeal.
The East Nashville shop has built a following around an ever-changing menu of creative, frequently excessive offerings including the turkey-and-chip-filled Rachel Green and the French dip-style Tribute to Tommy. Rather than maintaining a roster of untouchable classics, Bill's gives customers a reason to keep checking the menu, so open up the shop's Insta account and pine over the combos you've missed and get excited about what's to come.
billssandwichpalace.com
Music City Sandwich Co.
East Tennessee-style steamed sandwiches have their own devoted following, and Music City Sandwich Co. has brought the regional specialty to Inglewood with killer reviews.
Customers build their own sandwiches from a choice of breads, meats, cheeses, toppings and condiments before the whole thing goes into a Fresh-O-Matic steamer. The heat softens the bread, warms the meat and melts the cheese, producing the soft, warm sandwich familiar to anyone raised on East Tennessee shops like Nixon's Deli.
Owner Jason Eskridge has earned particular praise for the Italian, pumpernickel bread and rotating specials, including a Reuben. But the real draw is the steaming itself, which turns an otherwise familiar deli sandwich into something Nashville doesn't see all too often. www.musiccitysandwich.com
All'Antico Vinaio
All'Antico Vinaio didn't have to build its reputation in Nashville. The sandwich shop began in Florence, Italy, before expanding internationally and into U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Its arrival in Nashville brought the city a taste of the enormous schiacciata sandwiches that made the original famous. Expect crisp, airy Tuscan flatbread, split and stuffed with Italian meats and cheeses, vegetables and rich spreads including truffle cream. Try: the La Paradiso with mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio. www.allanticovinaiousa.com
615 Deli
The numbers make 615 Deli difficult to overlook. It doesn't carry the international reputation of All'Antico Vinaio or the national food-media pedigree of Turkey and the Wolf, but the neighborhood deli has earned a 4.8-star Google rating across hundreds of reviews.
The menu sprawls from breakfast through burgers, tacos and sandwiches, but customers regularly call out sandwiches including the Reuben, chopped cheese and the Milanesa with fried chicken breast, bacon, jalapeño and pepper Jack on ciabatta. www.instagram.com/615.deli
Frankies Nashville
The team behind Brooklyn's Frankies Spuntino now serves sandwiches out of the pizzeria, including a substantial Italian hero and meatball parm, along with turkey and avocado, fig and goat cheese, and mozzarella and tomato.
That Italian is an old-school classic. Piled high with proper cold cuts, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, shaved onions and pepperoncinis, it scratches that sub sandwich itch. www.frankiesnashville.com
Egg Drip
This Korean sandwich spot makes a case for including breakfast in any discussion of Nashville's most enthusiastically recommended sandwiches.
Egg Drip pairs soft eggs with proteins like bulgogi beef, chopped kimchi and sauces like truffle aioli and okonomiyaki sauce to push the envelope on what a breakfast sandwich can be. The Oh My Gogi and Playing Dirty are among the sandwiches pulling in some of the greatest customer enthusiasm. www.eggdrip.co
East Side Banh Mi
This sandwich shop has become a local standard since chefs Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton opened it in 2020. The formula starts with house-made baguettes, then layers in pickled vegetables, herbs and fillings such as black-pepper caramel pork and lemongrass chicken. The result hits the combination that makes banh mi so satisfying: crisp bread, rich meat, fresh herbs, sharp pickles, heat and acid in the same bite. www.eastsidebanhmi.com
Little Hats Market
This reliable Germantown destination for Italian American sandwiches offers plenty of meat, including prosciutto, mortadella and chicken parm, but one of the most frequently praised sandwiches is vegetarian. The eggplant parm piles crisp eggplant cutlets with house marinara and mozzarella onto an Italian roll for a sandwich that requires both hands and a reasonable tolerance for mess. The mortadella muffuletta and chicken parm have plenty of advocates, too. www.littlehatsmarket.com
Mitchell Delicatessen
This Riverside Village deli has been making sandwiches since 2008, pulling in nearly 1,800 Google reviews for a combined 4.7-star rating. That longevity matters in a category increasingly crowded with new arrivals. The turkey avocado remains one of Mitchell's best-known sandwiches, while its Asian flank steak with giardiniera, provolone and mayo remains a huge fan favorite.
mitchelldeli.com
Ingrassia & Sons Italian Deli
This Wedgewood-Houston deli has attracted attention quickly for its in-house-made focaccia and seeded hero rolls filled with quality Italian meats, cheeses and other deli staples. Customer reviews frequently make comparisons to East Coast Italian delis, particularly notable praise in a city full of transplants with strong opinions about what an Italian sandwich is supposed to be. The porchetta with salsa verde, arugula, pickled onions on focaccia is a stunner and worth a visit alone. Grab a cup of tiramisu cold brew before you leave.
ingrassiaandsons.wordpress.com
Bare Bones Butcher
This is primarily a whole-animal butcher shop, which gives it a useful advantage when the subject turns to meat-heavy sandwiches. There's braised beef in the po' boys, house-made pastrami on marble rye and house-made mortadella in the muffaletta.
It's the Cubano that's become one of the shop's most frequently recommended items, with its roasted mojo pork, braised ham hock, garlic mojo sauce and yellow mustard. www.barebonesbutcher.com
Soy Cubano
Speaking of proper Cuban sandwiches, Soy Cubano nails the classic construction: mojo pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and yellow mustard on proper Cuban bread, pressed until the exterior crisps and the cheese melts.
Soy Cubano's version has helped the East Nashville restaurant earn high Google ratings with some of its most enthusiastic endorsements coming from diners familiar with Cuban sandwiches in South Florida.
eatsoycubano.com
Rae's Sandwich Shoppe
Not all sandwich hype happens on social media. Rae's Sandwich Shoppe has spent years building a following among downtown workers who know its limited weekday lunch hours and menu of hot and cold sandwiches. The shop maintains a 4.8-star Google rating, with its Turkey Reuben earning particularly vocal advocates. The Beastie Girl, with its grilled beef tenderloin, mushroom sauce and cheddar cheese, and the hot Monte Cristo, both have plenty of fans. raessandwichshoppe.com
Kisser
This Japanese comfort-food spot has earned plenty of national attention, but its chicken katsu sandwich remains one of the most popular reasons to line up for lunch. It piles crisp fried chicken on in-house milk bread for a seemingly simple combination that hinges on getting every component right: crunchy chicken, soft bread, fresh cabbage slaw and the sweet-savory punch of tonkatsu sauce. The egg salad sando has plenty of devotees, too, but the chicken katsu is the one to beat. www.kisserrestaurant.com
Spicy Boy's
For a proper New Orleans po'boy, the bread matters as much as what's inside it. Spicy Boy's imports Leidenheimer French bread from the New Orleans bakery that's been making it since the 19th century, then loads it with Louisiana staples including fried Gulf shrimp and catfish. The roast beef version is particularly messy, with tender beef and debris gravy soaking into that crisp, airy loaf. The shrimp po'boy has plenty of its own fans, including Louisiana transplants who praise the restaurant for getting the bread and construction right. spicyboysnashville.com
Mackensy Lunsford is the senior dining reporter for The Tennessean. Reach her at mlunsford@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: These sandwiches are on Nashville's must-eat list
