Ask ten Nashville visitors where Hattie B’s “really” started, and you’ll get at least three different answers — downtown, Broadway, Midtown. The confusion is understandable, since the brand now has more than a dozen locations across five states. But there’s one clear answer to where it all began, and it’s not on Broadway.
Hattie B’s original location is at 112 19th Ave S in Midtown Nashville, near Vanderbilt University. Father-and-son team Nick Bishop Jr. and Nick Bishop Sr. opened it on August 9, 2012, after testing hot chicken recipes at their existing Franklin restaurant. It’s still open today, and it’s still where the brand’s story is rooted.
How Hattie B’s Got Its Start
The Hattie B’s story doesn’t begin with a chicken shack — it begins with a cafeteria. Nick Bishop Sr. spent years as an executive at Morrison’s Cafeteria before moving into restaurant operations himself, and in 2007 he opened Bishop’s Meat & 3, an old-school cafeteria-style spot in Franklin, Tennessee, after a retirement attempt didn’t stick.
Around the same time, Nick Bishop Jr. stepped away from the music business in Nashville and joined his father behind the counter. That’s where the hot chicken idea took shape. Father and son started tinkering with their own spice blend, and by 2011 it was popular enough that hot chicken made up roughly 20% of Bishop’s Meat & 3’s orders. That was the signal they needed. >Nick Jr. told his father that if he really wanted to retire someday, they needed to think bigger — and that conversation became the pitch for a standalone hot chicken restaurant.
Quick takeaway: Hattie B’s wasn’t a startup chasing a food trend. It grew out of a working Franklin cafeteria, tested against real customer orders for a full year before the Bishops committed to it.
Where Is Hattie B’s Original Location, Exactly?
This is the part that trips people up. Hattie B’s opened its doors on Music Row in Midtown, not downtown on Broadway — but the brand later added a separate downtown restaurant, and some travel write-ups have conflated the two.
Here’s the clean version: the original restaurant opened just off Broadway in Midtown Nashville on August 9, 2012, at 112 19th Ave S, in what’s now the Music Row area near Vanderbilt. That original building is still serving chicken today under the same address. A downtown Hattie B’s location does exist — inside the Fifth + Broadway development — but it opened years later as an expansion location, not the founding shop.
If you’re trying to visit the actual first Hattie B’s, plug 112 19th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203 into your map, not a downtown Broadway address.
| Detail | Original Location |
|---|---|
| Address | 112 19th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203 |
| Neighborhood | Midtown / Music Row |
| Opened | August 9, 2012 |
| Nearby landmarks | Vanderbilt University, Centennial Park, The Parthenon |
| Status | Still operating |
Why It’s Called “Hattie B’s”
The name is a family tribute, not a marketing invention. The restaurant is named after three women in the Bishop family who all share the name Hattie. Two of them are specifically Hattie Melba Bishop, Nick Sr.’s mother, and Hattie Bright, the young daughter of Nick Jr., who also works in the family business. The “B” does double duty — it’s both the family surname and a nod to Bishop’s Meat & 3, the restaurant where the recipe was born.
That family-first branding runs through the whole company. Nick Sr.’s son-in-law, John Lassiter, serves as Hattie B’s executive chef, and the company has stayed privately held rather than franchised, deliberately controlling how fast it grows.
Nashville Hot Chicken Didn’t Start With Hattie B’s
It’s worth being upfront about this, because it’s a point competitors often skip or gloss over: Hattie B’s didn’t invent Nashville hot chicken — the dish’s roots go back nearly a century. Nick Bishop Jr. has been clear that his family didn’t originate the dish, but instead put their own spin on a 1930s staple of Nashville’s Black neighborhoods, credited to Thornton Prince of what’s now Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack.
That distinction matters for understanding the original location’s place in Nashville history. Hattie B’s original Midtown shop didn’t create hot chicken — it’s credited with helping take a Nashville neighborhood specialty and put it on the national and global map, arriving right as Nashville itself was becoming known internationally for more than country music.
What to Order at the Original Location
The menu at the original Midtown shop is the same core menu that built the brand, built around choice of cut and choice of heat.
Heat levels, from mildest to hottest:
- Southern (no heat)
- Mild
- Medium
- Hot!
- Damn Hot!!
- Shut the Cluck Up!!!
The spiciest tier uses both ghost peppers and habanero peppers, with a blend estimated at over 500,000 Scoville units — genuinely painful heat, not a marketing exaggeration.
Chicken comes as a half-bird, or in breast, wing, leg, and thigh combinations, served with sides like crinkle-cut fries, baked beans, creamy coleslaw, and red-skin potato salad. First-timers often underestimate the sandwich: it’s a chicken sandwich piled with coleslaw, comeback sauce, and pickles that’s genuinely hard to fit your mouth around. For dessert, banana pudding and peach cobbler are the two standards.
Quick takeaway: If it’s your first visit, order medium or hot rather than jumping straight to Damn Hot or Shut the Cluck Up — plenty of first-timers regret going too far too fast.
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Tips for Visiting the Original Hattie B’s
The Midtown location has earned a reputation, and not always a flattering one from locals who now consider it more of a tourist stop than a hidden gem — though most still admit the chicken holds up.
- Expect a line, especially at lunch and dinner on weekends; the original location is small and consistently busy.
- Check the ordering flow before you go — regulars know you can use a side entrance across from the main door to bypass some of the line for to-go orders.
- Parking is street parking in a dense Midtown block, so budget extra time.
- Pair the visit with a walk to Vanderbilt’s campus or Centennial Park, both a short walk from the restaurant.
- Go hungry — the half-bird plate with two sides is a lot of food, even before dessert.
How the Original Compares to Newer Locations
Hattie B’s has grown fast since 2012, but the growth has been deliberate rather than franchised. A second Nashville location opened in West Nashville in 2014, followed by Birmingham in June 2016, a third Nashville location in November 2017, and a Memphis location in April 2018. More recently, the brand opened a sixth Nashville-area shop in East Nashville on Gallatin Avenue, and now operates locations in Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Memphis in addition to multiple Nashville-area shops.
Every location runs the same core menu and heat-level system, so the food itself doesn’t really differ by location. What does differ is atmosphere and crowd: the original Midtown shop tends to be the busiest and most tourist-heavy, while newer locations like the airport or suburban Franklin shop are typically calmer and easier to get in and out of quickly.
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FAQ Section
Q: Where is Hattie B’s original location?
A: The original Hattie B’s is at 112 19th Ave S in Midtown Nashville, near Vanderbilt University. It opened on August 9, 2012, and is still operating at that same address today.
Q: Is Hattie B’s original location downtown or Midtown?
A: It’s Midtown, not downtown. A downtown Hattie B’s does exist inside the Fifth + Broadway development, but that opened later as an additional location, not the founding restaurant.
Q: Who founded Hattie B’s?
A: Father-and-son team Nick Bishop Sr. and Nick Bishop Jr. founded Hattie B’s, after developing their hot chicken recipe at Bishop’s Meat & 3, their existing cafeteria-style restaurant in Franklin, Tennessee.
Q: Why is it called Hattie B’s?
A: The name honors three women in the Bishop family named Hattie, including Nick Sr.’s mother, Hattie Melba Bishop, and Nick Jr.’s daughter, Hattie Bright.
Q: Did Hattie B’s invent Nashville hot chicken?
A: No. Nashville hot chicken dates back to the 1930s and is credited to Thornton Prince, whose family still runs Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. Hattie B’s popularized and helped nationalize the dish rather than inventing it.
Q: How many Hattie B’s locations are there now?
A: As of 2026, Hattie B’s operates more than a dozen locations across Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Nevada, and Illinois, with continued expansion in and around Nashville.
Q: What’s the spiciest option at Hattie B’s?
A: “Shut the Cluck Up” is the hottest tier, made with ghost peppers and habanero peppers and estimated at over 500,000 Scoville units.
Q: Is the original Hattie B’s worth visiting over a newer location?
A: The menu is identical everywhere, so it comes down to what you want: the original Midtown shop has the most history and atmosphere but also the longest lines, while newer locations tend to be quicker and quieter.
