Monell’s At the Manor

Monell’s Restaurant found me one day in April 1995, when I was driving around lost. The house was zoned commercial in a residential, historic neighborhood that had seen better days. Meeting with a realtor, I walked through the door and knew I would make it a restaurant. The first smell was Lily of the Valley. The next was of old clothes and gasoline, as a rock band was renting the home and every room was filled with clothes, band equipment, dirty dishes and a disassembled motorcycle engine. It was a realtor’s nightmare, but it was a dream about to come true for me.

Thirty days later, sitting across the closing table from the current owner, Mr.Winston, I asked about the Lily of the Valley smell, which was present during every visit I made to the property. Ms. Lilly Winston had died in the house on Christmas Day, 10 years previous. She was a fabulous cook, had eight children of her own, and adopted four more. Everyone came to Miss Lily’s to eat. Funny thing was I knew I would make my restaurant an old-fashioned, family-style boarding house restaurant. A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen. It was at this point I knew this was going to be bigger than me- which was a good thing, since I was unemployed, and my financing consisted of five gold credit cards and no savings.

Monell’s was born on Thanksgiving Day, 1995. Had I opened one day later, I would have been bankrupt. We served 80 people our first day. Where those people came from, I do not know; we had not advertised. To this day, Thanksgiving remains our busiest day of the year; we serve over 650 people in our cozy 72-seat restaurant. How thankful we were then! And we still are, to this day.

The name Monell’s came from my business partner, Bill Monell, who hails from Kentucky. Bill stayed at the restaurant for two years before deciding to move on. The restaurant has been mine ever since. Now with multiple locations, Monell’s has become a Nashville institution (and yes, I have the t-shirt to show for it).