Nashville's Coolest Breakfast Restaurant Is An Affordable Spot Famed For Its Celeb Clientele

If you can't afford to vacation like Taylor Swift, you can still eat like her at Pancake Pantry, a Nashville institution known as much for its star clientele as for its pancakes made from scratch. "My absolute favorite meal in Nashville is sweet-potato pancakes at Pancake Pantry," Swift famously shared with Bon Appétit magazine in 2012. Other celebs spotted at Pancake Pantry include Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Vince Gill, Blake Lively, and Ryan Reynolds, to name a few. 

Robert Baldwin and his family opened Pancake Pantry's original location in 1961 and ran the restaurant for its first 56 years in the Nashville neighborhood of Hillsboro Village, from 1961 until 2017, when current owner Crosby Keltner took over. Though under new ownership, Pancake Pantry continues to use the Baldwin family's secret original recipes to make fresh pancakes and syrup every day — its cinnamon cream syrup has everybody drooling on Instagram. In 2021, the restaurant added a convenient second location at the Hyatt Centric Hotel in downtown Nashville (across from the Country Music Hall of Fame). This newer spot is just 3 miles from the original location in Hillsboro Village, which is close to Vanderbilt University, and has almost exactly the same menu.

At Pancake Pantry, there's no guarantee you'll see a star scarfing a stack of pancakes, but you will get to taste the hype for yourself. The Hillsboro location's menu features almost two dozen types of pancakes, from Swift's sweet potato to smoky mountain buckwheat and peanut butter and chocolate chip. And if you can't make up your mind, don't flip out — simply order the sampler and try your top three choices. A creative kids menu also includes items like Polka Dot Pancakes and Bears in the Snow, three bear-shaped buttermilk pancakes with chocolate chip "fur."

Unfortunately, the one thing you can count on at Pancake Pantry is a line. Elizabeth Demolat of Seeing Tennessee says it's worth the wait for pancakes that deliver: "My go-to pancake order is blueberry pancakes, and these were possibly the best ones I've ever had. I have very high standards about what makes a good blueberry pancake, and they absolutely nailed it!" 

For the best chance of seeing stars, stick with the Pancake Pantry's OG location in Hillsboro Village. For more possible celebrity sightings, hit up Tennessee roadside gem Loveless Cafe for dinner just 30 minutes outside of downtown Nashville. Inside tip: Nashville's Pancake Pantry is not to be confused (but often is) with another Tennessee Pancake Pantry, in the family vacation destination of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, opened by Jim and June Gerding in 1960.