Locals Swear These Haunted Restaurants In Tennessee Serve Spooky Suppers Worth The Trip
Tennessee serves up more than hot chicken and barbecue. Across the state, certain dining rooms come with side orders of the supernatural.
I’ve chased ghost stories through smoky kitchens and candlelit dining rooms, and let me tell you, nothing pairs with a perfect steak quite like a shiver down your spine.
These ten restaurants have earned their reputations one unexplained footstep at a time, and locals keep coming back for the food, the atmosphere, and maybe a brush with something they can’t quite explain.
1. Bridgeman’s Chophouse at The Read House – Chattanooga
Slip into the chandelier glow and white tablecloth hush, and you can almost hear the whisper: Room 311 is just upstairs. Dinners here feel classic – prime steaks, towers of chilled shellfish – while the hotel’s most famous story lingers like a draft at your ankles.
Annalisa Netherly, the guest who never quite checked out, has become part of the Read House folklore. Staff and visitors report unexplained cold spots, doors that open on their own, and an eerie presence on the third floor.
Book dinner, then a nightcap with your courage. The restaurant embraces its haunted heritage without letting it overshadow the menu.
2. Drusie & Darr by Jean-Georges at The Hermitage Hotel – Nashville
A glamorous dining room glows under vaulted arches, plates drift out fragrant and seasonal – and some guests swear a different presence drifts the corridors, too.
The Hermitage’s hauntings read like old Nashville gossip: a crying baby in a ninth-floor room, a lady in blue who prefers to be noticed.
Supper arrives refined, but the goosebumps feel home-cooked. I once lingered over dessert here and watched a server pause mid-step, staring at something I couldn’t see.
The menu changes with the seasons, but the stories stay consistent year-round.
3. Stationairy at Union Station Nashville Yards – Nashville
In the cathedral-like former train depot, brunch echoes under stained glass and dinner hums beneath the old clock tower. Then there’s Abigail, the wartime sweetheart many say still keeps a tragic promise on the tracks below.
Order a cocktail, watch the light pool across the stone – some stories ride in on the rails whether you invite them or not. The architecture alone makes this spot worth visiting, but the legend of Abigail adds an extra layer of intrigue.
Room 711 upstairs carries its own reputation for unexplained activity.
4. Finn’s Irish Restaurant & Tavern (Baker-Peters House) – Knoxville
Candles flicker against antebellum brick, fiddles warm the tavern, and the Baker family’s Civil War chapter rustles in the corners.
Staff and diners talk about cold spirals of air, mischievous music changes, and glassware that shifts on its own – like the house has ideas about the playlist.
Shepherd’s pie tastes even cozier when the walls remember. The building served as a field hospital during the war, which might explain some of the lingering energy.
5. Earnestine & Hazel’s – Memphis
Grease-perfumed Soul Burgers sizzle while the ancient jukebox sometimes sparks to life with no one touching it – just like the stories say it does.
The building ran a brothel upstairs once upon a time; now it serves late-night burgers to believers and skeptics alike, all of them watching the stairwell out of habit.
I’ve stood at that jukebox myself, watched it light up unprompted, and ordered another burger to steady my nerves. The second floor remains off-limits to most, but the energy seeps down anyway.
6. Hagy’s Catfish Hotel – Shiloh (Savannah)
On a bend of the Tennessee River near the battlefield, platters of hot catfish and hushpuppies arrive fast… and the old tale of Elmo, a river man pulled from these waters, still ripples through the dining room.
Windows fog from the fryers, a screen door snaps, and somewhere a story wades in beside you.
The proximity to Shiloh National Military Park adds historical weight to every meal. Locals claim Elmo’s presence is protective rather than menacing, watching over diners and staff alike.
7. Merchants – Nashville
Broadway’s black-and-white bistro buzzes on the first floor; upstairs, a more polished supper paces itself.
The 1892 building – with its past lives as hotel, casino, maybe worse – sneaks onto local ghost tours, which suits a place that wears history like a perfume.
Clink a glass and see if the room clinks back. Servers have reported phantom footsteps on the upper floors and doors that refuse to stay latched.
The multi-level layout means you can choose your own adventure, haunted or not.
8. The Bongo Java Roasting Co. – Belmont-Hillsboro, Nashville
Coffee hisses, pastries stack high, and regulars whisper about the building’s former tenant: a funeral home.
The vibe stays cheerful and artsy, but every so often, a chair scrapes across the floor when no one’s near it, or a cold pocket settles over a corner booth.
The staff has grown used to the oddities, treating them like an eccentric regular who never orders. Locals love the place for its quirky charm and solid menu, paranormal bonus included.
9. Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant – Leiper’s Fork
Wood floors creak under boot heels, live music fills the rafters, and the old grocery-turned-restaurant holds onto stories older than the song list.
Leiper’s Fork itself feels like a place time forgot, and Puckett’s fits right in, complete with reports of phantom footsteps and doors that swing open solo.
The menu serves up Southern staples – slow-smoked barbecue, skillet cornbread – and the atmosphere serves up a side of the unexplained. I’ve sat through a set here and felt the floorboards shudder when no one was moving.
10. Husk – Nashville
Farm-to-table plates rotate daily inside a restored Victorian mansion that locals say never quite emptied out.
Husk’s commitment to Southern ingredients is fierce, but so is the building’s commitment to its past – guests and staff mention cold drafts, unexplained noises, and the occasional feeling of being followed up the staircase.
The mansion’s architectural beauty makes every meal feel special, even before you factor in the paranormal seasoning. Chefs work with regional grains, heirloom vegetables, and heritage meats, while something unseen works the upper floors.