Nashville Celebs Put the Country Back in Cooking

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Nov 4th 2009 @ 11:00AM

Photo: d.baron media relations.

Years after the nation's last Kenny Rogers' Roasters served its final bird, country music stars are again making a play for their fans' food dollars.

Perhaps because so many of them hail from the South, where good cooking is considered sacred, country celebs have long been inordinately fond of the eponymous restaurant ventures. Once as critical to an Opry member's cred as a Nudie suit, signature restaurants have lately been on the wane, with once-proud institutions such as Twitty Burger and Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken going the way of the cassette tape. But a series of openings set for this fall suggests country musicians may still harbor culinary ambitions.

White-hatted crooner Alan Jackson doesn't have an endeavor of his own, but showed up this week at a Nashville area Cracker Barrel to introduce a new line of spices, clothing and home goods, including an Alan Jackson rocking chair. According to Jackson's spokeswoman Nicole Dona, the singer likes to take his daughters to the homestyle chain.

"The family will still stop now and then when they are on their way back from the lake," she writes in a e-mail to Slashfood. "He loves the breakfast and also the meatloaf sandwich."

While Jackson's partnership with Cracker Barrel didn't penetrate the kitchen, Country Crossing's food and beverage director John Makin says John Anderson, Darryl Worley and Lorrie Morgan were all involved in developing the menus for their respective eateries (John Anderson's Cafeteria, Darryl Worley's Worley Bird Saloon, Lorrie Morgan's Hot Chicken), slated to open next month at the Dothan, Ala., entertainment complex.

"They've enjoyed the food they've had in their lives and want to share it," Makin says. "Being in the entertainment business, they're drawn to putting on a show."

Anderson has created a 24-hour cafeteria featuring Southern staples such as grits, greens and barbecue. Morgan, a devotee whose Hotchicken.com restaurant chain floundered, is opening an all-chicken restaurant, while Worley's bar will serve "different dishes from his trips around the world supporting our troops," Makin explains.

Makin believes country stars want to treat their fans to the same sort of dining experiences they cherished when growing up. "It's a big social event," Makin says. "In the Southeast, it's still part of the culture for families to sit down and eat together."

Filed Under: Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants
Tags: AlanJackson, country music, CountryMusic, Cracker Barrel, CrackerBarrel, DarrylWorley, Dothan, john anderson, JohnAnderson, KennyRogers, Lorrie Morgan, LorrieMorgan, nashville, southern food, southern states, SouthernFood