‘I’m going to eat myself into a coma today’: Longtime Hermitage Cafe patrons enjoy last plates at the closing diner

Nashville’s iconic Hermitage Cafe has served its last plates of all-day breakfast and late-night fare. 

The iconic diner closed its doors Halloween night after more than 30 years. 

Lance Taylor was one of the patrons who’s been going almost as many years as it’s been open, and came out to pay his respects Sunday.  

“I ordered the fried bologna sandwich and pancakes and a sausage sandwich, and I think I’m going to go back and get the country fried steak too. I got to stock up because this is my last day.”

After the cafe announced its surprise closure, Taylor has spent the last couple months trying to order every item on the menu.  

“Now I’m trying everything that I never actually thought about getting before,” he said on their final day. “I just discovered their pancakes like a month ago!”

Taylor had been a regular since the ’90s, as a minor sneaking into the downtown clubs close to last call when bouncers stopped checking IDs. At the time, he says, Hermitage Cafe was the only place to go sober up afterward other than Krystal’s. 

Google

Like Lance Taylor, a recent Google review for Hermitage Cafe mentions a connection with the old General Hospital as well.

But his first memory of the cafe is from a bit further back. Taylor recalls his mom bringing him there when he was 10 years old to “calm him down” after a visit to the old General Hospital across the street. 

“I’m standing out in front of the Hermitage Cafe for the very last time after 25 years of enjoying it,” he said. “And it’s hurting my heart, but I’m going to eat myself into a coma today.”

Tasha Lemley WPLN News

Lance Taylor says he’s a fan of everything that was on Hermitage Cafe’s menu, except the grilled pork chops, but he typically got the same thing every time — the sausage breakfast.

Sherri Taylor Callahan, daughter of the original owners, explained in a post on the cafe’s Facebook page earlier this month that the location was sold without their knowledge and they were not given the option to buy the property. 

“We did not sell out,” she wrote, along with thanks to all of the cafe’s many patrons over the years.

The cafe got a revamp not so long ago for a 2015 episode of the Food Network’s “American Diner Revival” and over the years, has been on camera plenty, like in the music video for Sugarland’s debut single “Baby Girl” in 2004.

Later, the cafe was the set for Rascal Flatts’ “Yours If You Want It” music video in 2017, and was shown in the video for Jack White’s “Corporation” the following year.

In the lead up to the final service Halloween night, the cafe’s Facebook page shared other celebrity connections.

The diner’s closing means one less place on Nashville’s list of late-night options — and for natives, there’s the added layer of losing yet another familiar face.

Plans for the property have not yet been announced by the new owners, but Callahan wrote in that initial Facebook post that Hermitage Cafe would not be part of it.