Originally known as the Harpeth Valley Tea Room, The Loveless Motel and Cafe first started serving its famous fried chicken and biscuits in 1951 when the property was purchased by Lon and Annie Loveless. They set up picnic tables in the front yard and sold fried chicken and biscuits from the front door to travelers driving up and down US Highway 100. Soon they converted the rooms of the early 1900′s home into a dining room and kitchen of the Loveless Cafe and enlarged the menu to include country hams that were cured, smoked and carved on the premises. Lon Loveless ran the motel and handled the hams while hungering crowds were drawn to Annie’s homemade preserves and from-scratch biscuits – one of few secret recipes that has remained unchanged to this day.
Cordell and Stella Maynard bought the Loveless Cafe and Motel from the Loveless family in 1959 following a decline in Lon Loveless’ health. The Maynards had worked at the Loveless prior to taking over the operations and maintained the friendly rural atmosphere and the reputation for outstanding Southern food, even as the outskirts of Nashville began to expand toward this country diner. Thankfully, Annie Loveless shared her biscuit recipe with the Maynards, enabling the Loveless Motel and Cafe to maintain its position as a true Tennessee tradition.
After fourteen years the Maynards sold the business (along with the now famous secret biscuit recipe) to Charles and Donna McCabe. The McCabes began operating the Loveless Cafe and Motel in 1973, assisted by their then 12-year-old son George, who helped by cleaning the motel rooms, mowing the grass and performing various other chores. George grew up with the Loveless and, in 1982, officially became a partner in the business. He expanded the services of the Loveless by creating Loveless Motel and Cafe’s “Hams & Jams” mail-order business and catalog. For the first time, this allowed our customers to take a little bit of Loveless home and to ship it off to a loved one halfway around the world.
With the introduction of interstate highways and Nashville’s increasing growth, the Loveless began to emphasize its cafe and mail order products, as it moved away from the motel business. Motel operations ceased in 1985 with the 14 units converted into the mail order business, storage and a special dining room to help meet the demands created by their world-famous reputation. Nevertheless, people were still waiting up to two hours for our famous fried chicken, country ham, biscuits and preserves.
By 2003 the nearly century-old building and the small 75-seat dining room could no longer keep up with demands that the reputation of the Loveless had created. The business (and that world-famous biscuit recipe) was sold once again to a few committed Nashville natives, who had decided to keep what was so valuable about this special little home, its history and its remarkable place in the community.
In February 2004 the cafe closed for the first time in more than fifty years to begin significant restorations. The five-month project included a new kitchen, new restrooms and additional seating. The two buildings containing the old motel rooms were converted to Hams & Jams Country Market and the Loveless Motel Shops.
Today the Loveless Cafe serves over 400,000 guests a year and makes between 4,000 to 7,000 biscuits a day – still using that same original secret recipe from Annie Loveless. If only Lon & Annie could see today what they started so long ago.