The Catbird Seat

The story

The Catbird Seat in Nashville: Contemporary American Counter Dining

The Catbird Seat is a contemporary American restaurant at 700 8th Avenue South, 5th Floor, in Nashville, Tennessee. It earned a Michelin star in 2026, and its seasonal menus are built around a U-shaped counter.

Chefs and cooking style

Andy Doubrava and Tiffani Ortiz took over the kitchen in September 2024, the restaurant's sixth chef iteration since it opened in 2011. Before Nashville, the pair spent two years and 45,000 miles on the road with Slow Burn, a roving series that cooked in top kitchens across North America. Doubrava had earlier led Rustic Canyon in Los Angeles to its first Michelin star. Their menus center on sustainability, seasonality and food waste, and they change often.

The room

The dining room occupies an expanded space on the fifth floor of the Bill Voorhees Building. Guests sit at the counter and watch the kitchen work. AAA awarded the restaurant Five Diamond status in 2026, citing leading-edge cuisine, ingredients and preparation alongside extraordinary service and surroundings.