For the first time in 38 years, Arnold's Country Kitchen offers dinner, alcohol

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A cherished Nashville meat-and-three is on a new schedule. Arnold's Country Kitchen is now serving dinner four nights a week and the restaurant has also added a bar.

The additions required changes to the menu as well as the physical layout of the restaurant that opened in 1983.

"We put the bar where the line was," explained Kahlil Arnold, owner. "We moved the line back and it's been entertaining. A lot of people come in here and they're like 'I can have a beer at Arnold's? This is one of the best things ever!'"

Dinner is being served Wednesday through Saturday. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. On Saturdays, the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

While there are new items on the dinner menu like BBQ shrimp and smoked chicken, the restaurant carried over some of the lunchtime favorites.

"We have to have our roast beef because if people come in here and roast beef is not here I see the look of disappointment on people's faces," Arnold said.

The owner said expanding to the evenings and putting alcohol on their menus was made possible by neighborly Nashvillians.

"We got the PPP and stuff like that, but it was awesome because we got some of the money from Food Network thanks to Maneet Chauhan, which huge thanks to that, and that helped pay for some of the bar. Changing something in your restaurant is not cheap, so took a little mortgage out of my house, put in a bar and then here we go," he said.

Local chef Maneet Chauhan gave Arnold's Country Kitchen $10,000 after winning a Food Network competition in April.

Arnold is happy that the customers are embracing the investments he's made in the business.

"I'm just very fortunate that the city is full of good people," he said.