Love and Pot Pies at The Café at Thistle Farms

Soon after I take a seat on this November afternoon, one of the staff members at The Café at Thistle Farms brings over their seasonal Chicken Pot Pie, a longtime customer favorite created by 2016 Thistle Farms Graduate and Prep Manager Miss Donna. It is a decadent, creamy mix of vegetables and slow-roasted chicken, topped with a perfectly golden puff pastry.

As good as the pot pie is, nothing can compare to the atmosphere of the cozy café (with its iconic canopy of tea cups). The laughter and bustle of busy staffers offering what they call “radical hospitality” makes this place truly shine.

For the past 10 years, The Café has introduced locals and visitors alike to the work of Thistle Farms, a Nashville nonprofit that’s been operating since 1997. The organization serves women who have survived human trafficking, exploitation and addiction by providing them with housing, healthcare, and employment through a two-year residential program. The Café is one of many ways the program is funded while providing job training and income for survivors. It opened in 2013 thanks to a team of staff and volunteers who lovingly pieced it together with scratch and dent kitchen equipment, wood flooring salvaged from a tobacco barn belonging to former Vice President Al Gore's father, and food by local chefs and catering partnerships. Though it's come a long way from its humble beginnings, there's still an undeniable sense of community and charm throughout the space.

The kitchen is, as you might expect, not massive but a cozy galley where the cooks are happily humming along. Together the three women on the line churn out dishes like the Spinach and Pear salad and the Morning Bowl, a popular breakfast option served all day featuring granola and honey made in Memphis by one of Thistle Farms’ sister organizations, Thistle & Bee.

The café is a unique setting for visitors to get a glimpse at what second chances can look like when you believe that love is the most powerful force for change in the world. Residents, graduates, volunteers and staff alike come together to find community while they serve, create and heal.

This is no doubt what makes each meal, made by hands that seek to spread love into the world, so memorable.