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Jim Hagy doesn’t call it the Catfish Hotel. To him, it’s just “The Catfish,” as if there were no other place in the world that needed explaining.
The restaurant that his grandparents, Norvin and Dorothy, opened in 1938 on the banks of the Tennessee River in Shiloh has been serving fried catfish and hushpuppies for 87 years, making it one of the oldest family-owned restaurants in the country. But the Hagy story starts well before that, back in 1825, when Henry Hagy and his wife, Polly, docked their flatboat, laid claim to several acres of bottomland, and began building a farm and family. The restaurant still sits there today.
It’s been Hagy land for 200 years, and it’s produced multiple generations of hospitality professionals who have shaped Tennessee’s culinary scene.
The Origin Story
The building started as a log shack built next to the river, meant to store items for steamboat shipping. Then Union soldiers occupied it during the Battle of Shiloh. And by the early 1930s, Norvin Hagy was using it to entertain friends at cookouts, catfish and hushpuppies aplenty. Folks who arrived by river often spent the night when nightfall made it unsafe to travel back. Thus, the shack’s nickname, The Catfish Hotel, was born.
In 1938, Norvin threw a political campaign gathering for his friend Gordon Browning, who was running for his second term as governor. Browning tasted the catfish and hushpuppies and told Norvin he should open a restaurant. So he did, with help from his wife, Dorothy, and their sons, Jack and Bob.
The original structure burned in 1975, but the current building opened a year later, still on the same land.
Growing Up in the Kitchen
Jim Hagy’s first job was bussing tables in the upstairs dining room. He recalls carrying heavy tubs of dishes down a steep ramp into the kitchen. He’d wash them by hand, he dressed catfish, and, later, he learned to cook. As he got older, he greeted guests at the door.
“In the summers, after we finished dressing fish in the mornings, the dish room crew and the younger cooks would sometimes change into our blue jean cutoffs and slip down to the river for a swim,” Jim says. “We worked long days, often from 10 in the morning until 10 at night, and that cool water was about the closest thing we had to air conditioning in the kitchen.”
When he wasn’t working, he’d fish for striped bass and catfish from the bank right in front of the restaurant. It was a simple life and a simpler place, but it taught him everything he needed to know to embark on a career in hospitality.
“It’s the same spirit that built Chef’s Market,” Jim says. “We don’t just serve food or plan events. We try to create a place where people feel welcome and remembered.”
His grandfather, grandmother, father, and uncle believed in doing things the right way: if someone drove all the way out to Shiloh to eat with them, they deserved something special, homemade, high-quality. Today, if you venture to Goodlettsville or perhaps bring Chef’s Market catering to your event, the virtues remain the same.
Building Chef’s Market
Jim brought his experience to Goodlettsville, a small town outside Nashville, where he opened Chef’s Market decades later. The food is different (the menus have grown more sophisticated over the years), but the soul of the place remains the same.
“The Catfish Hotel was never just about catfish,” Jim says. “It was about people gathering around a table, families who drove for miles down country roads to eat together, birthdays were celebrated, stories were told, and memories were made over platters of fish and baskets of hushpuppies.”
At Chef’s Market, those memories are being made daily. They host weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and quiet lunches made for community and connection.
As a nod to his heritage, fried catfish and hushpuppies—the flavors of the river and Jim’s childhood—are on the menu every Friday night at Chef’s Market. And over the years, as they discovered new favorites at Chef’s Market, a few of those dishes have made their way back home to Shiloh.
The Fourth Generation
What makes the story especially meaningful now is that the family’s fourth generation, John Hagy, is stepping into leadership at the Catfish Hotel. Seeing that happen reminds Jim that this story didn’t start with him, and it won’t end with him.
“My hope is that the values that began in that small riverside restaurant will continue long after I’m gone,” he says.
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