Chili today is considered a simple everyday dish. Go back to the early 1900s, however, and chili was a novel oddity packed full of flavors new to most. So how did chili come to be part of Nashville’s everyday culinary fabric? The dish came from South America via a musicians’ commune in Italy and it was all because of Frank Varallo and his “World Famous Chile” that Nashville had a new entree.
Varallo’s Chili has been a Nashville staple for 117 years and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running restaurant in Tennessee. How did Frank Varallo become The Chili King?
As a youngster he practiced violin in the minstrel commune of Viggiano Italy. It was the late 1800s and he was training for his supposed destiny as a concert violinist. Fluent in seven languages and a violinist for posh cruise liners and even the entertainment at Teddy Rosevelt’s inauguration, his destination was America. He first landed in New York and worked for several years as an interpreter on Ellis Island before heading for a music career in Nashville.
Fate, however, had another idea. An unexpected hunting accident left him unable to play. Five thousand miles from home, distraught and alone, he struggled for a life line. He dusted off some old family recipes, added flavors from his South American hunting expeditions, and claimed his true destiny in the folklore of chili.
Chili was first chronicled in America in 1828 when San Antonio columnist J C Cooper described it as “a kind of hash with nearly as many peppers as there are pieces of meat all stewed together.” Cowpokes and Lavanderas (washer women) traveling with the Mexican army adopted “chili bricks” as quick trail meals and in doing so began the dissemination of what a Spanish priest had dubbed “Soup of the Devil.” The fame and acceptance for this new food spread far and wide, especially after a San Antonio chili stand appeared in the 1893 Chicago World Fair. It became apparent that chili was a hot commodity.
Armed with an Italian’s palate and revamped family recipes, Frank set up a chili cart in the back of the Fourth Avenue Climax Cafe and Saloon and it was an immediate success. By 1907 his following had grown so large that he opened the first Varallo’s Chile Parlor at 708 Broadway, the future home of Hume-Fog High School. He found himself in direct competition with the reigning chili champs Meldi and Vietti, and other parlors springing up all over Nashville. But Varallo’s had something the other restaurants did not: traditional Southern “meat and three” choices, breakfast, and a host of flavors perfected over generations, like chili three ways (chili, spaghetti, and tamales).
Vallaro’s current owner Bob Peabody.
One hundred and seventeen years later Varallo’s is the last chili parlor standing. The restaurant was owned and operated by the Varallo family until 2019 when it was sold to Bob Peabody. Over the century there were changes, well chronicled in other articles, but in 2024 Varallo’s Chili parlor is still serving up Varallo’s original chili recipe, one bowl at a time.
Photo: Lulu Burns-Keller
AUTHOR
Brad Blankenship is a retired integrative medicine doctor who has resided in Nashville for over 50 years. He, along with his wife Lulu Burns-Keller travel the US in search of new flavors. Together, they write, photograph and review for Beyondish in the Nashville area and beyond.
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