Thanks for checking out our website!  The Wild Cow serves vegetarian & vegan fare in a fun, casual environment in the heart of East Nashville.  Our charity of the month is Blood Water Mission, an organization that brings clean drinking water to impoverished areas in Africa.  For every dinner special sold in June, we’ll donate $1 to this wonderful organization!

We opened the Wild Cow to provide delicious, cruelty-free, healthy food to the people of Middle Tennessee. We will never support the inhumane and environmentally destructive factory farm system that dominates our agricultural economy, nor will we support corporations like Coke and Pepsi that thrive off of our addiction to sugar and artificial “food”. Nearly all of our food is purchased in it’s whole form, meaning we make almost all of our own sauces, dressings, soup stocks, etc. This means that we can name every ingredient in the food we serve!

It is our goal to bring people together for the love of good food in a fun & relaxed environment, while supporting our community and organizations that promote our philosophies.

Would you like to join our Friends With Benefits Club? If so, please ask for our sign-up sheet! We’ll send you an email with a link to the website where you can create your account and choose the charity you’d like to support (or you can just go to 3Fundingamerica.com/thewildcow). Your email address will not be used for any other purpose; no obnoxious marketing! What’s The Friends With Benefits Club, you ask? It’s our charity and customer loyalty program through 3Funding America! 5% of all your purchases at The Wild Cow automatically go to the charity you choose when you sign up. On top of that, for every $100 you spend here, You get a $10 credit with us. There’s no additional cost and no strings attached. It’s just our way of giving back to the community and thanking you for your continued support!

Meet the staff:

Melanie Cochran, co-owner

I am so excited about The Wild Cow! I am a yoga instructor and I am studying to be an Ayurvedic practicioner, so I’m very interested in natural and holistic health and wellness of the mind and body. For the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to have an awesome career as a producer/director of music documentaries. I have put that on hold in order to follow my life’s purpose of making the world a better place for animals, especially factory farm animals. One way I’m trying to accomplish this goal is to introduce people to the idea that vegan food can be awesome! My new husband, John (see below) introduced me to the love of cooking when we met (about 5 years ago) and since then, I have become an avid cook and enjoy the challenge of creating delicious, cruelty-free, healthy food (it’s actually not much of a challenge….the secret is simplicity and REAL food from the earth….that’s it.) I have plenty of restaurant experience, mostly serving and bartending.

I also enjoy vacations (who doesn’t?), explorations, making music, listening to music, traveling, hanging out with my dogs, the ocean, music history and acknowledging the innate emotional connections between humans and animals. I’m so lucky to have met a life partner who shares a love for animals, the environment and vegan cooking.

One of the things about The Wild Cow that I’m most excited about is that we will be regularly holding events and specials to raise awareness and funds for organizations that deal with animal welfare, environmental protection, safe & humane farming, and world hunger. The other thing that excites me about opening The Wild Cow is the opportunity to meet lots of new awesome people–some will be venturing into vegetarian food with a degree of skepticism and I’m looking forward to impressing them–others will be vegetarians/vegans who have probably been looking forward to having another vegetarian restaurant in town and I hope we fulfill your expectations! No matter who you are, we hope that The Wild Cow will become a place of community, good food, and good energy…and we look forward to getting to know you!

Nick Davis, manager & chef

I am 25 years old, and I have lived in and around Nashville all of my life. I currently attend MTSU majoring in English, and I hope to go to graduate school next year (if I can afford it!). I skateboard, read good books, hang out with my wife, Ashley, and enjoy all different kinds of music. I have been eating a vegan diet since 2004, and I chose to do so for health and ethical reasons. I love fresh food and try to support local businesses and farms as much as I can,
so I am really looking forward to working at The Wild Cow.

Karina Khan, baker

Karina Khan has a varied food background, her professional career spanning 14 years and three states.  Cooking her first full Thanksgiving dinner at age 14, she began cooking professionally at 16, and has been at it ever since.  She began removing meat from her diet at age 9, becoming fully vegan in 2008.  Karina specializes in vegan and raw vegan desserts, and world cuisine. Before arriving in Nashville in July 2009, she was the head vegan baker at Fiore’s Italian Bakery, Boston Massachusett’s premiere spot for vegan desserts.  While at Fiore’s, Karina co- hosted several successful vegan dessert parties with the Boston Vegetarian Society, and exhibited with Fiore’s at the 2008 Boston Vegetarian Food Festival.  Since coming to Nashville, she has found it fun to branch out into raw foods and desserts with the Wild Cow, and explore regional Southern cuisine and desserts.

Karina is also a professional world fusion bellydance performer and instructor, having co- owned and operated a dance studio in New Hampshire and being a popular performer and workshop teacher in New England before moving to Tennessee to be with her family.

“I believe that growing up as a person who didn’t eat meat inspired me to cook my own food and learn about the banquet of flavor that world cuisine has to offer. I view food as part art, part necessary nourishment, part higher calling.   I welcome every challenge that I meet, from allergies and food restrictions, to concocting and adjusting recipes, to finding new flavor combinations.  I am a “dyed in the wool” cook, and I will cook at work all day, and then go home and cook all night. I’m sure that I’m in the right place, because I am a chocoholic, and it seems that everyone else around here is too.  I love what I do, and it makes me happy to see people enjoy eating the desserts as much as I enjoyed making them. Blessings, and happy eating.”

Brandon Highfill

I spent the first 23 years of my life in Jacksonville, Florida before finding myself here in Nashville. I have bounced between vegetarianism and a pescetarian diet since 2005. Recently, I dropped fish all together. I spend most of my time with music, film, making music for films, and making music in general. I have a soft spot for animals and am extremely focused on health when it comes to feeding myself and others. I am unsure of what the Lord has for my life but I believe that moving to Nashville was definitely part of the plan. I am engaged to a rad little drummer girl who showed me I had more to live for than a false start. I found a great group of talented people to write and perform songs with under the name ” n o i “. I am insanely happy to be working at the Wild Cow with such memorable people.

Nathan Walters, kitchen supervisor

if the buffalo grinder had hands, i’d put a ring on it’s finger! seriously! i love working in a place where i can be creative with the taste, and aroma, and presentation of healthy food. i love working in a place where the general, unspoken rule of thumb between employees is taking care of others, before we take care of ourselves. i love working in a place full of people that care so much about our community, and making a difference in it. We are passionate about our convictions, we are active in our community, we are positive in our hopes, we are truly happy to make crazy food that helps people feel good. I grew up in richmond, va, and finding a job at the wild cow gave me a home in nashville. mmmk, enough of the bs… if anyone is still reading this sappy bio, here’s a deal… come in, and give gavin a sloppy wet kiss on the lips, and ill buy you a beer… whos up for a challenge eh??

Gavin Schriver

In November of 2009, a mysterious, spectral figure going by the alias “Gavin” appeared in Nashville to haunt the grimy backstreets of this Southern Gotham. His origins are still a source of whispered speculation, with theories ranging from witness relocation to extraterrestrial conspiracy to, um, Texas. Whatever the case, his constant pestering of Melanie and John for a job, under the pretense of buying a lot of soup, landed him a position at this most prestigious of culinary institutions, where he now slings tempeh with the best of them. His leisurely activities are rumored to include figuring out Patsy Kline covers on the autoharp, volunteering with Food Not Bombs, pretending to think about going back to school, offending delicate sensibilities, and moonlighting as a C.I.A. informant for the “Bureau of Really Weird Fringe-Culture Cat-Loving Persons.”

Callie Foley

Hey I’m Callie, I’m 20 years old and life time animal lover. I became aware of the henious conditions of factory farming in 5th grade and became vegetarian. Now 11 years later I am at my 1 year mark of being vegan. I study cosmotology at Paul Mitchell the School, Nashville and absolutely love it. My goal is to open a eco-friendly vegan salon and raise awareness of animal testing and make known that there are alternatives that are better for you and the creatures we share this planet with. Other then school I love reading, making jewelry, baking deserts, doodling and chilling with my friends.

Linda Fry

Matt McCord

Ryan Silver