Nashville new restaurants: New spots feature tacos, Italian food and one boozy brunch
What does record-breaking snowfall, the James Beard Awards list of semifinalists and new Nashville restaurants have in common?
It all happened in the month of January.
During the first month of 2024, four Nashville businesses made the "long list" of the James Beard Awards, cinching semifinalist nods for these categories: Best New Restaurant, Outstanding Chef (Southeast) and Best Bakery.
Several local restaurants hunkered down through a week of winter-related shutdowns, and at least one new business braved the storm for its first day of service.
Read on for all the restaurant news you should know.
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Openings
Pie Town Tacos opens amid week of weather shutdowns
The second location of Pie Town Tacos stayed true to its scheduled opening date in January, despite inhibitive winter weather. The new 5 Points location opened Jan. 16 — in the middle of a hectic winter weather week.
The sidewalks were slick and the temperatures icy, but owners Jason and Lea Cockarell stuck to their opening schedule and welcomed customers inside, away from the chill.
"We decided to embrace the snow and stick with our planned grand opening day because operationally, we were ready, and our team felt safe and comfortable coming into work," Jason Crockarell said in an email to The Tennessean.
Popular sports bar opens in The Gulch
Neighbors opened its fourth sports bar location in The Gulch in January, bringing its happy hour deals, extensive bar food and laid-back atmosphere to a new Nashville neighborhood.
Neighbors, owned by Victoria and Zach Pillar, started in 2011 with the original Sylvan Park location. The Germantown location came next and the Franklin location of the bar followed. Sports lovers favor the bar as an ideal place to watch Titans games, grab a beer and enjoy late night food.
Hillsboro Village welcomes new nightlife spot
The second in a trio of restaurant concepts by Make A Play Hospitality opened in January, and the third is not far behind.
Make A Play, helmed by Robert Higgins and Joe Johnson, owns Supper Club on Belcourt, Bungalow10 and the forthcoming Jar Cocktail Club, all located in Hillsboro Village. Bungalow10 opened on Jan. 26 and offers menu items inspired by all corners of the globe — empanadas to spicy rigatoni.
The restaurant group also owns Supper Club on 2nd in Memphis. Daris Leatherwood was involved in the opening team for that restaurant and the chef was recently announced as a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in the Southeast for his work at Supper Club and several other new restaurants. Jar Cocktail Club in Nashville is set to open on Feb. 2.
Salento Italia opens in Donelson
After decades in the hospitality industry, the Darsinos family is embarking on a new journey.
Sam and Bill Darsinos, second generation restaurateurs, are on the final leg of a real estate development project in Donelson called Emery Commons. Their Italian comfort food restaurant is the most recent spot to open at the development.
Salento Italia opened Jan. 29 next to SweetMilk, a joint venture between Bill Darsinos and barbecue king Pat Martin. Toasted sub sandwich chain Cheba Hut opened on Jan. 30 at the development, which is also set to include a Scout's Barber Shop location and upscale tattoo shop.
Salento Italia features Italian food staples such as calamari, bruschetta, Caesar salads, pizza, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs and tiramisu. The brothers leaned into their Greek roots when designing the menu, as they also own a family business, Greko Greek Street Food.
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Hattie Jane's Creamery opens in Donelson
Hattie Jane's Creamery, a small-batch, handcrafted ice cream shop with Tennessee roots, opened its fourth Nashville-area location in January. The new Donelson outpost is located at 2418 Lebanon Pike.
The ice cream shop was founded in 2016 by Claire Crowell, who began her journey in the hospitality sector working for her family's restaurant, Puckett's, when she was just 12 years old. She named the ice cream shop after her daughter.
Hattie Jane's serves a rotating selection of seasonal ice cream flavors alongside a permanent cast of classics, including burnt salted caramel, minty chip and 'nana puddin.'
First Watch's downtown Nashville location
The national breakfast chain First Watch has opened its downtown Nashville location, with a location-exclusive menu of cocktails and brunch items. It marks the restaurant's tenth Nashville brunch spot.
The large breakfast restaurant seats 130 people and also features a private dining area available for reservations.
Large pizza chain opens Bellevue spot
Marco's Pizza opened at 7047 Hwy 70 S at the end of January. The Italian-style pizza franchise operates hundreds of locations across the country. It's Marco's tenth Nashville-area location.
Closings
Maneet Chauhan's Tansuo shutters
Maneet Chauhan's contemporary Chinese restaurant Tansuo held its last day of service Jan. 14 after seven years in business.
The celebrated chef and business owner also operates Chauhan Ale & Masala House and Mockingbird, both in Nashville. Her hospitality group also recently opened eet by Maneet at Disney Springs in Orlando.
"While our other concepts continue to thrive, Tansuo has not seen enough demand in the last few years to be sustainable and we've been operating with a highly reduced staff," Chauhan said in a statement about the closure.
"While we will miss Tansuo, we'd like to thank both our staff and our patrons over the years for all of their support."
Other news to know
A new event space from the owners of Nicky's Coal Fired will open in The Nations this spring, according to a news release.
The Maxwell Room will be a 1,600-square-foot private dining room and event space in the same building as Nicky's. It will accommodate up to 100 guests for a cocktail event and 80 people for a seated dinner.
"It’s important to us to offer a special experience that is accessible to a variety of budgets, and create events that are custom tailored to each guest," said co-owner Caroline Galzin. "We’ve been in The Nations for ten years, and we love being part of this community.”
A health-focused fast casual restaurant called Upbeet will open in The Gulch Feb. 9, according to a post to the restaurant's Instagram. The smoothie and grain bowl spot also operates a location in Atlanta.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New Nashville restaurants: Pie Town Tacos, cocktails at First Watch
