See Nashville's new restaurants in November: Fried chicken, oysters and rooftop views

In addition to November's Christmas pop-up bars and holiday markets, new restaurants have opened throughout Nashville, with more in store for 2024.

This includes everything from new locations of national chains in the Middle Tennessee area to ambitious new concepts from local restaurateurs. Several entertainment venues also opened, from a new Broadway bar to a mini-golf mega venue.

Here's everything you should know about the new restaurants that opened in November.

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Openings

Three new concepts from Amaranth Hospitality

Arguably the most exciting openings in November were the three restaurant and bar concepts from the same team behind Butchertown Hall at Amaranth Hospitality group.

Butchertown Hall and Liberty Common restaurateur Terry Raley, with Amaranth Hospitality Group, opened Mercado by Butchertown in November.

Mercado and its accompanying rooftop bar, Ramones Citrus Club, are both housed in the Queens mixed-use development in Wedgewood-Houston. The housing development is one of the newest in the Wedgewood-Houston area, and it's leading the neighborhood transformation charge with the new restaurants. Other popular spots nearby include Dozen Bakery and iggy's (an Italian restaurant).

Mercado features some Butchertown Hall menu favorites as well as its own original menu of tacos, tostadas, aguachile, oysters and ceviche with a raw bar in the middle of the room.

Ramones boasts rooftop views of Nashville's downtown and Fort Negley. Menu highlights include oysters from both coasts, margaritas and small seafood plates.

Finally, the hospitality group also opened Cherries in East Nashville. It's a classic bar with a laid-back vibe and elevated food cooked over live fire. The team behind Cherries also includes local developers Aaron Armstrong and Brett Diaz. Raley is also involved at the 150-seat bar on the booming Dickerson Pike.

Waldo's opens fifth Nashville area location

Waldo's Chicken & Beer expanded to Brentwood in November, marking the national chain's fifth Nashville area location. The fast casual restaurant operates existing locations in Germantown, Cool Springs, Franklin and West Nashville.

Fans of the restaurant love the scratch-made chicken, served either southern fried or rotisserie style. The chicken pairs with classic southern side dishes and beer from both local and domestic brewers.

A new kind of entertainment venue opened in The Gulch in November, featuring neon miniature golf, games, live entertainment and full-service bar. Puttshack is an adult entertainment concept with other locations in Chicago, Atlanta and Miami.

Puttshack brings mini golf to The Gulch

An entertainment venue centering miniature gold and live music opened late November in The Gulch. Puttshack, with existing locations in Chicago, Miami and Atlanta, features four different glowing nine-hole miniature golf courses, a full-service bar, live entertainment stage and food.

Other games include life-size beer pong, air hockey, roulette and Connect Four.

Broadway bars heat up with new option from Garth Brooks

You read that right. Another celebrity-affiliated bar and entertainment venue opened up on Broadway, this time with Garth Brooks as the face of the business. Brooks worked with Strategic Hospitality on the business, the group behind local Nashville favorites the Catbird Seat, Bastion, Locust, Henrietta Red and more.

Friends in Low Places opened on Black Friday in Nashville. Two floors of the bar are open, with the rest of the venue coming online in March 2024.

More restaurants on the horizon

Hattie B's new location

A hot chicken favorite for tourists and locals is planning another Nashville-area location, this time in Williamson County. Hattie B's will soon be available in The Factory at Franklin. Business owners Nick Bishop Sr. and Nick Bishop Jr. told The Tennessean the move is a return to their roots as a family and business.

The hot chicken restaurant also recently expanded its footprint at the original chicken shack location in Midtown, offering more indoor dining space to satisfy the near-constant long line of customers.

Brazilian restaurant coming in 2025

Fogo de Chão is a restaurant concept from Brazil that recently announced it would move in at Nashville Yards in 2025. The restaurant has added 22 new leases in the U.S. and abroad during 2023, including in Paramus, New Jersey; Providence, Rhode Island; Huntington Beach, California and Thousand Oaks, California.

The Brazilian steakhouse currently operates locations in Atlanta and New Orleans.

Chicken and waffles, anyone?

An all-day dining option featuring chicken and waffles is on the way to East Nashville and is scheduled to open in the next couple months. Home of Chicken and Waffles comes from Tonya and Darnell Johnson, who also operate a Chicago location of their business.

The duo told The Tennessean the growth they've seen in Nashville is "unbelievable" and they want to be a part of it.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville food: Waldo's, Puttshack, Broadway bar open in November