Nashville’s Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings, Spring 2024

Nashville’s culinary star is still firmly on the rise. An increasing number of big-name industry figures from around the country have set their sights on Music City, expanding with new restaurants and bars throughout town, primarily in downtown and Germantown. Add to that the homegrown businesses that aim to keep local flavor alive, and it can be hard to keep track of what to look forward to. To help, Eater Nashville breaks down the city’s most anticipated restaurants each season so diners can keep an eye on the hottest new openings in town.

For spring 2024, we’re tracking six exciting spots — a new vegetable-centered venture from the Butcher & Bee crew, a poolside stunner at a new East Nashville hotel, and a six-story bar, restaurant, and live music venue from Eric Church.

20First Eats & Drinks

1602 21st Avenue South, Hillsboro Village

Dalton Crow, who took over the hospitality group Just One More (Noble’s, Alley Pub, and Dalton’s Grill) from his late father Doug Crow, is launching his first concept as head of the company. The new venture has found a home in the former Kay Bob’s and H-Cues location in Hillsboro Village — a two-story restaurant and lounge similar to Noble’s in East Nashville. You’ll find several of the same dishes echoed at the new 20First Eats & Drinks, including a wide variety of quick grab-and-go dishes for students, patients, and workers in the surrounding area to more upscale dishes for dine-in customers. The second-floor bar, however, is 21 and over. 20First Eats & Drinks is slated to open in late May.

Back 40 Nashville

315 Deaderick Street, Suite 225, Downtown

Chef John Baez and entrepreneur Wayne Dice have zeroed in on downtown as the location for Back 40 an elevated Southern-style eatery slated to open this May. The restaurant’s name, a nod to Dice’s farming and ranching heritage, refers to the space workers would use to escape the day’s work and cut loose away from the main house. Back 40 aims to be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner service with a menu that blends Southern soul food with modern American cuisine. Dishes include cheddar biscuits with jalapeño sausage gravy, rosemary chicken and waffle sliders, pecan-crusted rainbow trout, and bacon-braised spinach.

Chief’s

200 Broadway, Downtown

Located in downtown Nashville, Chief’s is a six-story bar, restaurant, and live music venue from country artist and Grammy nominee Eric Church. The space will house a studio for live broadcasting — inclusive of Church’s Outsiders Radio SiriusXM channel — with the capability of hosting broadcasts by various media partners. Chief’s will also feature a restaurant partnership with James Beard Award-Winning pitmaster Rodney Scott, whose Whole Hog BBQ (part of the Pihakis Restaurant Group) will overlook downtown with its rooftop offering. Chief’s is set to open in late spring.

Cafe Yolan

4th Avenue South (located within the Joseph), Downtown

Expanding on its polished older sibling’s offerings, Cafe Yolan will offer lighter fare to the Joseph’s guests for both breakfast and lunch service. The bright, airy space will be anchored by an Italian espresso bar serving house-made pastries. For breakfast, guests will find challah French toast with bacon caramel and lemon-mascarpone crème, and hearty grain bowls filled with quinoa, roasted vegetables, and a poached egg. In the afternoon, the menu embraces the Mediterranean coastline with a compressed plum and prosciutto salad, mafaldine with pistachio pesto, and yellowfin tuna. The cafe is scheduled to open in April.

The Joseph Nashville

Etch at the Factory

230 Franklin Road, Franklin

Deb Paquette is bringing her long-time, globally-inspired restaurant Etch down south to Franklin with a new outpost at the Factory. Coming along for the ride: chef de cuisine Jess Lambert, executive pastry chef Megan Williams, and manager Dino Cocco, who will help execute the seasonal menu and warm hospitality approach the downtown restaurant is known for. Two menu staples will make their way to the Franklin location — the roasted cauliflower and the octopus and shrimp bruschetta. The new location in the Factory is tentatively slated for a May opening.

4Top Hospitality

4Top Hospitality

Fancypants

921 Dickerson Pike, East Nashville

Helmed by Jake Mogelson, Michael Shemtov, and Bryan Weaver (Butcher & Bee and Redheaded Stranger), East Nashville’s Fancypants reimagines the typical fine dining restaurant with a unique grid-style menu that features a seasonal tasting of dishes that can be mixed and matched. The menu will be vegetable and farm-driven, centered around a custom eight-foot wood-burning grill. Guests will find riffs on classic dishes like a turnip noodle lasagne with whipped feta and Funfetti cheesecake.

The space, which is located in a former Piggly Wiggly, features industrial-aged concrete, exposed trusses, and a bold color scheme of burgundy, emerald green, and gold, with funky 1970s-inspired patterns, raku pottery, and silkscreen prints illuminated by dozens of lamps and sconces. The restaurant is tentatively slated to open in June.

Playdate

2405 12th Avenue South, 12 South

Slated for a spring opening, Playdate aims to tap into your inner child with interactive components paired with food and boozy drinks. A 1920s white wood-paneled house in 12 South has been renovated for the project, which currently sports a colorful mural on the side promoting the new space. While details are tight, the restaurant is rumored to have an adult slide and an appropriately playful menu with dishes like ahi tuna tacos, pimento cheese crostini, candied bacon, poke bowls, and ice cream sandwiches.

Playdate

Playdate

Poolside at Drift

10 Interstate Drive, East Nashville

East Nashville has another hotel in its midst — Drift Nashville officially opened last week with Alexis Soler (Old Glory, Flamingo Bar, Falcon Coffee) heading up the food and beverage concepts on the property. In May, that will include Poolside at Drift, an al fresco bar experience situated next to the property’s pool with communal tables, terracotta two-tops, towering fireplaces, cabanas, and a seasonal menu of snacks and light cocktails geared for warmer weather. Poolside at Drift is also partnering with the Alebrije food truck to provide Mexican cuisine, including hand-made blue corn tortillas with both meat and vegetarian options.

Drift Nashville

Puckett’s Hendersonville

1039 Glenbrook Way, Hendersonville

Puckett’s is expanding yet again with a new location slated to open in Hendersonville on April 3. Plans for the newest location include a full-service dining room offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, regular live music, and the familiar rustic Puckett’s atmosphere. The extensive menu includes Southern comfort food, meat-and-three specials, barbecue, and homemade desserts.

Amy Whidby

Amy Whidby

SMOlicious

Various locations throughout Shelbyville

If you find yourself in Shelbyville after April 22 (the Nearest Green Distillery is always a worthy stop), keep an eye out for SMOlicious, a mobile eatery from country singer and songwriter SMO. After losing 200 pounds and officially dropping the “big” in “Big Smo,” the country rapper decided to share some of his plant-based diet via this vegan, oil-free, and gluten-free food truck whose specialties include soups, salads, smoothies, and sweets.

SMOlicious

Tio Fun

901 Columbia Avenue, Franklin

Right on the heels of opening their inaugural outpost in the Buchanan Arts District, Mikey Corona and Brian Riggenbach have announced a second location of Tio Fun, their fast-casual Mexican spot, slated to open in Franklin this May.

The duo taps into Corona’s Hispanic heritage with flour tortilla tacos, quesadillas, and frozen margaritas. The menu will also feature a few eyeball-arresting items including pochos (potato spirals piled with nacho toppings), foot-long Tijuana-inspired hot dogs, and Mikey’s Super Taco which requires two hands and a generous appetite to conquer. Tio Fun Mexican Munchies will be located in the former Izzy’s space in downtown Franklin.