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Food for thought City sees growth in alternative options for restaurant spaces BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS
t the end of 2020, local commercial real estate investor and developer Tyler Cauble announced plans to redevelop a former East Nashville car wash property into a food-and-beverage business to open in mid-2021. In normal times, the details Cauble offered would have been noteworthy. But with COVID-19 concerns far from settled, the announcement assumed a greater significance than otherwise. To be called The Wash, the business will offer to-go-only walk-up spaces in the bays of the car wash structure at 1101 McKennie Ave. and fronting Gallatin Avenue. The business is being pitched as providing alternative options to chefs and restaurant owners who may not want to (or be able to) invest heavily in a permanent, conventional space. As such, Cauble says the concept operators can incubate their businesses via, if they choose, short-term leases. For example, the owner of a restaurant located in West Nashville can — as a test of sorts — offer a modified version of that restaurant (or some other concept) at The Wash to determine if the business will be successful on the city’s east side in a more conventional space. On-site work was to have begun by publication time, with a mid-summer completion eyed. The Wash — a cost to undertake the project is not being disclosed — is the latest in “alternative food spaces” becoming more common in Nashville. The smallish Peabody Corner Marketplace in SoBro was one of the early adopters of the concept and the large food hall at downtown’s new Fifth + Broadway development being a very prominent new one.
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SPRING 2021 | NASHVILLEPOST.COM
“Food courts offer a wide variety of options for patrons, which adds to the dining experience and easily accommodates larger groups with different tastes,” Cauble says, before acknowledging that such environments are typically more expensive than a regular restaurant space to build out because they’re a tighter fit. East Nashville-based Pfeffer Torode Architecture, led by founder Jamie Pfeffer, is handling design work for the former car wash, which offers six bays and sits one block north of Hill Realty’s Publix-anchored Hill Center Greenwood. Eshelman Construction, which also is locally based, will be the Cauble’s general contractor. Guests will access the walk-up counters of the future eateries at the facility from the exterior — as opposed to the interior commons area found at the Nashville Farmers’ Market and elsewhere. Customers may sit outside or take their food to-go. As to the pluses of such a physical arrangement, Cauble says it is “rather COVID-resistant, since both the restaurant employees and customers will maintain social distance outside and eliminate much of the touch points
THE WASH
DANIEL MEIGS
