After pandemic pause, Nashville restaurant development returns
 in force

One under-examined side effect of the COVID pandemic is how it stymied independent restaurant projects in Nashville. The economic uncertainties associated with the pandemic created a bit of an air bubble in the restaurant development pipeline, leading to a situation in which a huge chunk of major new projects and investment was limited to celebrity chef-led restaurants in hotels.

Examples of these include Sean Brock’s The Continental in the Grand Hyatt (recently converted to a vinyl-themed bar), Andrew Carmellini’s Carne Mare and The Dutch at the W, Tony Mantuano’s Yolan in the lobby of The Joseph and Jean-Georges Vongeritchten’s reimagining of The Hermitage’s Capitol Grille as Drusie & Darr. The reason these projects moved ahead while independent restaurant developers hit the pause button is the simple fact that hotel construction and renovation projects plunged forward into the headwinds of the pandemic, and those hotels were going to need flagship restaurants whenever they finally opened.