Williamson Source reported in November 2024 that Old Chicago had closed at 440 Cool Springs Boulevard. In late July 2026, signs for Roots Prime Italian Chophouse went up on the same building, and by mid-September the restaurant was reported open.
Cool Springs went through several changes like that this fall. Within about four weeks, three well-known spaces changed hands. Two came back months after their previous restaurants closed, and one turned over in about a day. In each case the new tenant is an operator that already runs restaurants or has roots nearby, and the building stayed the same. The truly new arrival, at CoolSprings Galleria, won't open until 2028.
Where each address stands this week
- 1770 Galleria Boulevard, Suite A. Formerly Honeysuckle, now Bravado Small Plates & Pizzabar. Open for brunch, lunch and dinner.
- 440 Cool Springs Boulevard. Formerly Old Chicago, now Roots Prime Italian Chophouse. Lunch and dinner daily.
- 9135 Carothers Parkway. Formerly Tin Roof 2, now The Rafters. Food service is running while the beer permit goes back to the city's Beer Board on Nov. 10.
- The former JCPenney anchor at CoolSprings Galleria. Closed. DICK'S House of Sport is slated for early 2028.
Old Chicago's building became a chophouse
Williamson Source reported Old Chicago's closing on Nov. 15, 2024. Roots signage went up at 440 Cool Springs Boulevard in late July 2026, before the restaurant was ready. Williamson Source reported Roots open on Sept. 15, nearly two years after the Old Chicago closing report.
The new tenant has done this before. Roots is the second restaurant from Chef Jose Serrato and Elizabeth Serrato, who also own Serrato's Steakhouse. The restaurant calls its concept an American chophouse paired with Italian cooking. The menu covers prime steaks, fresh pasta, seafood and Italian-inspired plates, and the opening coverage named filet-and-scallop dishes and a pork chop.
Hours posted on the Roots website are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Lunch and dinner are served every day, and reservations are taken online.
At Honeysuckle, the same owners opened a new restaurant
On Galleria Boulevard, the operator stayed the same and the concept changed. POP Hospitality Group opened The Honeysuckle in August 2015 and closed it after about ten years. At the time, Williamson Scene quoted the group's announcement:
"We're thrilled to announce that we'll be closing our current chapter to make way for an exciting new concept coming soon."
That new concept is Bravado Small Plates & Pizzabar. Dinner started Sept. 23, brunch followed on Oct. 3, and lunch began Oct. 5. The Williamson Herald treated the Oct. 5 lunch launch as the grand opening. According to that Herald story, founder Kelly Black runs the restaurant and Chef Sean Foley leads the kitchen. POP also runs three Nashville restaurants: The Treehouse, The Row Kitchen and Pub, and NashHouse Southern Spoon and Saloon.
The menu is built around Italian-inspired small plates for sharing, fresh pasta and Neo-Neapolitan pizza. Examples include a Sunday spaghetti, radiatori alla vodka and a pizza called Hot and Bothered. Of the new Cool Springs spots, Bravado keeps the longest hours. Its site lists 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. It also offers reservations, takeout and pickup.
On Carothers Parkway, the change is still underway
The other two restaurant changes took months. 9135 Carothers Parkway changed over in about a day. Tin Roof 2 closed on Oct. 9, one day short of 20 years in business. It closed three weeks after the city's Beer Board fined it $2,500 and suspended its beer permit over overserving. WKRN reported that restaurant owner Max Coyle bought the bar's assets the next day and began turning the space into The Rafters. He stressed to the board that he bought the assets and not the old business.
Coyle described the change to the Beer Board in the same WKRN report:
"This is truly and wholly a new operation from the ground up."
He told the board The Rafters will be a family-friendly restaurant and sports bar rather than a late-night bar, with earlier closing times, more management oversight and more staff training. He also cited his own ties to the area. "I live 10 minutes from this place. This is my backyard," he said, according to WKRN. Williamson Source reported planned hours of 10 a.m. to midnight and on-site security from 8 p.m. to close Thursday through Saturday. Coyle is also planning changes to how the space looks.
On Oct. 13, the Beer Board voted unanimously to defer The Rafters' beer permit application for one month rather than deny it. Until a decision comes, the restaurant is open in a limited capacity and serving food. WhatNow Nashville reported that the new owners are waiting on both a beer permit and a liquor license. The board is scheduled to take up the application again on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Until then, alcohol service at this address waits on the permits.
The Galleria's big new arrival is still more than a year off
Williamson Source reported on Oct. 27 that JCPenney had closed at CoolSprings Galleria, where it had been an anchor since 1994. DICK'S House of Sport will take that space. Construction follows the closing, and the store is targeting early 2028.
It will be the first DICK'S House of Sport in the greater Nashville area, at more than 100,000 square feet. Plans include a climbing wall, golf bays with TrackMan simulators, and a HitTrax multi-sport cage for baseball, softball and soccer. CBL Properties CEO Stephen D. Lebovitz grouped it with two other changes at the property. One was July's opening of Tennessee's first L.L.Bean. The other was a land sale to Greystar for a planned 361-unit residential development.
The mall's next big draw will be a sporting goods store with simulators and climbing walls, and it is more than a year away. Next door at Cool Springs Crossing, the newest large store is already open. Bob's Discount Furniture opened Sept. 4, a 56,620-square-foot furniture and mattress store sharing the 1770 Galleria Boulevard address with Bravado.
Closings that have no successor yet
Some closings this fall don't have a replacement named. Franklin's O'Charley's at 1202 Murfreesboro Road closed after dinner on Sept. 9. WSMV reported that the chain's remaining Middle Tennessee restaurants closed the same night. Across Franklin as a whole, the Franklin Frontline tally for 2026, updated Oct. 21, stood at 25 openings and 18 closings, with two businesses moving.
In Cool Springs this fall, each restaurant that reopened did so with an established operator moving into a building that had already housed one.
Restaurant turnover like this shapes what daily life near Cool Springs feels like, and buyers notice it. If you're curious how a nearby address is valued right now, The Reed Collective can walk you through it. Get a free home valuation and a local read on what's changing near your street.
