Where do you go for the pierogi that made a New York restaurant famous, the Indian-style ice cream from a Hillsboro Village favorite, or espresso sweetened with house-made Mexican-inspired syrups? In East Nashville this year, you go to a bar on Woodland Street, an open-air hub at Gallatin and McGavock pikes, and a vintage warehouse farther up Gallatin Pike.
Three of the area's most-discussed 2026 food arrivals didn't sign a lease on an empty restaurant building. They moved into businesses that were already there. That changes when you can eat at each one, where you sit, and what's on the menu.
Veselka cooks on Lakeside Lounge's schedule
Veselka has been open in New York since 1954. It's a Ukrainian restaurant known for sweet and savory pierogi, borscht and chicken schnitzel, and it was a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2023, according to the Nashville Scene. Its first location outside New York City isn't a standalone dining room. It's a kitchen inside Lakeside Lounge at 921 Woodland St.
Visit Nashville lists the opening under August 2026. Per the Scene, the deal came about because the two businesses share some people on their leadership teams.
You can taste the host's influence in the menu. Justin Birchard, Veselka's COO, told the Scene to think of the Lakeside pierogi like a boneless chicken wing: good bar food. The lineup mixes bestsellers such as potato and cheese with seasonal flavors and dipping sauces, including a borscht barbecue sauce written for a bar crowd. The hours follow the bar too. The kitchen is open daily like Lakeside, and Veselka's own location listing gives 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Not many kitchens in the neighborhood still serve a plate of schnitzel at 1 a.m. on a weeknight.
Sarabha's Creamery joined a hub built for this
Veselka moved into one host business. Sarabha's Creamery took the next step and joined a property designed from day one to hold several food businesses at once.
Lost and Found sits at Gallatin and McGavock pikes. The owners bought the property about four years before it opened: Steve Mabee, Nathan Weinberg, Davey Rowe-Mabee and Kelly Boutwell, best known for Retrograde Coffee and Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea, along with Jamie White of Pearl Diver and Tiger Bar. The Nashville Scene described it as part food truck park, part wine shop, part retail area, part food court and part neighborhood hang. Names announced for the property include:
- Pizza Lolo, the pop-up pizza concept opening its first brick-and-mortar location
- The Pepper Pott, a Guyanese restaurant, and Katrin Taqueria
- Chivanada, the empanada truck, whose co-owner signed a longer lease than some of the other opening trucks
- Birdie's, Boutwell's tiny wine bar focused on organic, biodynamic and minimal-intervention wines
- Fortunate Sun, White's outdoor bar
- Best Friends, a vintage consignment clothing shop
- A Retrograde Coffee trailer planned for early coffee and breakfast
Sarabha's got there because of a social media post. The Lost and Found team posted that it was looking for an ice cream vendor, and owner Gursharan Singh told the Scene that several regulars walked into his 21st Avenue South shop with the post in hand and suggested Sarabha's go east. "We liked all the different foods from different regions that they are going to have, and we thought it would be a good fit for us," Singh said. He owns the creamery with his wife, Manpreet Gill.
The East Nashville shop, at 3104 Gallatin Pike, is small and has no seating of its own. Customers use the shared outdoor seating at Lost and Found, as the Scene reported. In practice, your scoop of house-made Indian-style ice cream comes with whatever else the courtyard offers that evening, whether that's a slice from Pizza Lolo or a glass from Birdie's. Visit Nashville lists the expansion under August 2026.
La Perla pours from inside a vintage warehouse
The smallest of the three setups is a walk-up window. La Perla serves espresso and matcha drinks made with house-made Mexican-inspired syrups from inside Galeria Paloma. Visit Nashville lists it among its September 2026 openings.
Galeria Paloma is at 4106 Gallatin Pike and calls itself a collective warehouse of antiques, curated vintage and coffee. The shop's posted hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Because the window is inside the shop, those hours are a reasonable guide for planning a visit. Monday is closed, and so is anything after dinner. This is a coffee stop that comes with a browse through vintage furniture.
How the three setups compare
| Spot | Host | Address | How it works | Hours to plan around |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veselka | Lakeside Lounge | 921 Woodland St. | Kitchen inside a bar | Daily, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. |
| Sarabha's Creamery | Lost and Found | 3104 Gallatin Pike | Small shop at a shared hub, shared outdoor seating | Check Lost and Found before you go |
| La Perla | Galeria Paloma | 4106 Gallatin Pike | Walk-up coffee window inside a vintage shop | Shop hours: Tue to Fri 10 to 6, Sat and Sun 9 to 5 |
The standalone openings have their own rooms
Standalone restaurants still open in East Nashville. The two big ones this year show what it takes.
Bar Cala Cala opened at 930 McFerrin Ave. It's a partnership between chef Ryan Costanza, who runs Present Tense in Wedgewood-Houston, and chef Joshua Walker, who opened Xiao Bao in McFerrin Park with his wife, Duolan Li. The Nashville Scene describes it as both a listening room and a restaurant. The chef-partners designed the space themselves, and music plays through four vintage Klipschorn speakers. The menu is Italian coastal cooking. Snacks and drinks start at 4 p.m., and dinner runs nightly from 5 to 9 in the bar and dining room, with dishes like lemon risotto arancini, Sicilian crudo and swordfish Milanese. Both partners already run restaurants in town.
Girlcrush Social House opened on Woodland Street in August. Twin sisters and music industry veterans Emily and Jamie Dryburgh created it, and it combines food, drinks, live music and a large backyard under one roof.
Both are full destinations, built around an experience you can't get from a counter or a window. One longtime East Nashville restaurant went the other way. Two Ten Jack, the Japanese-inspired izakaya, moved to Sylvan Park this fall after nearly 12 years in East Nashville and took over the former Otaku Ramen space.
Why sharing space keeps showing up
When the Scene covered Lost and Found's opening, it said plainly that running a brick-and-mortar restaurant is expensive. It said a permanent food truck or a micro location like Lost and Found, or The Wash, another East Nashville hub, gives chefs options they may not otherwise have.
Citywide news since then points the same way. The Tennessean reported on Oct. 23 on what it called a wave of Nashville restaurant closures this year. Deacon's New South served its final customers Oct. 24, and Joyland closed both of its Nashville locations in July. The same article cited a National Restaurant Association estimate that restaurant operating expenses have risen 36% since 2019.
The Tennessean article was mainly about a reversal. Punk Wok, the izakaya and sushi restaurant at Sylvan Supply, announced its closure Oct. 20. It changed course after support from a partner and a last-minute proposal from its landlord. Punk Wok is set to reopen Thursday, Oct. 29.
That story is across town in Sylvan Park, but the point applies on Gallatin Pike too. Who the landlord is, and who shares the building, now matters to whether a restaurant opens and stays open. A Ukrainian kitchen that shares leadership with a bar, an ice cream shop that answered a hub's call for vendors, and a coffee window inside a vintage collective each opened with a lower bar to clear than a full dining room.
Shawn Wright works with commercial and investment property across Middle Tennessee, including spaces where more than one business shares a roof. If you own a building on a corridor like Gallatin Pike, or you're a business owner weighing a shared space against a standalone lease, CENTURY 21 Wright Realty can help you look at the numbers and the options plainly. Let's Connect.
