The International Market and Restaurant is one of the essential, pioneering restaurants of Nashville's scene. When it opened in the 1975, Nashville had little in the way of food from any part of Asia, including the food that owner Patti Myint, an immigrant from Thailand, specializes in. As Nashville has grown more sophisticated, so have other options, but the International Market has remained a valuable stalwart, especially for students at neighboring Belmont University and other folks who appreciate hearty, sustaining and inexpensive fare.
The Scene's Kay West recapped the history in a feature on Patti Myint and the International Market back in 2003. Later, the Scene's Carrington Fox wrote about Myint's secret, off-the-menu lettuce-wrap meal where diners could choose from 30 ingredients.
Belmont University announced today that it has purchased the land on which International Market stands, part of a four-parcel property owned by Prapasri "Patti" Myint and her husband Win Myint. (He's an immigrant from Burma who met his wife in Nashville in the 1970s after she came here to study at Travecca Nazarene University.)
The property is located on the southeast corner of the T-intersection of Belmont Boulevard and Bernard Avenue, my Nashville Post colleague William Williams reports.
Belmont's announcement does not note an acquisition price but says the International Market will continue to operate after the sale. (The Myints' son, chef Arnold Myint, operates two restaurants, PM and Blvd, across Belmont Boulevard from the market property.)
The university says the acquisition "allows Belmont to begin planning for future opportunities to expand academic spaces to support its growing student body." Belmont has been growing and adding programs at a rapid pace in recent years. It now offers more than 90 areas of undergraduate study, 19 master’s programs and five doctoral degrees, and it recently hit an enrollment record of 8,080.
