The owners of Chicago-based deep-dish pizza chain Gino’s East are targeting an early 2019 opening in the SoBro building last home to Italian restaurant Sole Mio.
Gino’s East marketing director Maggie Keeler says the team is prepping to overhaul the building, which is located at 311 Third Ave. S. Recognized for its faint yellow stucco, stacked stone, arches and skinny columns, it is considered by many followers of the city’s placemaking scene one of downtown Nashville’s most unattractive structures.
The building (see it here courtesy of Google Maps) will be given more than $1.1 million in interior and exterior upgrades, according to a Metro permit. Nashville-based Barry Brechak Architecture + Design is handling the design work. When finished, the building will offer a large-scale outdoor dining area, distinctive "Gino's East of Chicago" signage and a brick skin (to replace the stucco). The building will feature a walk-up window from which patrons can buy pizza by the slice.
"We couldn't more excited to be bringing a Chicago classic to the SoBro area of Nashville," says Keeler. "Our Nashville location will include a large patio with lounge and ample outdoor seating. We think the residents of Nashville and surrounding areas are ready to go deep with Gino's East."
On an adjacent parcel, Drury Hotels Inc. is seeing its 21-story hotel tower rise (read here) at the northwest corner of the intersection of Third and Korean Veterans Boulevard.
Sole Mio operated for about 24 years before closing in mid-2017. The restaurant previously was located in a since-razed building that had sat in Rutledge Hill.
