Dalts Will Be Demoed, Rebuilt

Dalts’ new owners hope to preserve the restaurant’s spirit, rather than its physical building, as contractors and a backhoe size up the White Bridge diner.

Strategic Hospitality restaurateurs Max Goldberg and Ben Goldberg, along with local entrepreneur Andrew Sohr, announced a plan to revive the beloved Dalts brand after news broke in December announcing the restaurant’s abrupt closure after 45 years. Currently Dalts is an active construction site — work will include demolition, according to permits filed with Metro.

Dalts Closes, New Ownership Announced

Strategic Hospitality will revive the classic West Side restaurant in the same footprint

“Our initial intent was not to take the full building down, but once we got in there, we found a lot of issues,” Ben Goldberg tells the Scene. “We made the decision to take the whole thing down and rebuild it in the spirit of what Dalts has always been. Nothing has changed from our ethos or the project.”

Milkshakes and chicken fingers won the restaurant a loyal following, especially from families. Before DoorDash and Uber Eats, West Side customers benefited from Dalts’ at-home service, immortalized with a simple jingle: “Dalts delivers!”

Strategic Hospitality has embraced the chance to bridge the past and future and promised to maintain a “warm, familiar and reliable institution” for diners. Marketing messages have leaned heavily on the personal connection and the nostalgia many have surrounding Dalts.

“I think people will be very happy with the throwbacks and nods,” Goldberg adds. “We are just taking down the building and putting it up in the same footprint. It will have a lot of the same details and sensibilities that Dalts has always had — that’s all I’ll say for now, I don’t want to give too much away.”

The restaurant group, which has won Michelin stars and helped establish Nashville as a food destination, often excels in adventurous menus and haute cuisine. Milkshakes are the only menu item mentioned in a short online statement previewing a comeback. Other Strategic Hospitality properties include Babychan, Bastion, Kisser, Locust and Henrietta Red.

The reopening timeline has slid from 2026 to early 2027, though Goldberg does not want to share any specific dates. Extensive construction often presents unpredictable obstacles; the building’s permit history indicates a few stops and starts. A previous demo permit expired in July. Since then, the building has pulled at least six more permits for utility, building and demolition work. Metro Codes approved a new Dalts site plan earlier this week. 

Like Dalts, several area landmarks are fenced off due to construction. A few hundred yards away, a $14.5 million sale last year set up a mixed-use project that will bring an estimated 277 new apartments.

The plaza is convenient to affluent Nashville neighborhoods like Green Hills, Forest Hills, Sylvan Park and Belle Meade, and has been largely spared of commercial construction over the past decade. Developer AJ Capital is building a new Belle Meade Plaza across the street. Related greenway renovations are underway, one project of several eyed for the popular Richland Creek loop.