Downtown Tower Lands Peruvian-Japanese Restaurant Chotto Matte

Chotto Matte, a London-based restaurant concept focusing on Peruvian and Japanese fare, will open in early 2023 in downtown Nashville’s under-construction ONE22ONE.

According to a release from developer GBT Realty, Chotto Matte will take 11,000 square feet of retail space on the first and second floors of the company’s 24-story Class A office tower at 1221 Broadway — the office portion of which is expected to deliver by midyear.

Terms of the lease are not being disclosed.

Kurt Zdesar, Chotto Matte founder, started the concept in 2013 after years of research in Peru and Japan. Chotto Matte (“wait a moment” in Japanese) focuses on Nikkei cuisine, which fuses Japanese and Peruvian techniques and ingredients/items such as ceviche, tiradito, anticucho barbecue, sushi, sashimi and tempura.  

After beginning in London’s Soho district in 2013, Chotto Matte expanded to Miami in 2018 and to Toronto in 2019. Chotto Matte restaurants also are slated for San Francisco and Los Angeles. Various international cities are planned for the concept. London-based Andy Martin Studio will design the local space for Chotto Matte.

“Chotto Matte celebrates the very best of authentic and innovative Nikkei cuisine, set in vibrant, stylish architectural spaces, in exciting city locations around the world — and Nashville is absolutely the ideal setting for our vision,” Zdesar, who once served as the European director for New York-based Nobu, says in the release.

Alan Lloyd, GBT Realty senior vice president of leasing, says the company undertook a “worldwide search” for an anchor restaurant for the building, which will also be home to the FirstBank headquarters.

“We could not have found a better partner than Chotto Matte, which will instantly elevate and diversify the city’s culinary scene,” Lloyd says. “Their presence will be a tremendous asset to our tenants at ONE22ONE.”

GBT Realty’s ONE22ONE development team is spearheaded by Jeff Pape and Fiona Haulter. For the tower, Gresham Smith & Partners is leading architecture and design duties, with Brasfield & Gorrie the general contractor. George Tomlin serves as president and CEO of GBT Realty.