Chirashi
Green Pheasant, named Nashville Scene’s Best New Restaurant in 2019, has closed permanently.
The chic First Avenue restaurant is the latest member of Nashville’s dining scene to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic and likely not the last. Chef Jessica Benefield built on the success of her Two Ten Jack locations in Nashville and Chattanooga to produce a dazzling menu of Japanese-inspired food.
“You’ve got the greatest hits from sister restaurant Two Ten Jack — creamy tonkatsu ramen, buttery chili-crab noodles — alongside stellar newcomers like grilled Hawaiian moonfish and chirashi, raw fish on rice accented by puckery pickled vegetables and caviar,” fellow Bites writer Ashley Brantley wrote in our Best Of pick on Green Pheasant. “You’ve got chicken-wing gyoza with sweet chile sauce alongside tamago: basically a zesty, Japanese deviled-egg sandwich on fluffy white bread. Should you need it, you’ve also got friggin’ wagyu beef.”
Benefield tells the Scene that the location suffered a triple whammy when the pandemic hit. Downtown business traffic has slowed to a trickle as people work from home, tourism came to a dead stop without a sure sign of any return and the slate of shows from Ascend Amphitheater, located across the street, was wiped from the calendar. All three had been crucial to the calculation to open Green Pheasant in that spot.
“If we had tried to make it, we would have risked taking down our other restaurants,” Benefield says. Two Ten Jack, on the other hand, has enjoyed strong support from its East Nashville neighbors. Benefield and her partners began informing investors and staff yesterday.
Two other restaurants in the building appear to still be functional. The bistro Liberty Common was accepting reservations as of this morning, while Instagram Influencer Hive the lounge Hampton Social says it hopes to reopen in a future phase of Metro's roadmap.
In the meantime, if you need to drown your sorrows, those crab-butter noodles are available for takeout at Two Ten Jack.
