Grins Vegetarian Cafe — located on the Vanderbilt University campus and billed as Nashville’s first certified kosher restaurant of its type — will cease operations after Friday, April 17.
The looming closing, announced via social media, will come after the cafe shut down at the end of March for what apparently was to have been just two weeks.
“Unfortunately this is goodbye from Grins, we have LOVED serving y’all over the years and thank you for everything y’all have given back to us,” Grins posted on Instagram.
Grins (pronounced “greens”) is owned and operated by Nashville-based Bongo Productions Inc., which also owns coffee roaster and local cafe chain Bongo Roasting Company.
For 29 years, the Hillsboro Village spot has given Nashvillians somewhere to sit and stay
Bob Bernstein, Bongo Productions founder, says it is unlikely he will seek a new location for Grins, and he will instead focus on Bongo Java.
"It's part of my slowing down and focusing on the coffee-roasting operation — of which we are soon to introduce a Bongo branding refresh and a second whole brand — affiliated operations, the original cafe (on Belmont Boulevard) and our real estate holdings," Bernstein tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post via email.
Opened in 1998, Grins operated via the Ben Shulman Center for Jewish Life at 2421 Vanderbilt Place. It seemingly was Nashville’s longest-operational vegetarian restaurant.
The closing comes as Bernstein prepares to close Fido in Hillsboro Village in mid-2028, when the cafe business’s lease expires.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
