Nashville’s Stock-Yard Restaurant closed after 36 years

The Stock-Yard Restaurant, once an institution in the Nashville dining scene, closed for business Monday.

“We would like to thank everyone who has ever joined us over the years and wish you the best in all of your future endeavors,” according to a voicemail recording that answers the restaurant phone. “The Stock-Yard Restaurant will forever be rooted deep in the history of Nashville. Thank you, and God bless.”

The closing ends a 36-year run for The Stock-Yard at 901 Second Ave. N. It comes after a pair of Charlotte, N.C.-based developers just completed buying the building that is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and a parking lot across Stock-Yard Boulevard.

Spectrum Residential and Llewellyn Development LLC paid $8.3 million for that 3.3 acres. The developers also have under contract an adjacent roughly half-acre site that includes the former Chromemasters car repair shop at 826 Third Ave. N. and concept plan approval from the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency for a roughly 310-unit, up to six-story apartment community.

The approval came after the developers had tweaked the design to preserve the restaurant building, in keeping with wishes of the MDHA design review committee. In his presentation a month ago, Spectrum Residential President Steve McClure cited the possibility of a new retail tenant for the restaurant building. “We’re going to keep the history because it’s one of the unique features of it,” he said about the building built during the 1920s.

Initially, the building housed businesses related to The Nashville Union Stock-Yards, where farmers brought livestock to sell. The restaurant opened at the renovated building in 1979, five years after the stockyards closed.

The location is near the new First Tennessee Park at Sulphur Dell, an area seeing strong developer interest for apartments, retail, office and mixed-use projects.

Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.