"The parking lot stays full all the time," John Currence told WhatNow Nashville in August, explaining why he chose Brentwood Place for the next Big Bad Breakfast. Anyone who has looked for a space outside Total Wine on a Friday afternoon knows what he meant.
The lot has always been busy. What's changing is how long people stay once they've parked. For most of its life, the Franklin Road center has been a place for errands: Nordstrom Rack, T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods, Golf Galaxy, a Chick-fil-A drive-through. This year, its biggest and most troubled storefront filled up with a business that sells court time, food and live music from early morning to late evening. The restaurants coming next sit on either side of that schedule.
The storefront that kept emptying out
The space now called Crush Yard has gone through more tenants than any other part of Brentwood Place.
It started as the Kroger. When Kroger moved to its new store farther along Franklin Road in early March 2016, fencing went up around the old building almost right away for a center-wide renovation. That fall, Williamson Source reported that Stein Mart would take almost 35,000 square feet of the more than 65,000-square-foot grocery space. The same report said it wasn't yet known what would happen to the rest.
Stein Mart didn't last. In August 2020, the 112-year-old chain filed for Chapter 11 and listed its Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin and Hendersonville stores among its closures. It later confirmed that every store would close.
So the storefront along Franklin Road failed as a grocery store and then as a discount department store. In March 2025, Regency Centers bought Brentwood Place. It described the center as 95% leased, with room to add value through "lease-up and remerchandising strategies," which means filling empty space and changing the tenant mix. The most visible result of that change is now open.
A tenant that sells time
Crush Yard opened in a 33,400-square-foot space, close to the size of Stein Mart's share of the old Kroger. Inside are eight indoor pickleball courts, golf simulators, a full-service restaurant, a sports bar and lounge, a self-serve tap wall, and a live-music stage booked with local and regional acts.
It took a while. Crush Yard first announced Brentwood almost two years before this spring. As recently as March, its website still said "coming soon," even with a chamber ribbon cutting on the calendar for April 27. The ceremony finally happened on Monday, June 1, after about two weeks of soft opening. Founder David Hack cut the ribbon, and Brentwood Mayor Nelson Andrews said the city "has kept pickleball in the discussion for quite some time."
The hours set it apart from its neighbors. Courts are open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. The kitchen serves noon to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. A Stein Mart sold clothing and housewares. Crush Yard sells a reservation, a round of sliders and an evening set on the stage, all of which keep people inside the building for hours. Hack has described what he wanted in a few words: "It's all about fun, socialization and community."
The programming so far fits that description. On Tuesday, September 15, Crush Yard held a phone-free "Unplug Night" from 5 to 9 p.m. with pickleball, conversation and free dessert for guests who kept their phones put away. Weekday evening events like that one bring people to the center at hours when it used to empty out.
The rest of the day is filling in
Once one tenant keeps people around from dawn to late evening, the businesses that sign on next fill in the rest of the day. The new arrivals at Brentwood Place line up around Crush Yard's schedule.
Mornings. Big Bad Breakfast, founded in Oxford, Mississippi, by James Beard Award-winning chef John Currence, is coming to 330 Franklin Road. It serves breakfast through lunch, with house-cured bacon, skillet meals and biscuits made fresh every day. Currence told WhatNow Nashville that permitting delays pushed the project back and that the team was aiming for a mid-October opening. He said Brentwood will be the brand's fifth location in the Nashville area and its 32nd overall. A Brentwood business license for Big Bad Breakfast dated September 30, 2026, appeared in Williamson Source's weekly county roundup on October 5. The mid-August reports said no official opening date had been set, and the license listing doesn't give one either.
Dog drop-off. Yardstick, a dog hotel and spa offering boarding suites, grooming and wellness services, leased more than 7,000 square feet at Brentwood Place and was expected to open in spring 2026. The center's directory now lists Yardstick's boarding and daycare services, and Yardstick's own Brentwood page is booking tours for this week.
Dinner. Edley's Bar-B-Que is moving into the former McAlister's Deli next to Chick-fil-A. "For the last 10 years, we've been patiently waiting for the right spot in Brentwood," the restaurant said when it announced the move in May. The plans went before the Brentwood Planning Commission on July 6. They call for new paint, cladding, awnings, gray-painted brick with black accents, and a covered porch at the back of the building for the kitchen smoker. Brentwood will be Edley's 12th location, and the restaurant expects to open by the end of the year. Edley's Brentwood LLC's request for on- and off-premises beer permits was on the Brentwood Beer Board's August 10 agenda.
Here is where each piece stands as of the first week of October 2026:
- Crush Yard: open, with a June 1 ribbon cutting after a soft opening. Courts 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, kitchen from midday to 9 p.m.
- Yardstick: listed in the center's directory and booking tours this week
- Big Bad Breakfast: licensed September 30 and aiming for mid-October, with no opening date in the August reports
- Edley's Bar-B-Que: plans reviewed in July, beer permit on the August agenda, expected by the end of 2026
The longtime tenants are still in place. Crema Coffee Roasters, Fleet Feet, Five Guys, Peter's Sushi & Thai, Stock & Trade and CVS are all on the current directory. The new arrivals add a reason to stay before, between or after the usual stops.
Why the busy lot attracts this kind of tenant
Big Bad Breakfast and Crush Yard both chose a center that already had traffic. When Regency bought it, the company said Brentwood Place drew more than 4.3 million visits a year. It also noted that the center sits next to the future 350,000-square-foot Vanderbilt Medical Campus. Currence said much the same in plainer terms when he called the location "an absolute diamond for us" in a center "full of activity."
Those visits used to come in short trips: a return at Nordstrom Rack, a bottle from Total Wine, a quick stop at the Chick-fil-A drive-through. The newer tenants turn some of those trips into longer stays. A court reservation runs on the clock. A breakfast-to-lunch kitchen serves people with time for a second cup of coffee. A barbecue restaurant with a smoker porch and a beer permit is planned for dinner. Regency announced plans to change the tenant mix, and this is what that change looks like on the ground.
The storefront that lost Kroger in 2016 and Stein Mart in 2020 is now open 16 hours a day, and by year's end there should be a breakfast counter and a barbecue smoker a short walk away.
If you're keeping an eye on how Franklin Road keeps changing, from the old Kroger box to the new breakfast counter going in down the walk, Jackie Roth Karr follows these Brentwood openings closely and is always glad to talk through what they mean for the streets around them. Let's Connect.
