Three New Meals and Drink Companies Now Open within the Arcade | Options

Downtown Nashville’s Arcade initially opened in 1902, modeled loosely after Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, Italy. So it appears becoming that its three latest food-and-drink tenants have some connection to the Bel Paese.

Zio Matto Gelato opened within the Arcade downtown final week. (The tender opening was July 3, with a buy-one-get-one-day going down July 8.) Co-owner and founder Matteo Servente hails from Torino, Italy, and is dedicated to bringing Italian gelato to Nashville. Servente moved to Memphis 15 years in the past and began the corporate, utilizing conventional, non-machine-based processes reminiscent of hand-mixing and whipping to make the frozen deal with. 

Earlier than Servente and Zio Matto co-owner Ryan Watt deliberate to open a enterprise collectively, they knew one another via the movie trade. Watt was headed to the annual worldwide artwork occasion Venice Biennale, and in a little bit of foreshadowing, Servente gave him journey suggestions — together with discovering the “non-tourist gelato.”

Zio Matto joins Julia Jaksic’s Bar Roza and East Nashville’s Frankies because the three latest meals companies to open within the light-filled, glass-ceilinged Arcade, contributing to a brand new assortment of domestically owned and chain companies within the reworked historic spot between Fourth and Fifth avenues.

The Arcade location is Zio Matto’s second gelateria, with the primary in Memphis’ historic Central Station. With Watt, Servente opened that spot after operating a meals cart due to the foot visitors and the constructing’s historic nature. (Plus, it tugged at Servente’s heartstrings. He lived in Central Station again when it housed residences.) When his spouse bought a job in Nashville, Watt moved right here and commenced promoting Zio Matto in space farmers markets in addition to via outlets like Cocorico, Little Hats Italian Market and New York Butcher Store. The duo was in search of a brick-and-mortar location for enlargement, and when the Arcade turned a risk, they realized it was a match.

“I fell in love with the aesthetics,” Servente says. “We weren’t essentially seeking to be downtown, however when [Watt] seemed on the projected foot visitors, it made for a superb enterprise determination. I’m actually very joyful that it’s the way in which it labored out as a result of there’s an identical tie to the 2 areas.”

Along with round a dozen gelato flavors (some regulars, some rotating), Zio Matto serves affogatos, gelato desserts and gelato pops from what was Nashville’s first buying heart. Watt notes that drinks — reminiscent of granita in summer season and scorching chocolate in winter — may be ordered with or with out gelato.

Final month, Julia Jaksic opened her lengthy (lengthy) awaited Bar Roza simply across the nook from Zio Matto. (Flip south on the alley that intersects the Arcade once you move The Peanut Store.) Underneath the course of architect Dryden Studio, the house has been utterly reconfigured; it’s unrecognizable from its former life as overflow seating for Manny’s Home of Pizza, which closed in 2023. Jaksic leaned into an Italian Rationalism aesthetic with Italian marble — once more applicable for the Arcade’s roots — and wealthy, maximalist vibes.

It’s not simply the decor that’s superlative. Jaksic and enterprise accomplice Owen Gibler (beverage supervisor at Roze Pony in Belle Meade) created an aperitivo (Italian joyful hour) program with cocktails and snacks. As an alternative of garnishes, drinks characteristic fragrant spritzes and ice minimize in-house. Emphasis is on the cocktails, however there are focaccia and different “woman dinner”-type snacks, Jaksic says.

Frankies opened its Arcade location in early April inside City Cowboy, taking on from Roberta’s. Frankies co-owner John Burns Paterson stored the vast majority of the workers from Roberta’s, educated by people at Frankies in East Nashville. The Frankies workforce had not been fascinated with opening a second location, however when City Cowboy’s Lyon Porter known as, Paterson picked up the telephone. City Cowboy is Frankies’ landlord, and Roberta’s tools stayed put, so it was a reasonably simple transition — the opening got here simply a few days after the contract was signed.

Frankies is open seven days every week. Paterson says that in all his hospitality profession, that is the primary time workers has requested to remain open later if there’s a superb crowd and good vibes. (Official hours are till 10 p.m. through the week and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.) Up to now, they’ve been promoting entire pies and slices and salads, however Paterson plans to increase to sandwiches and different dishes within the subsequent few weeks.

All three enterprise house owners got here to the Arcade hoping to welcome locals and vacationers alike, and that’s already been the case at Frankies. Paterson says clients who come to the East Facet location at night time are joyful to go someplace for lunch whereas working downtown. “There are a ton of workplace people from companies downtown,” he says, “and we’ve discovered a lot overlap that we weren’t anticipating.”

Creating a spot the place locals need to hang around downtown was necessary to Jaksic. “We wish locals to really feel 100% snug,” she says. “It will be an honor to serve the communities from East and West after they come to the Ryman or the symphony or TPAC. I hope we could be a refuge. We wish it to be enjoyable. There are not any cocktail bar guidelines — simply come and meet individuals.”

Through the years, the Arcade has seen plenty of change, from the departure of the put up workplace to renovation and introduction of recent tenants together with Savannah Bee and Ugly Bagel. This new trio is worked up to be a part of the following class of tenants, and to see what their colleagues are going to do.

“What Julia has inbuilt that place is world-class,” Paterson says of Bar Roza.

“Individuals are actually investing in Nashville, not solely the vacationer aspect of Nashville,” Jaksic says, noting the work of Porter and Jamie White at Buddy’s Tiny Tonk, which is close to Bar Roza. “It’s wonderful to be in an area downtown with individuals I do know from the East Facet.”

With the artists’ areas upstairs within the Arcade and the month-to-month artwork crawls, people like Jaksic be aware an power for locals that has been lacking downtown. 

“For me,” Jaksic provides, “the Arcade is such a particular piece of structure. I really feel honored to be part of it and inbuilt it.”