Pastis Gives Nashville a Taste of Paris
The buzz about Pastis Nashville’s opening has been, well, buzzing for a long time. The original Pastis was opened in 1999 by McNally, a famous restaurateur. It closed in 2014 and reopened in 2019, this time in combination with STARR Restaurants, helmed by Stephen Starr, another well-known restaurateur.
Starr is particularly excited about the Nashville location of Pastis because he became enamored of the city during the years the project was in development. He likes the large population of young people who live in town and the emphasis on creativity that is part of the city’s ethos. “I love to be around creative people...It feels really good in Nashville.”
Starr also likes how passionate Nashvillians are about their city. “I talk to people who have been there for 15 years and fell in love,” he says. “I did not realize how special it was before I came here. Without making the other markets feel bad, I feel an energy that transcends all the others.
The [Pastis Nashville] menu is chock-full of dishes that people expect from Pastis, or any good French bistro for that matter, including daily specials handwritten on vintage mirrors. Favorites include both steak frites and lobster frites, and boeuf bourguignon, which Starr says folks were ordering with abandon even when the outside temperatures were close to 100 degrees.
Ideally, Pastis general manager Tyler St. Denis says, Pastis Nashville should be somewhere that welcomes tourists and locals both — somewhere you might take your parents for a birthday celebration and also somewhere to have a martini at the bar before heading elsewhere for the night.
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