Riverside Village’s Dining Evolution Continues

“Give the people what they want.” That’s the mantra of Chad Newton and Gracie Nguyen, co-owners of You Are Here Hospitality , the company behind East Side Pho in The Wash and East Side Banh Mi nearby. When the two were considering what to do for their next restaurant, they leaned into their backgrounds, having lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay area.

They leaned into their desire to open a variety of Asian restaurants in East Nashville. They leaned into Reddit. “Nashville really, really, really wants Chinese takeout,” says Newton.



“I read it everywhere, on Reddit, Instagram. We get feedback from customers, from other chefs.” In an exclusive interview with the Scene , Newton reveals that You Are Here is opening Golden Prawn #3, a Chinese American takeout joint in the small restaurant space in Inglewood’s Riverside Village formerly home to Castrillo’s Pizza.

Golden Prawn #3 joins three other restaurants opening at the intersection of Riverside Drive and McGavock Pike this year, continuing Riverside Village’s evolution into one of the city’s more interesting restaurant microneighborhoods, which now will offer sushi, coffee, Mediterranean food, sandwiches, beer, breakfast tacos, ice cream, pizza and more. This growth comes as some favorites, including Lou and Castrillo’s, have closed their doors. Golden Prawn #3 (no, there are not two other locations) is a tongue-in-cheek naming convention intended to honor the classic Chinese American food Newton ate two to three times a week growing up in Mountain View, Calif.

The restaurant will offer takeout and delivery dishes à la carte, plus a hot-table buffet for lunch and dinner seven days a week, with the possibility of some late-night hours. “Chinese food just like Mom used to order,” Newton laughs. Nguyen cooked at several Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants throughout her career, including San Francisco’s famous The Slanted Door.

“It’s definitely like we’re playing all the hits. Anything that you would ever expect in a classic Chinese takeout is going to be available,” Newton says. As the neighborhood gets excited for the opportunity to order in Chinese American food, two other spots have recently opened their doors to find lines waiting to get into their dining rooms.

In March of last year, Mary Carlisle Gambill (aka MC) and Ben Gambill were in Tokyo at the end of a vacation. Their kids had eaten their fill of sushi and wanted something different. Tokyo Neapolitan pizza has an incredible reputation, so they headed to a spot called Savoy — it’s fair to say that dinner changed their lives.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘That’s the best pizza we have ever had,’” says MC, adding that the family lived in New York for many years and thought they knew what good pizza was. “It was so simple, so perfect.” The couple — who collectively have experience in real estate, architecture, urban planning and restaurant investment — was so blown away by the artistry, precision and taste that they decided to open a neo-Neapolitan pizza place in Nashville.

Back home, the Gambills were introduced to chef Sean Brock, who was on his own Neapolitan pizza journey. (Remember back when he’d fire up pizzas in a small pop-up oven at the East Nashville Farmers Market?) The three teamed up to open the wood-fired Sho Pizza Bar together. Open daily for lunch and dinner, Sho has seating for 30 people in its light-filled dining room, where reservations are accepted.

Walk-ins are available for the outside patio, bar and chef’s counter. Sho Pizza Bar With chef Trey Tench, who worked with Brock at The Continental and Bar Continental, the team serves perfectly formed pizzas from dough that has fermented for three days in the restaurant’s proofing room. They’re gently shaped to get the right air bubbles in the crust (there’s no exaggerated dough-tossing here) and then topped with combinations of meats, cheeses and produce from purveyors from Tennessee to Italy.

As with any project Brock is involved in, the attention to detail is nearly fanatical. Diners are handed a pair of scissors to cut their pies, and they’re shown how to do so without crushing out those carefully crafted air bubbles in the crunchy — not soggy — crust. Options include the Bianca, topped with Meyer lemon, and the Salumi, which uses beef pepperoni.

Pies are priced between $18 and $24. There’s always a seasonal offering (the “Sho-Stopper”), plus salads, dipping sauces for that extra crust and desserts. The yuzu vinaigrette on the little gem salad packs a flavorful punch.

Drinks from the full bar are equally inventive. Ben Gambill sees the Sho Pizza Bar concept as something that is replicable in other locations in the future. Brock himself will be behind the counter making pizzas several days a week.

Some behind-the-scenes reorganizing at Brock’s signature restaurant, Audrey, has made Brock’s time available to focus on launching Sho and the expansion of Joyland, his burger restaurant. Paul Mishkin, the founder of Franklin’s Southall Farm and Inn, has always been Audrey’s majority owner. Mishkin is now Audrey’s sole owner, and the Southall team manages the operations.

Audrey serves Brock’s recipes, created by chefs who trained under him, and it is still his personal art that hangs on the walls and his books on the shelves. Brock is also available to cook private dinners in the space, including upstairs in the kitchen that used to be home to restaurant June . Curry Boys BBQ While crowds head to Sho Pizza Bar on the north side of McGavock Pike, lines are out the door and down the block at Curry Boys BBQ , which opened in March in the house that was once home to Lou (and Fort Louise before that, and Perk & Cork still earlier).

“It’s been going incredibly well,” says Sean Wen, one of Curry Boys’ owners. “We’re just in shock at how insane it’s been.” The Curry Boys team made the James Beard Award semifinalist list in the Best Chef: Texas category in both 2023 and 2024, and Nashvillians are learning why as they clamor for the brisket bowl paired with green curry, Thai green salad and pulled-pork nachos.

The three original Curry Boys teamed up with Nashville’s Adam Lathan (one of the owners of The Gumbo Bros in the Gulch) to open the new location. “People are allowing us to expand their palate, and it is really cool,” Wen says of the restaurant’s unusual flavor combos. “It’s super rewarding for us.

” Curry Boys is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday. And if you walk or bike up (or take the bus — both the No. 4 and No.

6 WeGo buses serve the intersection), it might not look crowded. But looks can be deceiving. Wen says the back patio has been a big draw.

“If the weather is halfway decent, people are hitting the patio,” he says. “When you first walk in, you might only see a couple of folks in line, and then you go in the back patio and it is packed.” (The Curry Boys lease does not include the triangular section of grass to the west of the building.

) So far, the customer base has been about half people from the neighborhood and half folks from elsewhere, the team says. “It makes me so happy to hear that people are coming out of their way to try us,” Wen says. “But we also love that the Riverside Village vibe has been so welcoming.

It’s really cool to see how this community supports their local business.” And the Curry Boys have been doing their part to support their neighbors. They all have regular orders at Mitchell Deli next door and Sabell’s across the street.

The staff’s post-shift hang is Village Pub and Beer Garden. Hattie Jane’s Creamery All those breakfast, lunch and dinner options (which join Ladybird Taco and Bite-a-Bit Thai Sushi) need dessert. Dose Coffee’s baked goods shouldn’t be overlooked.

The Tennessee Cobbler Co. serves fruit cobbler à la mode from its food truck on the corner. Now Hattie Jane’s Creamery , the small-batch ice cream maker based out of Columbia, plans to open its latest scoop shop in Riverside Village in late summer or early fall, depending on the permit and construction process.

“We like to embody the Southern-ness and the Southern nostalgia of ice cream,” says Hattie Jane’s founder and CEO Claire Crowell. “It’s kind of retro, kind of modern.” That means offering a combination of flavors, from the old-school Nana Puddin’ to the Goo Goo and Jack (which is only for customers ages 21 and older due to its inclusion of Jack Daniel’s No.

7). Seasonal flavors are offered five times a year (winter, spring, summer, fall and holidays), along with year-round favorites like Mulekick coffee . Seasonal strawberry is so popular that it is the only flavor Hattie Jane’s offers in both dairy-free and regular varieties.

It’ll be available as soon as Tennessee strawberries are ripe. Like the cozy ice cream-closet vibes of the Donelson shop, the Riverside Village store — which will be in the same building as Sho Pizza Bar and Ladybird Taco — will be small, with room for lines of folks waiting for a sweet treat. In all the Hattie Jane’s locations (other than at Assembly Food Hall), there are specials and hours that fit the neighborhood.

If people in Riverside Village want an ice cream cone after dinner, the shop will stay open later than the Donelson one, which Crowell says doesn’t have a nighttime audience. In Murfreesboro, Mondays include an MTSU special, and Crowell, who used to live in Inglewood, sees spirit nights and other local school promotions in the future. “East Nashville is underserved in ice cream,” Crowell says.

Adds Wen: “This street is becoming more of a foodie destination.”.