Interior construction is officially underway at 111 Fourth Ave. S., where a new Mexican restaurant called Tacos El Terry is taking shape in Nashville’s SoBro neighborhood. City permit filings put the planned build-out at about $1 million, as the three-story building sheds its long-running bar identity for a fresh restaurant life.
According to the Nashville Post, Remick Architecture is on design duty for the interior, while Dowdle Construction is handling the build-out. The permit names Tacos El Terry as the tenant and focuses on work in the ground-floor commercial space.
Operator and concept
The Nashville Business Journal reports that Chicago-based restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You will own and operate Tacos El Terry, adding another out-of-town heavyweight to the downtown dining mix. The group already has a Nashville presence, with several concepts listed on its website at Lettuce Entertain You, including the popular Aba.
Building history and ownership
The corner spot was long home to Swingin’ Doors Saloon, a familiar stop for Broadway bar crawlers. Metro records show Swingin’ Doors Saloon LLC bought the property in 2001 for about $1.5 million, with Steve Ford listed as the company’s president. More recent county documents show GD Broadway Nashville LLC recorded a roughly $10 million transaction for the parcel, a tidy snapshot of how downtown values have climbed.
Where this fits in SoBro’s comeback
The Tacos El Terry project arrives amid a broader rush of investment into downtown and SoBro. In recent years, reporting has noted that the hotel portion of the Four Seasons tower sold in 2022 for about $165 million, while developers continue to shuffle and upgrade real estate on and around Broadway. The new taqueria slots into that trend, adding another national operator betting on SoBro’s steady stream of tourists, convention-goers, and nearby office workers.
Timeline and next steps
There is no announced opening date yet, and permit details suggest there is still substantial interior work ahead before doors can open. We have requested comment from the restaurant group and the project contractor and will update this story if they respond.
