"When I was running for office, the one thing that I heard from folks is: we want less car washes and more restaurants."
That's Metro Council member Jordan Huffman, who represents Hermitage in District 14, describing the pitch that actually got him elected. It's a strange thing to run on, and a stranger thing to have work, but it captures something that's been true about Hermitage for a long stretch: a neighborhood sitting on one of Nashville's biggest lakes, with a presidential estate in its backyard, had somehow become known for the wrong kind of commercial real estate.
That's changing in 2026, but not in the way neighborhoods usually get their restaurant fix. There's no single developer, no one big shopping center groundbreaking with a ribbon and a press release. What's actually happening is four separate, unrelated projects landing in the same stretch of Old Hickory Boulevard, Lebanon Pike, and Stewarts Ferry Pike, at roughly the same time, for roughly the same reason. That matters for anyone who lives here, because it means the restaurant wait isn't riding on one project surviving permitting and financing. It's riding on four.
The four addresses doing the work
Here's where the actual movement is. WKRN first reported the Cook Out plan in the spring of 2025, and Huffman laid out the other three in council comments reported that December:
- Old Hickory Boulevard. Cook Out, the North Carolina chain known for its low-cost combo trays, is planning a location on the site where a Fazoli's used to sit.
- Flour Your Dreams Bakery. Owner Danny Greenberg is extending hours and building out what he's called a night concept for the existing bakery space.
- Across from the Hermitage library. Huffman has said any redevelopment on that parcel has to follow a specific plan requiring commercial space on the ground floor with housing above it, so residents visiting the library have somewhere to walk over and eat.
- Stewarts Ferry Pike. A 14-acre project is in the works involving a hotel and commercial space alongside housing, which Huffman described as a mix of old Nashville and new Nashville sitting on the same parcel.
None of these four are connected to each other. Different owners, different timelines, different financing. That's actually the interesting part. A single master-planned development can stall on one permit or one lender pulling out. Four independent projects converging on the same 12-month window means Hermitage's food scene isn't betting on one horse.
The gap that made the joke land
The reason Huffman's car wash line worked as a campaign point is that the gap was visible, not theoretical. Around the same stretch of Old Hickory Boulevard where Cook Out is planned, the neighborhood lost its Big Lots to what was described as economic issues, and the Hooters that shared its parking lot closed too. Two storefronts, same lot, same year, and residents noticed.
Greenberg's bakery expansion is a smaller story but it's the one with a human face attached. He told a reporter plainly what he's after:
"We have a night concept that we really want to bring to the neighborhood."
That's not a chain filling a gap. That's an existing local owner betting that Hermitage residents will actually show up after dark for something that isn't a drive-through.
The maybe: a grocery store where the hospital used to be
The least certain piece of this, and the one worth being honest about, is the vacant hospital site along Lebanon Pike. Huffman has said a grocery store could land there. When Greenberg made his pitch for a Trader Joe's, Huffman's response was telling: if that particular chain passes on the site, he says there are other candidates lined up who would keep a store busy.
Read that carefully. It's confirmation that grocery interest exists in that corridor, not confirmation of which grocer, or when. If you live near Lebanon Pike, this is one to watch rather than one to bank on.
What was already working
Here's the part of Hermitage that never needed fixing, and the contrast is worth sitting with. While the restaurant scene played catch-up, the neighborhood's two big outdoor anchors kept doing exactly what they've always done, reliably, without a councilman needing to campaign on them.
Nashville Shores Lakeside Resort opened its 2026 season on May 9, and this year the property added nightly drone light shows over Percy Priest Lake, launching at 9 p.m. and included free with any daily admission or season pass. The Treetop Adventure Park, a separate zip line and rope course attraction about 300 meters from the main water park, remains the land-based add-on for anyone who wants height over water.
Long Hunter State Park is the other constant, and it's bigger than most residents give it credit for. The park's own trail guide puts the total at over 36 miles of hiking across the park's Couchville Lake, Baker's Grove, and Bryant Grove sections, plus the Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area, a Native American mound site inside the park boundary.
| Trail | Distance | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Volunteer Trail | 5.5 miles one way | Lakeshore hike ending at two backcountry campsites |
| Jones Mill (short loop) | 2 miles | Mountain biking, view of the lake from Bald Knob |
| Jones Mill (long loop) | 4 miles | More technical mountain biking, same trailhead |
| Deer Trail | Short loop | Restored prairie, summer wildflowers, swallowtail butterflies |
Percy Priest Lake itself covers roughly 14,200 acres with about 213 miles of shoreline, according to the lake's visitor guide, and it's managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the Nashville District office. None of that changed this year, and none of it needs to.
A weekend, mapped
If you already live in Hermitage, here's roughly what that looks like on the ground right now. Friday night, Flour Your Dreams Bakery's extended hours make a stop after 6 p.m. possible for the first time. Saturday morning, the Volunteer Trail at Long Hunter is quiet before the boat traffic picks up on the lake. Saturday evening, the drone show at Nashville Shores runs at 9 p.m., visible from several points along the shoreline even if you didn't buy a ticket that day. Sunday, the established names still carry the neighborhood: Darfons Restaurant & Bar, Nadeen's Hermitage Haven, and Papa Turney's consistently show up at the top of local restaurant rankings, and Salento has built a following for its Italian menu. These are the places that were good before any of the new projects broke ground, and they're the reason Hermitage's food scene was never actually empty, just thin.
What to watch through the rest of 2026
As of the most recent public reporting on these four projects, none had a confirmed opening date. Cook Out's construction timeline was still unannounced when WKRN first covered it, and the library-adjacent retail, the Stewarts Ferry Pike project, and the grocery store were all still in planning or conversation stages when Huffman discussed them that December. Whether ground has broken on any of them since is worth asking a neighbor or checking in on next time you're on Old Hickory Boulevard, but the underlying pattern holds either way: four separate projects, not one.
What's certain is that Nashville Shores' season runs through the summer with its drone shows continuing on a rotating schedule, and Long Hunter's trails aren't going anywhere regardless of what happens on Old Hickory Boulevard. For a neighborhood that spent years being told to wait, that's not a bad set of things to already have while the rest catches up.
If you're weighing a move to Hermitage, or already own here and want a read on what these changes mean for your property, CHORD Real Estate knows this corridor block by block. Request your personal Real Estate Concierge and we'll walk you through it.
