A restaurant built around local farmers and distinctive regional foodways will soon serve its final meal.
Audrey, the East Nashville Appalachian restaurant, will close after service on Aug. 16. That's according to a July 29 statement from Southall Farm and Inn, which assumed operational oversight of the restaurant in 2025.
"We are deeply proud of what this restaurant represented: a celebration of Appalachian food and culture, brought to life by an extraordinarily talented culinary team in one of Nashville's most vibrant communities," the statement said.
The company did not provide a specific reason for the closure.
When Chef Sam Jett took over Audrey's kitchen last year, he told The Tennessean he wanted to continue the restaurant's exploration of
Appalachia through its people as much as its food.
That philosophy was instilled by founding Chef Sean Brock, who built a culinary lab on the restaurant's second floor overlooking June, his ambitious Appalachian tasting menu restaurant that closed in 2024.
Jett used the lab but increasingly focused on deepening relationships with local farmers and telling stories through dishes rooted in regional traditions and fleeting seasonal ingredients.
Like Brock, Jett drew inspiration for his Appalachian cooking from a grandmother who grew up in Wise County, Virginia. In Brock's case, that grandmother was Audrey, the restaurant's namesake.
Jett made Audrey his own while building on the foundation Brock created. Under his leadership, the restaurant earned Michelin Recommended status while continuing to push the boundaries of seasonal, local cooking through an Appalachian lens.
"All good things must come to an end," Jett told The Tennessean just hours after the closure was formally announced.
Audrey latest in Sean Brock-founded restaurant closures
Audrey's shuttering follows the recent closure of Joyland, another Brock-founded concept. Jett said he worries Brock has unfairly become a target of criticism despite no longer being involved in the day-to-day operations of either restaurant.
"He really believed in me," Jett said. "He saw something in me, and that's something that I'm always going to be forever grateful for."
Brock's fine-dining restaurant The Continental closed in September 2023, making way for Bar Continental, a vinyl-listening bar that closed eight months later in May 2024.
In Nashville, only Brock's Sho Pizza Bar remains.
Why is Audrey closing?
Jett said he saw the warning signs, but only recently learned of Audrey's fate.
"I knew that the trends in the economy weren't great," he said. "But there were no specific dates until very recently."
Though the chef said he's still figuring out his own next chapter, his immediate concern is finding jobs for Audrey's roughly 20 to 30 employees and supporting the farmers who supplied its kitchen.
"I can speak to the fact that this loss of income is tough on them," he said.
Jett said Audrey proved cooking almost exclusively with local ingredients could work. The challenge wasn't his kitchen budget. It was working out of a 10,000-square-foot building.
"It's a huge building, and it is an expensive building," he said. "The reality of Audrey is we require a large amount of guests to function, and we just weren't seeing that."
Jett said he worries the closure reflects broader challenges facing Nashville's independent restaurant scene, especially as deep-pocketed restaurant groups continue to stake claims on the city.
"I've been cooking for 29 years now, and this may be the worst year I've ever seen in restaurants," he said. "I hope that some of these other spots that are Nashville-born and raised can survive this."
Despite the closure, Jett said he leaves proud of what he accomplished at Audrey.
"I got to prove to myself, if nothing else, that you don't have to rely on something like Sysco to survive in the restaurant world," he said. "You can actually do amazing things without having to be stuck with mass-produced stuff."
What's next for the Audrey building?
Southall declined to discuss what's next for the sprawling former restaurant space at 809 Meridian St.
"While we don't have any information to share regarding the future of the building, it is a remarkable piece of architecture, and we are confident whatever comes next will be a wonderful addition to East Nashville," the statement said.
Meridian Partners lead developer Elliott Kyle said he's already thinking about the next step for the space.
"My imagination is running wild with what may come next for that building," Kyle said. "I'm biased, but it's the most beautiful restaurant I've ever seen. That's a credit to Sean and his vision."
Reach senior dining reporter Mackensy Lunsford at mlunsford@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's Audrey will close. Chef Sam Jett explains why, what's next
