Brentwood Staple Wild Iris Closes Its Doors

After 22 years in business, Brentwood restaurant Wild Iris has closed its doors.

Located at 127 Franklin Rd. in the Brentwood House Shopping Center, the long-standing American restaurant had its last service this past Saturday. But unlike the rash of closings that marked the first two months of 2018, owners Katie and Gep Nelson tell Brentwood Home Page that they didn’t close because of market pressure or an increasingly crowded field of restaurants and bars, but because of their desire to downsize. Katie Nelson says that they received an offer to sell the business, and with their daughter heading to college in the near future, they want to focus on one restaurant, referring to The Yellow Porch, the couple’s Berry Hill eatery which opened in 1998.

But the space will continue to live on as a restaurant, with Nelson hinting that the new business could be a New York-style pizza joint.

The Nelsons previously owned a third restaurant, Cross Corner Bar & Grill, in Brentwood. But it closed in the summer of 2016, opening back up last summer under new ownership as Ludlow & Prime.

• Wild Iris Restaurant Closes After Nearly 22 Years in Brentwood [Brentwood Home Page]
• Tracking 2018’s Nashville Restaurant Closures [ENASH]