Dallas-based Milkshake Concepts has pivoted with its future SoBro business, with the future restaurant to be called Layer Cake and slated to open in early January.
The restaurant, which is taking the former space of Hastings Architecture Associates at 127 Third Ave. S., was to have been called Stirr. Work on the rooftop space is underway. Nearby are Goo Goo Shop, The Johnny Cash Museum and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, among others.
This will be Milkshake Concepts’ first business located outside Texas, as the Post reported in December 2020.
Imran Sheikh, Milkshake Concepts CEO, told the Post recently that the company decided while addressing COVID-19 considerations “for a variety of reasons, we would no longer continue the Stirr brand.”
“The uniqueness of the building meant it deserved its own brand,” he added. “But at no point did we ever wilt in our belief that Nashville would come back. We remain as committed as ever to not only this project but to Nashville as a whole.”
Sheikh said the main level of the building will accommodate Cherry Lounge (with a dinner-only menu). Each of the other three levels will provide different offerings. The second-floor dining room is set for what “we hope will be Nashville’s most impressive dessert offerings,” Sheikh said.
The rooftop space will provide a disc jockey and television for watching sports, yielding a “hybrid” space of sorts, he said.
Sheikh said Milkshake Concepts is not disclosing the cost to get Layer Cake operational. Nashville-based Powell Architecture + Building Studio will handle design and build-out duties.
Hastings Holdings LLC, which is affiliated with Hastings Architecture Associates, owns the building from which Layer Cake will operate. HAA operates at the former Ben West Main Library Building that addresses both Union Street and Polk Avenue.
Founded in 2015, Milkshake Concepts is home to more than 500 employees.