TV Restaurants

What Happened to Ellendale's Restaurant? (Nashville, TN)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Ellendale's Restaurant has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, 2018.

Primary source
Facebook ·
Secondary source
Yelp ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Community Facebook post said Ellendale's would serve its final Sunday brunch on July 1 before closing, with the closure taking effect in 2018 after nearly nineteen years in business; Yelp's listing, updated January 2026, still marks the address closed.

  • Season / episode Season 12, Episode 4
  • Original air date
  • Address 2739 Old Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37214

Interactive map — loads when you ask for it.

Everything on this map is also in the list below.

© OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO

What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) sent chef Robert Irvine to Ellendale's Restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, for an ambush edition titled "Ambush: Stay ... Or Go?," which aired November 12, 2015. In the ambush format, a family member arranged the visit without owner Julie Buhler's advance knowledge. Ellendale's operated out of a converted farmhouse on Old Elm Hill Pike and had built a following over roughly two decades in business, but the crew found a dated dining room, kitchen workflow problems, and a staff that described feeling unsupported by ownership. Buhler told Irvine on camera that she was carrying substantial debt from purchasing the restaurant, a hardship disclosed during the episode itself. Over the show's compressed schedule, Irvine's team redesigned the dining room, adjusted the menu, and worked with Buhler on communicating more directly with her staff.

A later report from EntertainmentNow described a near-term sales increase following the episode and noted praise for the refreshed look and more consistent food. Buhler kept the restaurant running for roughly two and a half more years after the broadcast. A post in a Nashville neighborhood Facebook group, cited by multiple outlets that track the show's past locations, said Ellendale's would serve its last Sunday brunch on July 1 before closing, with the closure taking effect in 2018 after nearly nineteen years in business; the post attributed the decision to Buhler shifting her focus to Phat Bites, a delicatessen concept she had also been running. Yelp's business page for the address, last updated in January 2026, still carries a closed marker, consistent with that earlier account.

The Old Elm Hill Pike property has drawn separate local coverage in the years since. WKRN reported that the vacant farmhouse structure sustained fire damage, and Fox17 covered concerns raised by neighbors about people sheltering inside the empty building. Neither outlet described any plan to reopen a restaurant there.

No source reviewed for this record pinned the July 1 closing to a specific weekday-and-year combination beyond what is described above, and this summary does not speculate beyond what those outlets reported. Taken together, the available reporting shows a ratings-driven makeover that produced a documented short-term business improvement, followed by an owner-directed wind-down of the restaurant several years later in favor of a different venture, and a property that has remained unused since.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 12, Episode 4
Original air date
Episode title
Ambush: Stay ... Or Go?
What was featured
full kitchen and dining room renovation
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Ellendale's Restaurant

Frequently asked questions

Is Ellendale's Restaurant still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Ellendale's Restaurant has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, 2018.

What happened to Ellendale's Restaurant after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) sent chef Robert Irvine to Ellendale's Restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, for an ambush edition titled "Ambush: Stay ... As of September 2026, Ellendale's Restaurant has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, 2018.

Is Ellendale's Restaurant permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Ellendale's Restaurant has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, 2018. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Ellendale's Restaurant located?

2739 Old Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37214. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Ellendale's Restaurant?

Season 12, Episode 4 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired November 12, 2015. The episode is titled “Ambush: Stay ... Or Go?”.

Did the makeover last at Ellendale's Restaurant?

The episode first aired November 12, 2015. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 11 years later —: As of September 2026, Ellendale's Restaurant has closed — confirmed via the business's own closure notice, 2018.

What do reviews say since Restaurant: Impossible?

No source reviewed for this record pinned the July 1 closing to a specific weekday-and-year combination beyond what is described above, and this summary does not speculate beyond what those outlets reported. We summarise what dated sources report; we do not publish our own rating.

Is Ellendale's Restaurant still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

Over the show's compressed schedule, Irvine's team redesigned the dining room, adjusted the menu, and worked with Buhler on communicating more directly with her staff. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

More from Restaurant: Impossible

Every Restaurant: Impossible restaurant we track

Other TV restaurants in Tennessee

  • 400 Degrees Hot Chicken

    Nashville, TN

    Food Paradise

    Open reported Checked

  • 5th & Taylor

    Nashville, TN

    Food Paradise

    Open verified Checked

  • Adele's

    Nashville, TN

    Best Thing I Ever Ate

    Open verified Checked

  • Arnold's Country Kitchen

    Nashville, TN

    Best Thing I Ever Ate · Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives · Man v. Food

    Closed verified Checked

  • Athens Family Restaurant

    Nashville, TN

    Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

    Closed verified Checked

  • Belcourt Taps

    Nashville, TN

    Mystery Diners

    Closed verified Checked

All Tennessee locations

Nearest tracked restaurants

Visit info

Address
2739 Old Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37214
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • entertainmentnow.com — https://entertainmentnow.com/news/ellendales-restaurant-impossible-nashville-update/
  • Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/groups/16dnash/posts/2202782126429311/
  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/ellendales-nashville-2
  • wkrn.com — https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/historic-donelson-farmhouse-restaurant-ellendalesdamaged-in-fire/
  • fox17.com — https://fox17.com/features/high-cost-of-homelessness/nashville-tennessee-homeless-population-camps-donelson-squatters-takeover-abandoned-ellendales-restaurant-poverty-davidson-county-local-news

See something wrong?

We work hard to keep every status accurate and dated, but restaurants change fast and our sources aren't perfect. If something here is wrong — a status, a name, an address, anything — tell us what you're seeing and where you saw it, and we'll check it.

See something wrong? Tell us →

Share this page

Record ri-137 · last verified .