Longshot Hospitality to open new Nashville restaurant at Peabody Union

Hadley Hitson, Nashville TennesseanFri, May 8, 2026 at 10:05 AM UTC

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Popular Washington, D.C., restaurant group Longshot Hospitality wanted to join the Nashville market years ago, announcing interest in the East Bank in 2024. Now, the company is looking to the other side of the Cumberland River for its first Tennessee restaurant.

Longshot will open Ometeo, a nostalgic blend of Texas and Mexican cuisine, at Peabody Union in the South Bank neighborhood near downtown Nashville in fall 2027, owners said. Partner Jeremy Carman and "Top Chef" winner Gabe Erales shared the exclusive details of their plans with The Tennessean on May 6.

"With how familiar we're becoming with Nashville, the relationships we're forming down there, we just fell in love with the area," Carman said. "We thought it would be a great offering to Nashville."

The Ometeo deal was in the works long before coffee giant Starbucks signed a lease for all of the development's office space, Carman said, but the regional headquarters news only adds to the excitement.

"We visited that area when it was just under construction, a hole in the ground, and we were very interested in the project," he said. "It was obviously a home run for one tenant to come in and relocate part of a Fortune 500 company to take all of their office space, but it was always special. We feel very fortunate to be on the ground there already and for Starbucks to come in. Hopefully, we can be a great amenity to them."

Exterior photo of the Peabody Union building where Starbucks’ future Nashville office will be located Tuesday, April 21, 2026.

As the newest addition to the South Bank, Peabody Union is a mixed-use development from local developer Ray Hensler that includes retail space, a residential tower and an office tower, which will officially be home to Starbucks's Nashville office by the end of the year.

Carman and Erales last visited Nashville in December 2025, and they said the transformation was evident. In past visits, the apartments were just starting to be leased out, and the office building was a blank slate.

By December 2025, residents were moved in, and tenants like Jeni's Ice Cream and Moxies Restaurant signed their leases with projected 2026 opening timelines.

Longshot Hospitality is no stranger to up-and-coming neighborhoods, though. The group's very first restaurant in D.C. was in the Navy Yard neighborhood, right on the Anacostia River, before riverfront real estate in the area became popular.

"There's a bit of a leap of faith, but we had a vision," Carman said. "It's always a challenge, but we believe in the concept. We make sure it's a great product, and eventually, people will come out for it."

Longshot Hospitality plans to open a Tex-Mex restaurant Ometeo in Peabody Union near Downtown Nashville in 2027.How 'Top Chef' winner Gabe Erales started Ometeo

At the start of his professional culinary career, Erales worked in restaurants that were the opposite of Tex-Mex comfort food, opting instead for jobs in lauded, high-brow kitchens like Dai Due and Noma.

Growing up near El Paso, Texas, and with years of travels across Mexico under his belt, the Tex-Mex cuisine felt nostalgic. Then he realized that he could introduce these dishes to a fresh audience who would be eating chile relleno or avocado leaf guacamole for the first time.

In 2019, he opened one of Austin, Texas's best new restaurants Comedor, as recognized by "Esquire" and "Texas Monthly." Erales went on the win the 18th season of "Top Chef," becoming the show's first Mexican American winner.

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The inside of the Ometeo restaurant in Tysons, Virginia.

He launched two modern Mexican restaurants in Texas and experienced a rocky few years in his personal life before finding his way to partner with Longshot Hospitality.

Longshot and Erales debuted the first location of Ometeo in Tysons, Virginia, in 2023.

"When we opened Ometeo at Tysons, we were hoping to do a lot of the things that got me really excited about my childhood," Erales said. "We had to draw back a little bit because of lack of familiarity of the region. Some people don't know what a chile relleno even is. They don't know that even though it's fried, it's not going to be crispy."

The Nashville location is yet another opportunity for Erales to bring his childhood favorites to new customers.

Inside Ometeo's menu: Fresh tortillas, live fire cooking, Mexican shrimp cocktail

An Ometeo employee makes tortillas at the Tysons, Virginia, location.

Ometeo Nashville will have a "progressive" Tex-Mex menu, Erales said.

To preface the menu, all corn and flour tortillas will be made from scratch, and patrons will receive the typical, free chips and salsa at the start of every meal.

The rest of the offerings get more creative. Appetizer highlights include a Mexican shrimp cocktail served with fried saltines, octopus tostadas, ceviches and aguachiles, a spicy raw seafood concoction with lime and peppers.

Main dishes range from massive machete quesadillas to fajitas, oysters and whole beef ribs.

"We're also doing our version of Steak Tampiqueña that's marinated and grilled," Erales said. "It's probably the first time we've ever done your traditional Tex-Mex combo plate. This is kind of a big thing for us when that was something we didn't want to do in the beginning, but it's been received really well."

There will be a molino program that will enable the preparation of fresh masa, plus live-fire cooking and tableside preparations like The Campfire Dessert with a flambeed marshmallow merengue.

"We're really excited about bringing some of these whimsical, novelty things to the Nashville area that still have a lot of honest, cultural significance to Texas and borderland cuisine," Erales said.

Hadley Hitson covers business news for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to The Tennessean.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 'Top Chef' winner heads to Nashville with new restaurant

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