The Green Pheasant Brings Exotic New Lunch Options to Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville has an exotic new lunch option courtesy of The Green Pheasant, a modern Japanese eatery from the team behind East Nashville’s Two Ten Jack.

Written by Chris Chamberlain
The Green Pheasant Brings Exotic New Lunch Options to Downtown Nashville
Andrea Behrends

Downtown Nashville has an exotic new lunch option courtesy of The Green Pheasant, a modern Japanese eatery from the team behind East Nashville’s Two Ten Jack. Named after the national bird of Japan, The Green Pheasant is the brainchild of the husband/wife chef team Trey Burnette and Jess Benefield and their partner in Seed Hospitality Patrick Burke. After opening for dinners only to great acclaim earlier this month, The Green Pheasant has recently added all-day service, including lunch and what they are calling their Ikigai Happy Hour from 2 to 5 p.m. Ikigai roughly translates to “reason for being,” and it should prove to also be a reason for a little day-drinking downtown. Five percent of the proceeds from the limited happy hour menu will be donated to different community organizations every month.

Andrea Behrends

For lunch, the chefs have selected items from the dinner menu plus a few specials to be presented as part of set meals, known in Japan as teishoku. These lunch deals will consist of a main dish, miso soup, tsukemono, rice and rotating daily side dishes. Diners can expect a greatest hits of the dinner fare including Opah Shioyaki (grilled Hawaiian moonfish), Yakiniku (seared TN skirt steak), Tonkatsu (pork cutlet and snowy cabbage) and Kushiyaki (grilled eggplant, avocado and shiitake).

Fans of Benefield and Burnette’s work at Two Ten Jack should be excited that they will be bringing their excellent ramen game to the west side of the river with a selection of noodle bowls including Shio Wontonmen (chashu, shrimp wonton, chicken and smoked ham broth, greens, menma and ajitama) and Yasai Shoyu (vegetable broth, tofu puff, radish, cabbage and charcoal oil). They’ll also offer other noodle dishes at lunch such as Katsudon (chicken cutlet, dashi, egg and mitsuba) and Udon (bonito carbonara, almonds and pepper).

Andrea Behrends

Located in the new 222 2nd Avenue South Building at 215 1st Avenue S, right across the street from the entrance to Ascend Amphitheater, The Green Pheasant is easily accessible from Broadway but still tucked far enough away from the craziness of downtown to offer a refuge from the crowds. The Ikigai Happy Hour should prove popular for locals looking for a spot to meet up without having to brave the traffic or who want to grab a bite before a show at the amphitheater.

Andrea Behrends

Self-parking and valet are available in the building’s garage. The Green Pheasant is open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., happy hour Monday. through Friday 2 to 5 p.m., and dinner Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m. Sunday supper will hopefully start up soon.

Reservations can be made at www.thegreenpheasant.com or by calling (615) 205-5400.