Real estate developer Southern Land Company opened Lupo Notte, its first full-service restaurant, on September 16 at Vertis Green Hills, the company's flagship mixed-use development in Nashville's Green Hills neighborhood. The 3,100-square-foot Italian concept seats approximately 110 guests indoors and 20 more across two outdoor patios, with a beverage program anchored by Italian-inspired cocktails and an international wine list weighted toward Italian varietals.

The Concept and Kitchen

Executive Chef Owen Lane leads the kitchen, bringing nearly 30 years of hospitality experience including stints at Nashville's Pastis and Audrey, as well as June in East Nashville. The menu centers on house-made pasta — including sweet corn-filled Agnolotti — 12-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas baked in a three-deck oven using 48-hour fermented dough, and shareable starters such as wagyu beef, Italian sausage, and veal meatballs. Locally sourced ingredients are a stated priority. Westhaven Golf Club's Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Director, Manlio Melloni, contributed to menu development alongside Senior Director of Culinary Paul Sale and Executive Vice President of Hospitality Alex Cauchon.

General Manager David Rehrmann, whose résumé includes A Voce in New York City and Modern Italian and Zuzu in Nashville, oversees day-to-day operations. Cauchon described the hire of Chef Lane as central to the concept: "He has incredible respect for quality ingredients, a masterful understanding of technique, and a genuine passion for creating memorable experiences for every guest."

Design and Operator Strategy

The space was designed by Southern Land's in-house team in collaboration with Nashville firm HASTINGS Architecture. The layout moves guests from a glass-walled conservatory bar — anchored by a custom mural of the restaurant's wolf mascot and an eight-seat Chef's Counter overlooking the open kitchen — into a main dining room that opens onto a courtyard patio. HASTINGS Principal David Bailey said the expansion into the courtyard was designed to draw in foot traffic from the surrounding Vertis Green Hills community.

The restaurant opening represents a deliberate pivot in Southern Land's placemaking model. The developer, whose current project pipeline is valued at $5 billion across nine states, already operates dining facilities at Westhaven Golf Club in Franklin, Tennessee, but Lupo Notte is its first standalone, full-service restaurant concept. Founder and CEO Tim Downey framed it as a long-term community investment rather than a one-off amenity: "Every detail has been carefully considered, from the menu to the design to the service, with the goal of creating an everlasting upscale dining destination that serves this community and all of Nashville for generations."

The move reflects a broader trend among mixed-use developers deploying proprietary food-and-beverage programming as a traffic driver and differentiator — a strategy increasingly visible across upscale urban hospitality developments as operators look to activate ground-floor retail through culinary anchors.

Lupo Notte is currently open for dinner only, Sunday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Lunch service and online ordering are scheduled to launch later in fall 2026. Reservations are available via the restaurant's website and OpenTable.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.