Mel’s Drive-In Plans Nashville Debut

Mel’s Drive-in is making the leap to Nashville, with plans to open its first location outside of California in downtown Nashville in May or June of 2025. It will open at 152 Second Ave. N , a space formerly occupied by B.B. King’s Blues Club.

The family-owned business has eight locations centered around the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. It first opened in 1947 as a carhop diner in San Francisco under the ownership of founders Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs. It closed in 1976, but was revived by Mel’s son Steven Weiss in 1985. Since then, Mel’s has expanded to Southern California.

The plans to add a Nashville location reflect Mel’s classic American diner brand.

“Mel’s has always been an American classic — that’s our slogan,” said Colton Weiss , who is Mel’s grandson and now involved in running the business. “We just feel Nashville is another American classic. We fell in love with all the country music and we loved all the action.”

Weiss said that customers can expect a concept similar to the other locations, but with “a little Tennessee flair.” Their menu offers classic diner options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, including burgers, sliders and shakes. They also offer a wide range of healthy options, such as a quinoa kale salad.

Weiss said they are excited to be part of the effort to revive Second Avenue after the Christmas Day bombing in 2020. He said the business also enjoys using historical buildings as restaurant spots. For example, one of their Southern California locations marks the end of Route 66. The Nashville site will be no different, occupying the former B.B. King’s space in a building that was first constructed in the 1920s.

“We’ve always loved taking over historic buildings, so all our locations in Los Angeles are historic buildings,” Weiss said. “That’s what we were looking for in Nashville — taking something that had a story to it, that was very historic, that had rich Tennessee history to it. We’re big fans of B.B. King’s, and we’ll be paying homage to him in our new restaurant.”

Weiss teased a special concept set to come to the Nashville location, though he has not released details on it yet.

“We want to be a place for everybody,” Weiss said. “That’s how we are in LA. We are also a family business, so we want to have a lot of families come in. We love serving kids meals in our 1955 Chevy cardboard cars. That’s what people love about Mel’s — we want to be a diner for everyone.”

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