Lizzy Alfs

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

After 23 years on West End Avenue, there’s a good chance Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery won’t reopen after renovations as originally planned.

Owner Kent Taylor recently hung an “Available” sign on the building at 1918 West End Ave. and he is looking for someone to sublease the space for the remainder of his two and a half year lease.

Taylor said he’s not fit to run a restaurant — a role that was once filled by Blackstone co-founder Stephanie Weins, who died of cancer three years ago.

“I can’t do it myself,” Taylor said. “What I learned about restaurants I learned from Stephanie and the one thing I did learn is I don’t know how to run a restaurant.”

Taylor and Weins were pioneers in the craft beer industry, long before Nashville was home to dozens of breweries and boasted the largest craft beer scene in the state. In fact, when Blackstone opened on West End in 1994, Taylor said customers would leave because he didn’t sell Bud Light.

The brewery has expanded markedly since then, including opening a 15,000-square-foot production facility and taproom at 2312 Clifton Ave. that features floor to ceiling glass walls to give customers a direct view of production and bottling. The taproom, called Blackstone Taphouse, opened to the public last summer and Taylor said it has been a success.

The brewery also distributes to Tennessee bars, restaurants and grocery stores.

“The Blackstone beer brand is still healthy and operating, it’s just the restaurant is not feasible with my skillset,” Taylor said.

Around the time Blackstone Taphouse opened, Taylor closed the West End Avenue brewpub for renovations. He was going to rehab the facility and reopen it in partnership with a Nashville restaurant group that would handle daily operations of the restaurant.

But Taylor said he wasn’t able to get a lease extension on the building and the two and a half years left on his current lease wasn’t long enough to make the deal work.

Taylor’s still not completely ruling out the idea of Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery reopening if he found a partner who wanted to run the restaurant for the remainder of the lease. But he’s also entertaining sublease inquiries.

“We’re looking at a variety of options of what to do with it. Again, the best thing would be for it to be operated as a restaurant, either Blackstone or a different one, but two and a half years is pretty short. That’s the struggle,” Taylor said.

He said he receives about one call a day from people interested in the space and he’s shown the building five or six times.

Taylor said he has mixed emotions about closing the brewpub but said Blackstone will continue serving customers out of its Clifton Avenue facility.

“We’re coming to the end of that era as far as Blackstone is concerned,” Taylor said, referring to the West End brewpub. “Even if we could have kept it open and even if we were to open it, we’re just near the end of that particular part of Blackstone, but it doesn’t mean the Blackstone brand isn’t living on, and it is.”

Reach Lizzy Alfs at lalfs@tennessean.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.