Tin Angel has served as the backdrop for engagements, graduation parties, date nights and anniversaries for a quarter of a century.

The cozy brick restaurant has remained a staple on West End Avenue, a go-to for diners young and old, as Nashville bursts at the seams with new development, trendy eateries and high-end cocktail bars.

Tin Angel’s circular fireplace, tin ceiling and exposed brick walls provide a respite from the shiny new restaurants popping up all over the city. The menu is comforting and familiar, with some surprises, and it often features what's in season.

But for owners Rick and Vicki Bolsom, it’s time for a new chapter in life and that means closing Tin Angel. They’ve sold both the building and the restaurant at 3201 West End Ave. to Nashville-based Grace Development, which plans to eventually have another restaurant in the building to serve the neighborhood.

Tin Angel will host its final dinner service on Saturday, March 23.

“We’ve been doing this for 32 years — owning and operating a series of restaurants. We really want to explore other parts of life before we’re too old to do it and enjoy it,” said Rick Bolsom, sitting inside the 80-year-old building, which he and a group of investors bought for $475,000 in 2006.

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The Bolsoms were trailblazers in Nashville’s dining scene when they opened Cakewalk on West End Avenue in 1987. They hired Deb Paquette to helm the kitchen, who would go on to become one of Nashville’s most beloved chefs and who continues to thrill foodies at her restaurants Etch and Etc. Cakewalk was one of the few independently owned restaurants at the time where the food was fresh and seasonal.

“We were doing things that weren’t just boring,” explained Rick Bolsom, a New York native with a journalism background who moved to Nashville in the 70s. “At the same time, we had to be very careful, because if you just did cool food or whatever you want to call it, the audience wasn’t quite developed yet.”

The Bolsoms opened Tin Angel in 1993 as a more casual counterpart to Cakewalk. They poured time and money into fixing up the building once home to Bishop’s Pub, Bishop’s Corner and 32nd Avenue Brasserie, and launched Tin Angel as a kind of elevated meat ‘n’ three.

But that menu didn’t resonate with enough customers. They went back to the drawing board and relaunched with a more contemporary menu, but different than what Cakewalk was serving down the street. Rick Bolsom said he wanted Tin Angel to be a comfortable restaurant with good food, good service and fair prices.

“And success,” Rick Bolsom said. “You have to listen to the people. You think you know what’s right, and you may be right, but you’re still wrong.”

The Bolsoms would go on to partner with Paquette in converting Cakewalk to Zola, which was a Nashville favorite until it closed in 2010. Rick Bolsom helped launch the now-successful Nashville Originals, an association of independent restaurants, to protect the city’s local operators from an infiltration of chains.

The Bolsoms and their like-minded peers — including Randy Rayburn, Bob Bernstein, Deb Paquette, Margot McCormack, Tom Loventhal and Jody Faison — helped establish a true food culture in Nashville, which today is widely considered a culinary destination.

There comes a point, though, where it’s time to pass the torch to the next generation of restaurateurs. For the Bolsoms, the time is now, even though business at Tin Angel is good.

“There comes a time where you need to step back and retire, and we feel that we very carefully spent a lot of time looking at a lot of options and trying to find someone who would best represent what we consider the character of the restaurant, the neighborhood and the property,” said Rick Bolsom.

Grace Development owns commercial and residential property in Tennessee and five other states, including the Westboro apartment building across from Tin Angel.

“We really have enjoyed our years of dining at the Tin Angel and look forward to having a restaurant to serve that neighborhood in the future,” said Frederick Grace of Grace Development. Specific plans for the building aren't yet known.

As for the Bolsoms, they plan to travel and volunteer in their retirement and look forward to a new lease on life after three decades in the restaurant business.

“The biggest thing I’ll miss is just the interaction with the people. Both the people I work with — they’re extended family and we’re always going to be family — and my customers,” Rick Bolsom said.

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