Tupelo Honey Cafe to open in Franklin

An Asheville, N.C.-based restaurant chain plans to bring its signature sweet potato pancakes with whipped peach butter to Franklin this year.

Tupelo Honey Cafe plans to open in the fall at Boyle Investment Co.'s Meridian Cool Springs, a 60-acre mixed-use development at the intersection of Carothers Parkway and Meridian Boulevard that includes more than 70,000 square feet of retail space along with offices, restaurants and two hotels.

The restaurant chain opened its first outlet in downtown Asheville in 2000, serving Southern-inspired cuisine. Menu items include a signature sweet potato pancake, buttermilk fried chicken and biscuits, fried green tomatoes, herbed lamb meatballs, chorizo and goat cheese grits, ham wontons, fried chicken BLT, salads and soups. Customizable supper plates allow customers to pair proteins with side dishes.

"We've been looking in Middle Tennessee for some time," Tupelo Honey Cafe CEO Steve Frabitore said in a prepared statement. "The Meridian Cool Springs development is the perfect spot for us."

The Franklin restaurant will be 7,000 square feet with seating for 150 indoors and 50 on an outdoor patio. There will be 40 craft beer taps, including options from local brewers. A craft cocktail program will incorporate spirits from Tennessee distillers along with house-made mixers and syrups.

Tupelo Honey Cafe will employ about 140 people at the new location.

The restaurant chain recently underwent a re-branding effort, by adding smaller portions and salads to the menu and making tweaks to the aesthetic. The chain is in growth mode and also plans to open two restaurants in Virginia this year.

Tupelo Honey Cafe has Tennessee outlets in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.