New Restaurants in Clarksville TN: Your Fall 2026 Guide
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"This place is a landmark," Dwight Palmer told Clarksville Now on August 12. He had been standing in the walk-up line at Chi-Town Hot Dogs for about an hour before the doors opened for the first time in five years.
Three days later and a few miles north, Poor Man's Country Club on Madison Street poured its last drinks. Arapaap's original owners served their final meal on Main Street the same day. Put this summer's openings and closings on a map and a pattern shows up. The changes with a local story attached, the comebacks, the farewells, the relocations, landed on Riverside Drive, Franklin Street, College Street, Main Street and Madison Street. Those are the parts of Clarksville with the longest memories. The new arrivals along Wilma Rudolph Boulevard and out at Exit 8 are mostly national chains, or they're still a sign on a fence.
Riverside Drive saw three changes in about four weeks.
| Address | Business | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 1057 S. Riverside Dr. | Chi-Town Hot Dogs | Reopened Aug. 12, 2026, after a five-year closure |
| 419 N. Riverside Dr. | Cheba Hut | New toasted-sub shop, scheduled to open Aug. 14, 2026, and operating now |
| 674 N. Riverside Dr. | O'Charley's | Closed in September 2026 when the chain shut its remaining restaurants |
The Chi-Town reopening is the one with history behind it. Dan and Donna Johnson opened the restaurant in Clarksville in 1993 after moving here from Chicago, and it later moved to its Riverside Drive spot. It closed in 2021. Dan has come back to run it with longtime family friend and business partner Elizabeth Self. The menu is close to what longtime customers remember, with Chicago-style hot dogs, brats and Italian beef. One customer from Chicago, Russell Matheny, told reporters the kitchen "did a great job" recreating it.
Before you drive over, check the hours. Chi-Town is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and closed Sunday through Tuesday.
Cheba Hut keeps much later hours on the north end of the same road. The shop's own page lists 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It's a franchise run by a local group whose first restaurant was in Nashville's Donelson area. The menu covers toasted subs, sides, sweets, Kool-Aid drinks and 20 beers.
O'Charley's at 674 N. Riverside closed in early September, when the Nashville-based chain shut all its remaining locations. Clarksville Now's report on the closure didn't say what will happen to the building.
Riverside gained one familiar name. Downtown gained businesses that picked it on purpose, and Leatherwood Distillery shows that best.
Andy Lang started Leatherwood in Pleasant View in 2017. "We were in Pleasant View for six years, moved to Progress Drive for two years, and now we're here," he told Clarksville Online in July. "Here" is a purpose-built distillery at 119 College St. It sits across from the Millan Parking Garage and a short walk from Shelby's Trio and the F&M Bank Arena. Inside are a tasting room, a party room, a patio, and a production floor with a barrel room you can tour. The new building holds about 150 people. Its warming kitchen handles light food, and Shelby's Trio caters the bigger events. Lang also told Clarksville Online to watch for specials tied to events at the arena.
The distillery pours bourbon, rye and Tennessee straight whiskey, plus flavored rums in elderberry, peach, apple pie and jalapeño lemon. It's veteran-owned and a stop on the Tennessee Whiskey Trail. The posted hours have changed since opening. The July article said it was closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and the website now lists Tuesday hours. Here's the current schedule from the site:
Two blocks over, Kinlea's Cheesecakes opened in August at 125 Franklin St. Owner Reggie Outland started it with cheesecakes he made for a birthday. The five staple flavors are plain, strawberry, coffee toffee, Oreo and banana pudding, with others rotating weekly. Custom orders need two days. The savory side of the menu is stuffed burgers. The Pizza is a sausage-and-beef patty filled with pepperoni and mozzarella, and the Chili Cheese Tot has tater tots inside. When it opened in August, Kinlea's listed hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and said those could change over the coming months.
Downtown is also where an ownership change is keeping a restaurant alive. Arapaap at 100 Main St. opened in 2021, and its founding siblings closed their chapter on August 15. When the handoff was announced on August 12, the new owners weren't named. The departing owners said the musubis, firecracker chicken, ube parfaits and baked salmon would stay on the menu, and that the grand reopening date would be announced later.
The same demand that brought a distillery to College Street also put a price on older corners of the core, and Poor Man's Country Club is the clearest example.
The bar at Madison Street and Memorial Drive called itself "the oldest bar in town." According to owner Bill Langford, B.B. Drinkard started it, probably in the 1940s and possibly the 1930s. It then passed to C. Gordon Jumper, a World War I veteran who sang, told jokes and did magic tricks for customers. When Memorial Hospital went up across the street in 1954, the bar and the hospital traded phone numbers. The pay phone number at Poor Man's was posted in the labor and delivery room so staff could reach husbands waiting at the bar.
The hospital came down in 2011 and a Publix went up in its place. Back then, the bar's landlord told the owner at the time, Rose Kitchen, that the bar would stay. This year the property sold to a bank, which the owners didn't name. Langford said the building is expected to be torn down for a new development once the bar is cleaned out.
"A very special thanks to all the artists that played in front of the most famous windows in Clarksville."
That line comes from Bill and Donna Langford's goodbye post. The July closing report didn't mention plans to relocate, and it didn't say what the planned development would be.
Wilma Rudolph Boulevard did get a confirmed opening. Bob's Discount Furniture held its grand opening September 4 at 2821 Wilma Rudolph Blvd., near Governor's Square Mall. It's the chain's 230th store. Most of the other activity out there is still pending:
Two local businesses did open something outside the core. Hilltop Supermarket at 400 TN-149 added a self-serve Picadeli salad bar with vegetables, proteins, cheeses, pasta salads and prepared salads. In Sango, the Good Ground Harvest Market started its first season on September 22 at Bible Baptist Church, 3102 Prospect Circle. It runs Tuesdays from 4 to 7 p.m. through November 24, and admission is free. Vendors include Sweeter Days Farm, J's Meats & More, Davis Family Farm and Grace & Grains Bakery. Urban Eats – Burgasm and E's Squeezed Lemonade sell food on site.
These places keep very different hours, so the order you visit them in matters.
Mary McCooley has lived in Clarksville since 1985, so she has watched Riverside Drive, Madison Street and downtown change over decades. If you're curious what's planned near your block, or what this season's changes could mean for the blocks around your home, Mary McCooley is happy to talk it through. When you're ready to look at homes near the places you like best, Start Your Property Search.
Whether you're buying your first home, relocating with the military, or preparing to sell your property, working with Mary McCooley means working with someone who is all in—for you.