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Nathan Zucker
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Nathan Zucker
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Nathan Zucker
Present Tense reopens March 6th in a new 40-seat space in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood — a deliberate return to intimacy.
Nathan Zucker
Founded by creative director / chef Ryan Costanza and partner / sake sommelier Rick Margaritov, Present Tense was always intended to feel dense, personal, and immediate. Its original 120-seat footprint clarified something essential: scale was never the goal.
The new home is smaller by design — 40 seats inside, plus one of the most dynamic patio spaces in the neighborhood. The room pairs warm wood with raw concrete, minimalist but softer than before. A JBL-driven hi-fi system anchors the space, vinyl spinning nightly. Music isn’t background — it guides the pace of the evening.
The space itself was designed by Costanza, from initial drawings to lighting and sound direction, and executed alongside friend of the restaurant and builder Jacob Keiser — resulting in a room that feels personal rather than produced.
“We weren’t trying to be bigger,” says Costanza. “We were trying to get closer.”
The kitchen narrows its focus to roughly 12 dishes, available à la carte or as an $88 per person omakase. Returning favorites include grilled seaweed bread with raw tuna, variations on Japanese sweet potato, and the now-signature miso white sesame soft serve.
New additions reflect the restaurant’s Paris-meets-Japan through-line: Parisian-style gnocchi, koji rice risotto with chanterelles, sake and white asparagus, pristine oysters, and rotating sashimi selections — sometimes dry-aged, sometimes served at peak freshness.
The cocktail program is led by Mario Salas, formerly of Miami and New York, where he helped build award-winning bar programs including Saxon & Parole and contributed to Miami’s Broken Shaker during its World’s 50 Best Bars recognition. He also helped open Soho House Nashville’s bar program. His approach — rooted in precision, restraint, and a strong sense of fashion and design — aligns seamlessly with Present Tense’s ethos.
Present Tense remains first and foremost a restaurant and listening bar. One or two nights each week, the space shifts into a DJ-driven listening room — vinyl forward, sound elevated, the room compressed into something more kinetic. It’s not a nightclub pivot, but a natural extension of the atmosphere built nightly.
Part of what makes the move significant is its adjacency to Flamingo. The two share a hallway — literally the same bathroom corridor — and feed off each other’s energy. Guests move fluidly between spaces; dinner can stretch into cocktails, or the night can begin at Flamingo and settle into a late table at Present Tense. The relationship is symbiotic, each lifting the other.
There are even quiet collaborations in motion — including select vegan dishes crafted by Present Tense occasionally appearing on Flamingo’s menu.
The reopening is less a reinvention than a refinement.
Smaller. Warmer. Closer.
Present Tense is no longer built to be large.
It’s built to be felt.