Leading up to New Year’s Eve, rumors were circulating online that South on Main had closed and the scheduled New Year’s Eve show featuring The Rodney Block Collective had been canceled. Calls to the restaurant on Friday and Saturday went unanswered.
South on Main owner Don Dugan confirmed by phone this morning that the restaurant stopped service last week. Dugan said he’s agreed in terms on the sale of the restaurant and expects to close on it this week.
Dugan said there were “issues going on that needed to be dealt with,” and they were already planning on shutting down at the end of the year to retool and rebrand.
“Then the opportunity to sell came up so I just felt like that was probably the right way to go,” he said.
Brian ChilsonDugan, along with wife and business partner Tasha Stratton, purchased South on Main at the beginning of 2020 when chef Matt Bell sold the restaurant after accepting the executive chef position at Gray & Dudley, the restaurant in the 21c Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Bell opened South on Main in partnership with The Oxford American in 2013.
Dugan took over the restaurant just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“February of 2020, perfect timing, right?” he said. The restaurant kept the Southern-style menu theme, but the programming partnership with Oxford American didn’t continue on after the pandemic started, Dugan said.
“We’ve been able to navigate three restaurants and a grocery store through COVID and everything else. It’s been a struggle, but it’s been OK, it’s been good. We’ve had a lot of good things happen there and I’m happy about that,” Dugan said.
Dugan and Stratton still owns Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Dugan’s Pub and Stratton’s Market. Dugan said operating Dizzy’s through COVID and the destruction of the 630 bridge, which was adjacent to and above the restaurant, wasn’t an ideal situation.
“They closed the street for a while,” he said. “That was not fun. That definitely hurt our business, but I think a lot of things are finally starting to come back around.” It took a while, he said, but now when you look out the window at Dizzy’s the view is no longer a concrete wall.
“You actually can see, it’s really nice,” he said. “We’re keeping in the spirit with what Darla [Huie] started, and a lot of those recipes we still have on the menu because, frankly, they work. So there was no point in trying to change it. We’ve made a few adjustment and added a couple things. It’s been really good. I’m very proud of it, still the best cheese dip in the world,” he said. “Dugan’s, that thing is just a big machine, it just keeps rolling, man. So I’m very thankful for that.”
