Elliston Place Soda Shop Nashville TN

May 2022: Elloston Place Soda Shop opens up next door to original location! We visited it and here are the photos on the Retro Roadmap Instagram page! Make sure to check there for the most recent updates from the road from all of our travels!

2019 Update: Elliston Place Soda Shop closes for restoration after institution changes hands - with plans to reopen in 2020: Read about it here

UPDATE 7/22/11: The Elliston Place Soda Shop will remain open! Thanks to reader Jason for sending this article about the Elliston Place Soda Shop NOT closing.

Here's our original piece on the soda shop:

They say don't shoot the messenger, so don't be mad at me or Retro Roadmap Reader Mike Hauer, who was kind enough to update me that the Elliston Place Soda Shop in Nashville, TN is scheduled to close on August 1 because they are unable to pay their rent.

You can read the details here in the article Mike sent me.

We visited the soda shop - which has been open since 1939 - during our short visit to Music City and just had not written about it yet. The Elliston Place Soda Shop is the oldest continually operating (in one location) restaurant in Nashville.
Though we were fit to burst (well, I was anyways) we could not resist the call of the neon ice cream soda and air conditioned comfort. Retro Roadhusband also liked that it was right next door to a music store.

They had your usual lunch counter style fare - award winning burgers, "Fresh Fruit Ades", milkshakes and more. There was a table of sweet old ladies sitting right next to us who ordered the luncheon special - we ordered some fries and RRH got a chocolate milk shake.

Here's the ladies enjoying their luncheon...

And here's wacky Retro RoadHusband, enjoying his milkshake (and maybe not enjoying my constant photo taking!)

There was a big juke box in the back of the soda shop, music professionals "talkin shop" at a nearby table and some cool (though not working) table top juke boxes.

One of the understandable reasons the Soda Shop is closing is because business is down. Makes sense, as more people are eating at home.

But if we all don't occasionally go and spend at the cool old places we love so much they won't be there. And with places like Elliston Place Soda Shop the prices are reasonable, so it won't break the bank for each of us, but it would make a difference in the long run.

So if you're going out for a splurge or just a sundae remember, the money you spend locally is really investing in the kind of world you want to live in - small independent cool old places still existing and not being replaced by chains.

Best of luck to the Elliston Place Soda Shop folks, and thanks to Mike for the heads up.