Nashville’s Old Spaghetti Factory will need to find a new home. Following the challenges restaurants faced due to the pandemic, and the Christmas Day bombing, the landlord of the building that houses the beloved downtown restaurant has chosen to terminate their lease.

Old Spaghetti Factory, located at 160 2nd. Avenue North, has been in the same location for 40 years. They had rights to that space until December of 2035. Owners say they will now not reopen, while they look for a new location. Although the building suffered more than a million dollars in damage following the Christmas Day bombing, Old Spaghetti Factory owners were willing to “bring the restaurant back to its original condition and restore this institution to downtown Nashville.”

“We are incredibly disappointed by the letter sent by our landlord as they are using this tragic event to terminate our lease,” Dean Griffith, President of The Old Spaghetti Factory’s 41 unit chain said in a statement (via WKRN). “Our restaurants and teams have endured the most challenging year, which was punctuated by the bombing. We hoped the Landlord would work with us, but they are making a business decision to have us removed. We now have to tell our team members that they may not have a place to work, which is very disappointing. I hope the City will get involved and let them know this isn’t right.”

District Manager Todd Saxey says some of the employees at the restaurant have been with Old Spaghetti Factory for more than 20 years.

“The hourly team in Nashville is a group of fun loving, caring individuals, that have come to work each day ready to make others happy. They help each other at work and away from work, they are truly a “Family,” said Saxey.

Saxey hopes that Old Spaghetti Factory can find a new location within downtown Nashville.

“I miss the laughter, lively conversation with people from all over the world, and seeing the restaurant full on a busy shift,” Saxey said. “I miss working in the kitchen and smelling the aroma of freshly made sauce. I miss getting to see the sidewalks full of people and of people enjoying all that the Nashville has to offer. Downtown Nashville and Old Spaghetti Factory, you can’t have one without the other.”