Food trucks will park in downtown Kingston Springs tonight, Monday, Oct. 12, from 5 to 8 p.m. The town skipped the hottest summer months and brought the series back in September, with four fall dates. Tonight is the third of them. The last one is two weeks from now, on Oct. 26.
For years, the Harpeth set the town's busiest stretch of the calendar. The Kingston Springs Gazette calls river season "one of the town's most recognizable traditions." In 2026 that tradition got smaller. Several new places along North Main Street and Highway 70 are being set up for the other nine months instead. Here is what is changing, building by building, and when each one is expected.
One outfitter on the Harpeth this year
Late in June, the Gazette reported that only one commercial outfitter was running in Cheatham County: Foggy Bottom Canoe & Kayak Rental in Kingston Springs. Tip-a-Canoe had not opened for the 2026 season. The former Music City Canoe property was being considered for something with no boats involved at all.
That report ran alongside a county debate about the river. At a June 22 workshop, Cheatham County commissioners talked about whether to seek state legislation that would let them charge commercial outfitters a fee to help cover emergency responses on the Harpeth. County Attorney Michael Bligh said the fee would fall on outfitters, not on residents or people launching their own kayaks or canoes. He also said any program would need approval from the Tennessee General Assembly through a private act. No action was taken. Commissioners planned to come back to the topic once they had more emergency response data.
So this summer the river had fewer rental counters and an open question about what operating on it will cost. The new businesses opening nearby are mostly ones that don't depend on the water level or the season.
A canoe lot becomes a coffee counter
The clearest example sits on land that used to rent boats. The Gazette reported that Cheatham County officials approved a rezoning at the former Music City Canoe site, allowing a coffee shop, bakery and small retail space on what the paper called a long-vacant property.
So far, the rezoning is all that has happened. Local coverage has not named an operator or given a construction schedule or opening date. A Kingston Springs resident driving past this fall will most likely see the same empty lot. What changed is what the lot is now allowed to become, and none of the uses it now allows need river traffic.
Pegram's Monday in November
Down Highway 70, a coffee shop already has a date. Pegram Coffee Co. is scheduled to open Nov. 16 at 540 Highway 70, according to the Kingston Springs Gazette. The paper says the building has served as a church, a print shop and a gathering place for generations of Pegram residents.
Nov. 16 is a Monday, three weeks after the last fall Food Truck Monday in Kingston Springs. On the calendar, the corridor's Monday-evening stop downtown wraps up in late October, and a new morning stop opens a few miles east before Thanksgiving.
Owners, menu and hours have not been published in the coverage so far. Watching Pegram Coffee Co.'s own announcements as the date gets closer is the best way to find out when the doors actually open.
417 N. Main and the all-day idea
The project that has drawn the most attention is Pearl's, the restaurant and bar country artist Jake Owen is planning at 417 N. Main Street. Owen, who lives in Kingston Springs, bought the property at the end of 2024. He presented his first concept to the Planning Commission in October 2025, working with local residents Courtney and Wesley Haines and architect Jason Hitchcock of Dryden Studio in Nashville.
The Kingston Springs Gazette's account of that meeting shows how Owen thought about the place. He described it as "more restaurant than bar" and said it would be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with live music. He traced the idea to Casey's Place, a local spot in Vero Beach, Florida, where he grew up. As the Gazette reported, he told commissioners:
"My twin brother and I could ride our bikes down there to the walk-up window. You could order a burger and a shake, and sit next to any community member and talk."
The 2025 plan also called for:
- a shared kitchen and a separate bar area
- an outdoor walk-up counter for ice cream or takeout
- covered patio seating and a small performance stage
- roughly 60 indoor seats, with total capacity of about 200 for larger community events
- local chef Hal Holden-Bache, known for his work in East Nashville restaurants, as culinary partner
The building dates to 1940. Hitchcock said the design aims to keep as much of the existing structure as possible. "We pride ourselves on adaptive reuse," he told the commission.
The details above come from that first proposal. The project has been revised since. On Aug. 13, 2026, the Kingston Springs Planning Commission unanimously approved a revised concept plan for Pearl's. A September recap in 6AM City's NASHtoday newsletter, drawing on the Gazette, described the revised Pearl's as expected to have patio seating, live music and space for community events. Public coverage so far does not list what else changed in the revision, what approvals are still needed, or when the restaurant will open. Until it opens, the all-day menu and the seat count are a 2025 plan, not a promise.
Even so, the parts that have held through the revision are the ones aimed at year-round use. A covered patio, a stage and a room for community events give people a reason to come downtown in February as much as in July.
Burns Park gets a reason to walk in December
The one new feature landing outdoors this winter is a Storybook Trail in Burns Park. At its Sept. 17 meeting, the town announced that the Kiwanis Club of Cheatham County had won a grant for the trail from the Tennessee Governor's Early Literacy Foundation, in partnership with the town.
According to the Kingston Springs Gazette, panels will line a park trail so families can read a story from start to finish and do activities tied to the book along the way. Installation is expected within one to two months of that meeting and no later than the end of the year.
The stories are built to change. They will rotate every quarter, and Kingston Springs will trade stories with Ashland City, which already has a Storybook Trail of its own. A family that walks the Burns Park trail in January will likely find a different book there by spring, and the one they read may move on to Ashland City's trail.
At the same meeting, the town proclaimed September as Imagination Library Month in Kingston Springs, honoring Dolly Parton's childhood literacy program. Town officials said the designation will come back each September.
The rest of the fall, in order
Put together, the corridor's off-season calendar runs like this. Pearl's and the Music City Canoe site are left off because neither has a date.
- Monday, Oct. 12, 5–8 p.m. Food Truck Monday, downtown Kingston Springs.
- Monday, Oct. 26, 5–8 p.m. The last Food Truck Monday of the fall series, also listed on the Town of Kingston Springs event calendar.
- Monday, Nov. 16. Pegram Coffee Co.'s scheduled opening at 540 Highway 70.
- By Dec. 31. The Storybook Trail's expected installation at Burns Park.
Foggy Bottom Canoe & Kayak Rental is listed by Discover Cheatham as a weather-dependent seasonal outfitter, so when the river runs warm again in spring, it is still the name to check first. The Gazette has more on the outfitters' situation in its June coverage of the county's river fee discussion.
If you live along Highway 70 or near downtown Kingston Springs and want to know how a new coffee shop, a restaurant site or a rezoned lot near your street could affect your home, Whitley Battles Smith is glad to talk it through with you. She can walk you through what has actually been approved and what is still only a plan, at your own pace. Schedule a Consultation whenever you're ready.
