~by Bob Gustin
If all goes according to plan, later this summer a new restaurant will open in the heart of Nashville at 17 W. Main St, a location know for almost 50 years as the Hobnob Corner.
It will be a combination of the old and the new: Painstaking effort to preserve the history of the building while making it a safe and modern operation, and a fresh approach to serving patrons, something the new restaurant owners call “elevated comfort food.”
Tyra and Lance Miller tentatively plan to call it Bird’s Nest on Main, expanding on the theme of their current Nashville restaurant on Franklin Street, but with a “diner vibe,” including a soda fountain and a lunch counter.
The Millers call it “progress through preservation.”
“The historic building takes the forefront,” Lance said, “and we work with it and around it.”
Tyra said the new restaurant will have most of the dishes now offered at the Franklin Street location, with the addition of a lunch counter menu and soda fountain options, and more desserts. An old general store bakery case from the early 1900s might be added near the front door.
While there is no firm opening date for the Main Street location, the Millers estimate work on it is about 50 percent done, and they hope to open it this summer.
Renovation of the oldest commercial building in Brown County–once a general store, then a pharmacy, and later the Hobnob Corner Restaurant– has been going on since the restaurant closed in November 2025.
Owners of the building, brothers Andy and Aaron Rudd, also own the site of the current Bird’s Nest Café, which was outgrowing its space, and asked the Millers to consider relocating to the Main Street location, Tyra said.
Lance said the Rudds are paying for structural repairs and those required for permitting, while the Millers are paying for kitchen remodeling and creative aspects of the renovation. Infrastructure improvements include the floor, electrical and plumbing systems.
Some surprises were found in renovation, including a main floor beam which was rotted to the extent that it was essentially hollow, and various places in the floor which were unsafe. All floor joists will be replaced, and oak hardwood flooring will be installed on the main level.
“The Rudds care deeply about the building’s history and the town,” Lance said. “They are stewards of the building and are doing it right. A lot of thought and care is being put into every detail.”
“The building has been in the family for close to 100 years, with many different uses over that period of time,” Andy Rudd said. “Being one of the oldest commercial buildings in Nashville, we feel it’s important to connect and maintain the history of the building while enabling it to be viable as an important commercial building today and into the future.
“We expect the renovations will enable the building to thrive over the next decades.”
“It’s been like an archeological dig,” Lance said of the renovation process. “We’ve found old liquor bottles someone stashed in the ceiling.” Old coins were found, along with modern cell phones and earbuds which slipped through cracks in the floor.
Andy Rudd said items found during the renovation process “serve as a reminder of the previous eras of the building.
“Our intention is to share as many of these items with the community as possible through displaying them in the restaurant. Anything remaining, we may see if there is interest from the historical society, that will come sometime after the building is renovated and open for business.”
Cameron Stone of Columbus, general contractor for the renovation, estimated that 95 percent of the floor joists had rot, dry rot and termite damage.
“No one realized the extent of the damage,” he said, and the old flooring had been patched with plywood, oil can lids, and metal pieces.
Stone said he found at least four layers of wallpaper, and six different ceiling applications. The new restaurant will have exposed and painted ceiling beams. People always ask him if the original building had tin panels on the ceiling. No, he says, it had wallpaper.
Most of the current Bird’s Nest staff will transfer to the Main Street location when it opens, and some additional staff will probably be hired at both locations.
The Millers say they hope to attract both locals and tourists to the new restaurant.
No business in Nashville can get successfully through the winter without local customers, Tyra said.
Andy Rudd said renovating the second floor, which has been closed to the public for years, is in long term plans.
“It’s a beautiful space we want to be able to share. Being a second floor adds some additional modernization requirements that are planned for a later phase,” he said.
“We’re really excited about the direction we’re going and special thanks to everyone in the community that has embraced the change. I think everyone will be really pleased with the results as we start a new chapter in the building.”
A patio area is planned outside between the restaurant and the PNC Bank building.
“We hope to have some outdoor seating available, and at least a beautiful little pocket garden to sit outside and enjoy in the meantime,” Tyra said.
Current plans for the Bird’s Nest Café on Franklin Street call for it to remain open, but with a different focus and a slightly different name—Bird’s Nest Social. It will remain open on a limited schedule as a quick service “meat and three” restaurant, Tyra said, and as a catering hall. The venue will also be available to rent for special events, garden parties, and perhaps ticketed events such as jazz performances. The café is known for its gourmet menu, art decorations, and outdoor dining among prolific flower gardens.
Tyra grew up in Columbus, but her older sister worked in Brown County, and Tyra loved to accompany her to work, watch the shoppers pass by, run around town all day, and enjoy a Green River drink at the Hobnob.
After graduating from Columbus North High School, she planned to head west. But she only made it 16 miles, stopping in Nashville.
“I’m still here,” she said.
The wooded areas of Brown County bring her a sense of calm, and she thrives on the attention to the arts and the general feeling of community.
She’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit, running lemonade stands as a kid, and figuring out ways to collect more Halloween candy. That spirit carried on into adulthood, operating a string of successful businesses in Nashville.
She moved to Brown County in 1988, and in her 20s, worked for Marilyn Rudd (Andy and Aaron’s mother) at a plant shop, then running it herself as her first business, Horsefeathers, which sold live plants, herbs, baskets, and other items.
She sold that business to an employee and bought a house at 914 Highland Drive., which she turned into a bed and breakfast called Robinwood Inn. She and her husband Lance still live there, and continue to operate it.
Lance grew up near Kokomo, lived in upstate New York for a while, then returned to Indiana to study arts education at Indiana University. Living in Bloomington, he had a friend who had a connection to Brown County schools, which led to him being hired as the high school arts teacher, a position he held from 2001 to 2020.
Meanwhile, Tyra partnered with Roberta Chirko to open Muddy Boots Café in a building in downtown Nashville which formerly housed the Brown County Democrat newspaper.
“It was real fun,” Tyra said of her experience at Muddy Boots. The café featured live music, and Lance (who was art teacher to Tyra’s son) led regular crafts nights with customers, where a favorite activity was having customers cut out paper snowflakes which were then displayed in the dining room, a custom which carries over today at the Bird’s Nest Cafe.
Tyra left Muddy Boots after the birth of her daughter, while Lance was still teaching, and the business got to be difficult for the couple to comfortably handle.
“It was just too much for us at that time in our lives,” Lance said.
The Millers opened the Bird’s Nest Café in 2012 in a building owned by Marilyn Rudd, building a unique menu which includes vegan dishes and featuring tables and booths built by Lance, who also did graphic design and decoration for the café.
The Millers also own a gift shop at 84 S. Van Buren St. called The Wood Fairy Apothecary, which specializes in herbal products, including body care salves and balms, soaps and medicinal herb products, essential oils, and locally handmade items.
