The Big Woods restaurant in downtown Nashville that started it all will close temporarily starting Jan. 1 to be revamped for 2020.

The Original Big Woods on Molly’s Lane will reopen in March as “The Original, a Big Woods Restaurant.”

When it reopens, it will have a new atmosphere and new food and drink menus. It will still be a 21-and-older venue featuring the craft beverages from sister brands Quaff ON! Brewing Co. and Hard Truth Distilling Co. The new menu will include “a new take on regional comfort foods,” according to a press release issued today, and the beverages offered there will also “relate more closely to the accompanying food.”

“When quality food and superior drinks come together in the right way, the experience can be really profound. We see that in our existing restaurants, and now we’re taking it up a level with this new concept,” said co-founder Ed Ryan.

“And, with 10 years of the Big Woods spirit and experience instilled in the walls of the timber-frame restaurant on Molly’s Lane, we believe it’s the ideal location to develop this concept.”

The Original Big Woods opened in Nashville in 2009 under the name Big Woods Brewing Co. The restaurant has served a brewpub menu, including its famous pulled pork BBQ nachos.

“Big Woods has grown so much in the last decade,” added co-founder Jeff McCabe. “And, we realized it was time to bring The Original Big Woods back to what made it special when we first opened in 2009. Back then, it was the only thing like it here.”

Big Woods Restaurants has six restaurants throughout central Indiana, including three in Nashville, then one each in Franklin, Speedway and Bloomington.

A seventh restaurant is set to open next year in Noblesville. A Big Woods Pizza will also open in Westfield in late 2020.

The company, including its sister brands, has become a major employer in Brown County.

“With a new menu and a refreshed look, The Original will, once again, be the only one of its kind — not only in Nashville, but within the entire Big Woods family,” the press release states.

Read more in next week’s Democrat.