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Bon Appétit, April 2025

Husband-wife team Brian Lea and Leina Horii received just about every accolade possible for Kisser, their destination-worthy Japanese café in East Nashville—including a spot on our list of the Best New Restaurants of 2024. Next from the culinary stars comes Babychan, a café taking inspiration from both Japan and France. This restaurant will more prominently feature bakery items, with a takeaway counter for onigiri, yuzu cream puffs, and egg sandwiches, according to Horii. The all-day restaurant will serve comforting breakfast and lunch options such as thick slabs of French toast with Horii’s house-made Japanese milk bread and rice omelets topped with spicy cod roe. Horii’s memories of her grandparents’ home in Tokyo influence Babychan’s design, from the dark wood paneling to the vintage juice glasses her grandmother collected throughout the ’60s and ’70s.