Open Invite Brings a Collaborative Retail House to East Nashville’s Riverside Drive
East Nashville has a new kind of store, and it does not behave like a store at all. Open Invite, now welcoming customers at 2215 Riverside Drive, is less a single shop than a shared house where a handful of local brands set up together, swap shelf space, and invite you in to browse all of them at once.
The concept comes from co-founders Allison Holley and Anna Schowe, who built the space around a simple idea: independent makers do better when they stand next to one another instead of scattered across the city. Rather than carrying one curated buy from a single owner, Open Invite hosts rotating brand collaborations under one roof, so the mix you find on a Saturday in the spring may look different by summer.
What you'll find on the shelves
The inventory spans the small-pleasures category that East Nashville does so well. Expect clothing and accessories, hand-poured candles, home goods, and a deep bench of giftable odds and ends, the kind of things you wander in for without a list and leave carrying anyway. Among the brands sharing the floor are Apple and Oak, The Charm Bar, and Whiskey Water, each bringing its own following and its own corner of the room.
That structure is the whole point. Walk the space and you are effectively shopping several small businesses in a single visit, with the makers themselves shaping how their goods are shown. It is a model that rewards browsing, and one that gives a first-time vendor a storefront presence without the rent and risk of a lease of their own.
Why it matters for Nashville shoppers
Riverside Drive sits in a stretch of East Nashville that has spent the last several years filling in with neighborhood-scale retail, coffee, and corner spots worth a detour. Open Invite fits that pattern and pushes it a step further. For shoppers, it concentrates a lot of local talent into one stop, which is a real convenience in a city where the best independent goods are often spread thin across markets, pop-ups, and online drops.
For the makers, the arrangement lowers the barrier to a physical storefront, the kind of foothold that is increasingly hard to come by as commercial space tightens across the urban core. A rotating roster also means the store stays current, giving regulars a reason to return and giving newer brands a shot at the kind of foot traffic a standalone shop might take years to earn.
Mark your calendar
The doors are already open for everyday shopping, but the founders are saving the celebration for later in the winter. A formal grand opening community party is set for February 13, 2026, framed less as a ribbon-cutting than as a neighborhood gathering, in keeping with a space that calls itself an invitation in the first place.
If you have been looking for a single place to find Nashville-made clothing, candles, and gifts without bouncing between weekend markets, this is a worthwhile addition to the East Side rotation. Stop in now to meet the current lineup of brands, then come back in February when the whole block is invited.
