"To everyone who has made Bean's feel like home, thank you. You've given this double wide its heart." That's how Judge Bean's BBQ signed off in the closing announcement Williamson Source reported on October 19. The restaurant at 7022 Church Street East will close for good on Saturday, November 14, 2026.
From the last week of October, that leaves a little over two weeks of brisket and margaritas. It also leaves a gap on the calendar. Judge Bean's was known for making Thanksgiving turkeys, and Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, twelve days after the doors close. Every nearby replacement for that turkey is outside Brentwood, in Franklin or up Nolensville Pike. Their order cutoffs land within a week of the farewell party. This year, saying goodbye to Bean's and planning Thanksgiving dinner run on the same few weeks.
Sixteen years in a double wide on Church Street East
The Brentwood location opened in 2010, according to a 2018 Williamson Source story about the brand closing its Franklin restaurant. Brentwood is the one that stayed. A 2023 Brentwood Lifestyle feature says owner Nick Anneken started as general manager and later invested in the business himself, after ownership had changed hands a few times.
The menu was Texas-style pit barbecue with a Tex-Mex streak. Brentwood Lifestyle listed what made it Judge Bean's:
- "Texas sushi," a jalapeño stuffed with sausage and cheese, then wrapped in brisket
- Loaded nachos topped with smoked meat, big enough that a half order does the job
- Tamales, tacos, smoky wings and samplers built for a crowd
- Homemade banana pudding
- A house margarita called "The Judge," plus a cocktail called "Texas Tea"
In the closing message, the restaurant called itself the "Cheers" bar of Brentwood. It said it had watched customers' kids grow up and had catered their weddings and retirement parties. It also mentioned its annual chili cook-off. That catering history is the part that reaches past the bar stools. A restaurant that cooks a town's Thanksgiving turkeys leaves a hole in a lot of kitchens when it closes.
The turkey gap lands on the busiest week of the year
The announcement gave no reason for the closing. It promised that the final month would end with a farewell party on November 14, starting at 5 p.m. and running until close, with more details to come.
If your household's Thanksgiving plan has been "call Bean's," that plan needs a new home. Several nearby spots have opened 2026 holiday pre-orders. Nearly all of them hand out food on the same two days, Tuesday, November 24 and Wednesday, November 25, so the order deadlines and the pickup crowd matter as much as the menu.
Every replacement is a drive out of 37027
Here's what the closest options are posting for Thanksgiving 2026.
| Where | What's on offer | Price | Pickup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hogwood BBQ, 600A Frazier Dr., Franklin | Small Gathering, Family Feast and Hogwood Feast packages; smoked turkey breast | Packages $99, $179, $379; turkey breast $43.98 for 2 lb, $87.96 for 4 lb | Nov. 24–25 |
| The Franklin Butchery, Franklin | Fresh, uncooked Joyce Farms turkeys; precooked sides | "Naked" $7/lb with $40 deposit; Heritage Black $11/lb with $50 deposit; sides about $12–$30 each | Nov. 24 or 25 |
| Puckett's, 120 4th Ave. S., Franklin | Holiday To-Go meals, fully cooked and chilled, heated at home | Listed on Puckett's order page | Nov. 24–25, 9 a.m.–7 p.m.; Thanksgiving Day, 7–10 a.m. |
| Edley's Bar-B-Que: Berry Farms, 501 Sallie Lane, Franklin; Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Road, Suite 3C; and 6025 Nolensville Pike, Nashville | Thanksgiving meal packs with turkey, ham, sides, rolls and pie | $85 serves 2–3; $160 serves 4–6; $310 serves 12–15 | Nov. 24–25 |
These four solve different problems. If you want smoked meat closest to what Bean's served, Hogwood has the pit-smoked option, sold as turkey breast rather than a whole bird. The Franklin Butchery is for the household that wants to roast its own turkey. It sells Joyce Farms birds that are fresh and never frozen, then weighs each turkey at pickup and charges the remaining balance. Puckett's and Edley's do the whole meal, cooked and ready to reheat. Puckett's adds the one pickup window on Thanksgiving morning itself.
On price, Edley's mid-size pack is $160 for four to six people with turkey, ham, sides, rolls and pie included. A 14-pound "Naked" bird from The Franklin Butchery would cost $98 before any sides at its $7-per-pound rate. That's simple arithmetic for comparison only, since the shop charges by actual weight at pickup.
The deadlines bunch up right after the farewell party
These are the dates in order, read from the businesses' own 2026 order pages, with the Judge Bean's dates in the middle:
- Already underway. The Franklin Butchery locked in its turkey count on August 31. Orders stay open "until the last bird is sold," so there's no fixed date, just a fixed number of turkeys.
- October 20. Puckett's started taking Thanksgiving and Christmas orders. Edley's says Thanksgiving ordering opens 35 days before pickup, which lands right around the same date.
- Saturday, November 14. Judge Bean's last day, with the farewell party starting at 5 p.m.
- Friday, November 20. Last day to order precooked sides from The Franklin Butchery.
- Saturday, November 21, 2 p.m. Puckett's Thanksgiving orders close.
- Tuesday, November 24 and Wednesday, November 25. Pickup at Hogwood, Edley's, Puckett's and The Franklin Butchery. Hogwood's homepage highlights the 25th, and its order menu takes both days.
- Thursday, November 26, 7–10 a.m. Thanksgiving morning pickup at Puckett's.
Two order cutoffs fall within a week of Judge Bean's last night. A third has no date at all and simply ends when the turkeys run out. Edley's posted no final cutoff on its pages, and Hogwood's pre-order menu doesn't show one either, so check with them directly before assuming there's extra time. If you wait for the party to sort out the turkey, you'll be ordering in the same week most of these lists close.
The final stretch at Bean's, and the corner it leaves open
The simplest move is to book the holiday order now, then spend what's left of Judge Bean's run at Judge Bean's. Get a half order of nachos, a round of The Judge, and the banana pudding while it's still on the menu. The restaurant said more farewell details are coming, so watch its own channels between now and the 14th.
Brentwood's restaurant mix is changing on the other end, too. Big Bad Breakfast, John Currence's Southern breakfast concept, told WhatNow Nashville in August that it was aiming for mid-October at Brentwood Place on Franklin Road, after permitting delays. Its location page still says "Coming Soon!" with no date. So Brentwood is waiting on a new breakfast spot in the same weeks it's saying goodbye to its longtime barbecue bar. Neither one helps with the turkey, which is now a drive to Franklin or Nolensville Pike on November 24 or 25.
If your home is the one everybody gathers at this Thanksgiving, Gracie Youngblood would love to help you plan for whatever comes after the holidays. When you're curious what that table-and-all is worth in today's Brentwood market, Get Your Instant Home Valuation and we'll take it from there with real Southern hospitality.
