The restaurant was founded in 2012 by brothers Eric, Alex and Alan Adler and their cousin, Isidoro Lombrozo. The family opened a food stand in San Diego focused on costras — Mexico City-style tacos with cheese crisped around the tortilla. Puesto later grew to nine California restaurants and three locations at California venues, including Levi’s Stadium.

Lombrozo, a 2010 Vanderbilt University graduate, proposed Nashville for the company’s expansion. The owners chose a large space near The Pinnacle, Earls Kitchen and Ocean Prime after considering several parts of the city.

The restaurant can seat up to 245 people and has three patios, an open-air dining room and a stage for live music. Its menu includes lobster-and-filet-mignon surf-and-turf tacos, short rib quesabirria, crispy shrimp and ribeye trompo, along with enchiladas, chicken mole, grilled branzino and ceviche.

The owners say tortillas are the foundation of the menu. “For us, they’re the key,” Alex Adler said, describing the restaurant’s focus on making fresh tortillas rather than treating them as an afterthought.

Puesto’s move adds a family-owned, multistate restaurant to Nashville Yards, a growing downtown development that also includes large national brands and local restaurants. Lombrozo said the area’s rapid growth made it feel like a natural place for the company’s first expansion beyond California.