restaurantMystery Diners · Season 11, Episode 12 · Aired April 6, 2016
Nashville Street Tacos
Nashville, Tennessee
Still open. It kept its doors open after the show.
On the show
Season 11, Episode 12 · April 6, 2016 · restaurant (tacos)
'Rigged Rental' episode featured two businesses under the same owner, Steve Kovach; second business The Stillery listed as a separate row, same episode/date
What happened after
Taco restaurant still operating; active third-party delivery listing is the freshest signal found.
What happened on the show
Steve Kovach owned two Nashville restaurants and grew suspicious that someone was living in his apartment above one of them while he was home in Phoenix, as food sales slipped at both. Charles Stiles' investigator Kimberly found the apartment listed online for a nightly rate, and mystery diners Brooke and Jamie went in as a Stillery waitress and an apartment renter. As aired, a manager and a prep cook had been running a rental scam out of the apartment, charging extra for pets despite the owner's allergy, and offering unwelcome guests half-price meals at both restaurants, which explained the sales gaps. The confrontation has Steve firing both. Because Mystery Diners was later accused of scripting these reveals, this rental sting is best read as broadcast rather than as independently confirmed.
After the cameras left
Nashville Street Tacos is still open, a going concern the episode never threatened. The taco restaurant keeps an active delivery presence, the freshest signal dated to mid-2026 in our pass, with a second address suggesting more than one location, at medium confidence. An independent that appeared on a crisis show simply kept serving, its survival the ordinary kind rather than a rescue. The apartment-rental drama made an episode; it was never the measure of whether this taco spot would last, and it has.
Sources
Confidence: medium. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.