Westhaven is the big planned community on Franklin's west side — front porches, a walkable town center, and enough of its own gravity that plenty of residents go whole weekends without leaving. Our newcomer's guide covers it in a sentence; this is the full version, for people who live there or are about to.

Eating

Kokomo Trading Company

Front Street, Westhaven Towncenter

An island-inspired restaurant on the lake, opened by local founders (two of them out of Nashville's music industry, alongside the executive chef) — full dinner menu, live music some nights, and a patio that's the closest thing Westhaven has to a destination restaurant.

Sweethaven

Westhaven Blvd (plus a second location on downtown Main Street)

Super-premium ice cream and frozen yogurt that started right here before it was popular enough to open a second spot downtown — a rare case of a Westhaven business becoming a Franklin-wide name instead of the other way around.

High Brow

Front Street, Westhaven Towncenter

188 Front St #102, Franklin, TN 37064 · (615) 472-1938 · Visit site

The neighborhood's coffee shop, and a solid reason to walk to the town center instead of driving to Main Street for your morning order. More in our coffee guide.

Walking

This is the part real estate listings undersell: Westhaven was built around a genuine trail and sidewalk network, not a subdivision with a token greenway. Foundation Park is the anchor — open green space that hosts the Wednesday farmers market in season and doubles as the default meet-up spot for everything from morning walks to evening picnics. From there, sidewalks and connector paths reach most of the neighborhood's pocket parks without needing a car, which is the actual point of the "walkable town center" pitch — it's true here in a way it isn't everywhere that claims it.

Living

What residents actually describe: front porches close enough to know your neighbors, a mix of housing types instead of one subdivision template, and a town center you can walk to for dinner, coffee, or ice cream without getting back in the car. It functions less like a subdivision on the edge of Franklin and more like its own small town that happens to share a zip code — which is exactly what it was designed to do.

More from this category: New to Franklin? Start Here. · Farmers Markets & Farm Stands