On an unusually balmy February afternoon on downtown Nashville’s main drag, Lower Broadway, tourists milled about restaurants, gift shops, and honky-tonk bars, the dozen or so spots with free entry and world-class musicians playing cover songs for tips.
This is the calm before the storm, a time for families to browse and listen to music before the neon signs turn Nashville into Nashvegas. Most joints were doing modest business, except for three new ones – they were killing it.
Lower Broadway is becoming Country Star Row. In the last year, three businesses bearing the names of country stars – Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley and Florida Georgia Line – have opened locations on or near a stretch of three city blocks, from Broadway and Second to Broadway and Fifth; two more star-signed businesses are on their way.
Household names even beyond the country music world, these artists have helped create a new breed of entertainment property that updates the traditional country bar experience. Ultimately, these artists and their hospitality business partners are betting they can capitalize on a red-hot market with a reputation as one of America’s most entertaining square miles.
On the corner of Broadway and Fourth Avenue, Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row, a partnership of Bentley and Arizona-based Riot Hospitality Group, typifies the country-star honky-tonk: a spacious, multifloor building with updated Southern food. While it’s a country music establishment, Whiskey Row sounds country but feels rock ’n’ roll. The decor, a flashy update on reclaimed wood and exposed-brick walls with eye-popping art installations, is warm and exciting. Stacked on one another are a performance space, a bar-restaurant hybrid, and a bar for sports fans with an open-air patio overlooking Broadway. “We wanted to capture his audience and the youth and energy of it,” said Mike Troyan, president of Riot Hospitality.
Introduced through mutual friends, Riot Hospitality and Bentley already have three locations around Bentley’s hometown of Tempe, Ariz. Riot Hospitality is leasing the 13,200-square-foot property, that was bought by an investment group for $7.5 million in January. Bentley was “heavily involved” in Whiskey Row’s development, according to Troyan, and received a mix of equity and licensing fees.
Alan Jackson’s modestly named AJ’s Good Time Bar, tall and slender like its namesake, sits across the street from Whiskey Row. Jackson bought the 6,000-square-foot property, along with two businesses that were housed in the building, for $5.75 million in 2016.
AJ’s has three floors plus a rooftop bar. While music is central to other artist-branded businesses, AJ’s Good Time Bar is modern but a traditional honky-tonk; the emphasis is on music, dancing and drinking domestic beers. “I always wanted to own a honky-tonk that plays real country music on Broadway that I could put my name on,” Jackson told The Tennessean.
He is also a partner in Acme Feed & Seed, a restaurant-bar housed in a 128-year-old building on the corner of Broadway and First Avenue. A self-described “funkytonk,” Acme has given each of its three levels a unique theme. Above is a rooftop bar with views of the Cumberland River and the downtown Skyline. Acme was ranked 31st on Restaurant Business’ list of top-grossing independent restaurants in the U.S. in 2017, having grossed $18 million and served 611,000 meals, seventh most of the top 100.
One block away from Whiskey Row is the future home of Ole Red, country star Blake Shelton’s coming entry into the downtown Nashville fray. Set to launch in April, Ole Red partners Shelton with Ryman Hospitality, a multifaceted cornerstone of country music. Ryman owns the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, and WSM, the AM radio home of the Opry since 1925.
The first Ole Red opened last year in Shelton’s hometown of Tishomingo, Okla. For the Nashville Ole Red, Ryman Hospitality is spending $20 million to renovate the 26,000-square-foot building into a combination bar-restaurant-performance space, according to chairman and chief executive Colin V. Reed. Ryman bought the property, the former Broadway National Bank, for an undisclosed price. “We haven’t made it public, but it was not cheap,” said Reed.
A few hundred feet south of Ole Red is FGL House, a fun, raucous joint that plays well to young country fans. Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line created the 22,00-square-foot FGL House with TC Restaurant Group, an Ohio-based company with a handful of businesses on or near Lower Broadway. The four-floor space is like being inside a Florida Georgia Line song: seven bars, two stages, a rooftop bar named after the band’s hit “Cruise,” FGL memorabilia hanging on the walls, and a cocktail menu with drinks named after other hit songs.
The future location of John Rich’s Redneck Riviera is a few doors down from Whiskey Row. Rich, one half of the duo Big and Rich, opened a Redneck Riviera Las Vegas in January 2017. The Nashville location, to be operated by More American Hospitality, is coming this spring. Rich is having fun with the redneck stereotype. The decor integrates beer cans and weathered aluminum siding. Urinals are cut-out beer kegs. The menu centers on barbecue, jerky and nacho cheese sauce.
Downtown Nashville wasn’t always a major tourist draw, but the opening of Bridgestone Arena in 1996 on the corner of Broadway and Fifth helped turn things around. The 17,000-plus-seat arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators, brought locals downtown and made Lower Broadway a more attractive destination. While in a small market, Bridgestone Arena has become one of the most successful arenas in the country.
Live Nation books shows at Bridgestone as well as two other downtown venues: the 3-year-old, 6,800-capacity Ascend Amphitheater, which it operates for the city; and the 9,432-capacity Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
Conventions are a big part of tourism. A $623 million convention center opened in May 2013 next to the Bridgestone Arena and Country Music Hall of Fame.
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BIG NAMES MOVE IN ON LOWER BROADWAY
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