On Garth Brooks, Chick-fil-A, and Lower Broadway

Garth Brooks is the latest high-profile country star to purchase property in Nashville’s Lower Broadway entertainment district with the intent of putting up a new multi-story bar and restaurant. Acquiring the three-story, 40,000 square foot property at 411 Broadway in December of 2021 for $48 million, it was the former location of the Downtown Sporting Club, and right across an alley way from the iconic Ernest Tubb Record Shop. Garth has partnered with the company Strategic Hospitality to open the location.
At this point, a country entertainer opening an entertainment concept on Lower Broadway is almost so commonplace, it’s hard to justify even as news. What’s newsworthy is when an artist eschews that obvious outcome and does something of more value to the community like Reba McEntire is doing by opening up her big restaurant/bar/venue near her hometown in Atoka, Oklahoma, where the economic revitalization is needed.
As some have pointed out, as opposed to opening up yet another Lower Broadway monstrosity, or perhaps in parallel with the move, Garth Brooks could also purchase the nearly adjacent Ernest Tubb Record Shop, which is about to be put up for sale, and will very likely be imperiled by development unless some wealthy benefactor like Garth Brooks swoops in and saves the iconic business and building.
Certainly, Garth Brooks is one of the few individuals in a position to pull off such a purchase. But is Garth Brooks really who we want to entrust as a caretaker of such a historical landmark? As a polarizing character in country music to many traditional country fans for commercializing the music like never before in the late 80’s and early 90’s, it’s easy to conclude, “No.”
As Garth himself recently said in an interview with Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn, “Traditional country music is coming back around, you can just feel it in the tracks and in the producing. But man, you’ll know this because you were right there with us … when we started, we were the bad guys, we were the guys that weren’t country … We got our ass handed to us when we young, man.”
But as Garth Brooks goes on to say, these days, his music and the music of Brooks & Dunn is definitely considered country. And in truth, if the options were Garth Brooks purchasing the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, or some developer looking to erect Sam Hunt’s Lower Broadway club concept, the answer would clearly be to go with Garth. But since Garth is already committing to a business right across the alley that will have its own retail arm, it makes it less likely he’d be interested in the Ernest Tubb property than more. In fact, they already opened the Garth building temporarily to act as a Garth retail establishment.
But what has some worried about what Garth has in store on Lower Broadway was some recent comments before his shows in Nashville Friday and Saturday (8-15, 8-16) at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, which were makeup dates for shows last July washed out by weather. Right before the shows, Garth spoke to the media, and said of his Lower Broadway bar that is called Friends in Low Places, “I want the Chick-fil-A of honky-tonks. I want a place where you go, where you feel good, feel safe, everybody’s got good manners. I hope that there’s, right when you walk in, it’s a love everybody…”
Local Nashville news station WKRN made the Chick-fil-A statement by Garth into a headline, and other outlets scooped up the statement as well, turning it into click bait. With the way Lower Broadway has been so commercialized, and how Garth makes himself such an easy target, it was hard for the media not to exploit Garth’s statement. And let’s be honest, it’s a very Garth-like statement.
But in truth, Garth was just trying to present an illustration of how he wanted his new place to be a friendly establishment, similar to the staff and environment at Chick-fil-A. It was just a passing comment in a much broader explanation. What WKRN and others failed to contextualize in Garth’s out-of-context comments was that he also said,
“I’d love for it to be a classic honky-tonk, because country music to me, has been so good to me. And I want to hear on Lower Broadway in 2022, I want to hear King George coming out of that honky-tonk. I want to hear Haggard coming out of that honky-tonk. And I don’t think that’s impossible to ask.”
Garth also went on to mention there would also be a place for more contemporary music from artists such as Luke Bryan and Kenny Chesney, along with “Yearwood, Dolly, McEntire.” But undoubtedly, whatever Garth Brooks erects on Lower Broadway, it’s unlikely to represent the worst of what the area includes. Along with Robert’s Western World and Layla’s, Alan Jackson’s place also offers a more authentic country music experience, so does Nudie’s. You can probably expect Garth’s place to be somewhere between these more classic country-oriented establishments, and whatever the bars of Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, and Kid Rock have going on.
The new bar from Garth Brooks is unlikely to be any more of a problem on Lower Broadway than anything else. And no, he’s not erecting a four-story Chick-fil-A. But country fans should also probably not look upon Garth’s move into the neighborhood as any sort of solution. Like the music and career of Garth Brooks, it’s undeniably country, but it also comes with the undeniably commercially-driven focus always at the center of the Garth universe.
In other words, it’s Garth being Garth.
See full press conference below.
April 18, 2022 @ 10:36 am
I myself was hoping for a multi story multi drive thru chick fil a
April 18, 2022 @ 6:46 pm
Do you mean a two-story drive thru, so you can get chicken strips and tots on both levels of the Megabus at once? Pure genius. Inspired thinking like this is why America, against all odds, will continue to fend off those swarthy foreigners and remain #1.
April 18, 2022 @ 10:46 am
So I went back to Franklin/Nashville for the first time in 20 years for my high school reunion. Had a great time. Franklin while busier and developed more is still charming. I also spent on afternoon checking out Broadway and all the new Honky Tonks and found it all to be way too busy loud and tacky.
April 18, 2022 @ 10:48 am
A real honky-tonk would have its share of fights and maybe chicken wire in front of the stage 😉
April 18, 2022 @ 10:55 am
So, basically the down-home, everybody’s welcome, laid back Paradise Park sold for 20 some million to become a shitty sports bar that then flipped for 40 million in four years to Garth who wants to turn it into a down-home, everybody’s welcome type place. Lower Broad real estate market is beyond insane. I don’t see how anything can survive it. I hope Garth can make it a chicken strips and tots type place where we can drink straight from our pitchers again, but probably that era has passed and it will be another merch filled branded hellhole, how else can they justify the expense.
April 18, 2022 @ 2:02 pm
There’s a crash coming. Always does when things get this crazy.
April 18, 2022 @ 12:49 pm
I just thought that meant he would humble brag about not being open on Sunday.
April 18, 2022 @ 1:06 pm
How can anyone pay 48 million for a building and hope to make a profit in their lifetime making it a bar? Even Garth, in Nashville…
April 18, 2022 @ 1:22 pm
I loved the Pine Valley Trailer Park bar that was there. You could dance in an old pickup truck and hang out on patio furniture
April 18, 2022 @ 1:24 pm
I’ll take Chick-fil-A over Garth any day.
April 18, 2022 @ 9:38 pm
You could have compared it to alot better place Garth, like the A & W, Resteraunts , their food is 100 times better, than anything chick fil e has to offer.
April 19, 2022 @ 6:16 am
Agree to disagree there. While I enjoy a good A&W cheeseburger or root beer float, Chick-fil-A’s sandwiches and nuggets and lemonade are like manna from Heaven. Plus, Chick-fil-A was referenced multiple times in the article, so that was why I stated the preference.
April 19, 2022 @ 8:45 am
A&W is amazing but they are a burger and fries chain. Great stuff. But it is dumb to compare the two chains to each other. If I want a burger, I am not considering Chick-fil-A. If I want chicken, I am not considering A&W.
However, Chick-fil-A’s reputation as a restaurant blows A&W away. Chick-fil-A’s tactics are studied and copied across all industries. A&W’s set-up isn’t.
Garth is saying he wants his place to be like Chick-fil-A: the undisputed standard in friendliness and atmosphere. I love A&W but no one considers it a leader in the food industry.
April 18, 2022 @ 2:00 pm
I’m over Garth. Have been for a while. And lower Broadway for that matter.
I’m not sure where he gets off putting Brooks and Dunn in the same boat with him, either. They stayed country while he was pulling that Chris Gaines BS.
April 18, 2022 @ 2:31 pm
Brooks = Fat trash
April 18, 2022 @ 3:25 pm
Not for me. I wouldnt mind checking out of Alan’s place but just driving around Nashville on the interstate makes me want to avoid it. I hate busy highways
April 18, 2022 @ 4:01 pm
Oh Garth you ignorant douche canoe. I have some news for you but a whole lot of folks don’t exactly “feel good, feel safe,” at a Chik-fil-a. And it has something to do with the fact that the hate-filled idiots who own that chain don’t exactly, well, “love everybody…”
Their sandwiches taste like hot garbage too.
April 18, 2022 @ 5:08 pm
LOL.
No one person has ever been turned away at Chick-fil-A.
April 19, 2022 @ 3:16 am
The only “hate” going on here seems to be coming from you.
April 19, 2022 @ 8:31 am
Knew there’d be someone come along with this comment. Congratulations on taking gold in the persecution Olympics
April 19, 2022 @ 1:04 pm
As a gay man who enjoys chic-fil-a and respects at least they are open about their views and has always felt welcome, this person’s comment isn’t invalid either, Aaron. It’s not “persecution.”
April 18, 2022 @ 7:18 pm
Last thing that town needs is Brooks . He helped ruin country and now wants to aid in the demise of as once cool town. FGB
April 18, 2022 @ 8:16 pm
The last time there was a good bar and real honky tonk on lower Broadway was in the 90s. Mama Jo’s Music City Lounge was the last of the real joints. I used to play there in the last two years it was around. There will never be another like it.
April 18, 2022 @ 8:34 pm
So much negative.
Yay, go Garth. Look, maybe it will suck, but maybe he runs it as a passion project and puts the focus on bringing good music to broadway.
Garth is a random person, but he often means well. And he’s a genuine musician with a strong background in the roots of music, this has to be better than some corporate group buying it and not caring about music at all.
ALSO, he’s the only class of 89 who did cowboy songs.
April 19, 2022 @ 9:20 am
I think Clint Black did a cowboy song or two. I know he sang with Roy Rogers at least once.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:20 am
Garth’s inspiration is Journey and James Taylor. Used car salesman with a guitar.
April 18, 2022 @ 9:11 pm
They moved the Opry from downtown, why not move Ernest Tubb’s record shop?
April 20, 2022 @ 1:13 am
That would utterly defeat the purpose….look at how they moved the Opry, but the Ryman is still the mecca, the Mother Church. There have been other ETRS locations anyhow…which ultimately floundered first
April 18, 2022 @ 10:03 pm
You infer that there is something wrong with Chik-Fil-A . Why, because the owner is a Christian who closes on Sunday and is against Brokeback mountain stuff?? No wonder you love Sturgill Simpson so much. Salute to Garth make it a true old school Chic Fil A style honkytonk for red blooded Americans who want to return to the 90’s when the country was still sane and we could hear Toby Keith sing Should’;ve been a Cowboy on our radios while watching a non- PC show like Married With Children on TV.
April 21, 2022 @ 4:35 am
It was lowbrow for sure but I don’t remember Married…With Children as being “un-PC” in any major way. Al sure had a low opinion of women most times but that generally bit him in the ass by the end of the episode. Al usually paid for his dumber opinions and who cares what a women’s shoe salesman thinks anyway. Sorry for the rant, I just think it was a smarter show than people give it credit for, depending on the season and writer.
April 19, 2022 @ 5:42 am
At this point any hope of saving lower Broadway from complete Doucheville status will require a time machine. Nothing left to see here folks, move along.
April 19, 2022 @ 6:38 am
Gotta love how Garth rewrites history. Brooks & Dunn were considered country from the start, whereas Garth? “Shameless” anyone?
April 19, 2022 @ 8:39 pm
Not to mention “Hard Luck Woman”.
April 19, 2022 @ 8:12 am
I just have a hard time getting over anyone that sings with such a twang like Garth and then when he interviews comes across sounding like a midwestern weather reporter.
So many things about him come across as phony but he sure is a showman.
April 19, 2022 @ 8:33 am
He’s gonna have to sell a ton of overpriced food and watered down drinks to drunk sority girls at a bachelorette party to ever make any money on an initial $48M investment.
April 19, 2022 @ 9:37 am
Well, he was a marketing major. Not a business major.
April 19, 2022 @ 10:46 am
From an article in The Tenneseean, i read that Acme Feed and Seed on Lower Broadway, brings in 20 mill a year gross.Figure 20% of that at least is profit. Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville on Broadway does 12+ mill a year. Garths place ought to do more than 20 mill a year based on the name, location and size.
April 19, 2022 @ 10:35 am
Garth, you’re much too old feel this damn young.
April 19, 2022 @ 1:30 pm
Some other country rag had an April Fools article about the Fancy Like guy opening a three story applebees in the Ernst Tubb location. I had to check the date on this one before i read it…
April 21, 2022 @ 4:47 am
I’d think the Chick-fil-A of Honky-tonks would be Applebee’s and Walker Hayes has that account sewn up, sorry Garth.