Hoist a cold one to the humble neighborhood bar, which is, perhaps unexpectedly, the subject of a surprising amount of research. A local bar can define an area, function as a meeting space and be a touchpoint for the neighborhood.
And besides all that, there’s beer and buddies.
Nashville is blessed with a solid double handful of thriving local watering holes with character, many of which persist despite the temptingly valuable real estate under them that becomes more expensive as the city grows.
Some weeks it feels like everyone planning a trip to Nashville flocks to the Reddit “Nashville” subReddit to ask “wHEre are the HidDeN GemS?” the quirky spelling shorthand for the cluelessness behind the question.
Usually, the visitors are directed to Lower Broad (or, jokingly, to Opryland). But others want the names of “honky-tonks and dive bars.” There’s a simmering debate around whether to share the local favorite bars and beer joints. The whole rest of the city is full of tourists – can we please just keep our beloved local spot?
If it seems like a lot of fuss over a little thing, it’s apparently not: The local bar or coffeehouse, it turns out, is an important functional space for a neighborhood. Think Central Perk in the TV comedy series “Friends” or the coffee shop in “Seinfeld.”
Just a few steps away from the culture and beauty of Centennial Park is Springwater Supper Club & Lounge in Nashville, which supposedly has been welcoming thirsty guests since 1896.
-- Photos By Michelle Morrow |The LedgerThere’s even a science-y name for this kind of spot: “socio-spatial construct” is how a space is used by people it serves.
Refusing to take a dive
Take, for example, Springwater Supper Club (115 27th Avenue North). The site is named for the nearby Cockrill Spring in Centennial Park, used since at least the late 1890s by travelers and livestock drovers arriving in Nashville on the Natchez Trace. The bar is said to have opened around 1896.
Despite its primo location across from Nashville’s premier city park, the Springwater building became increasingly decrepit through the 1980s and 1990s. The floor of the back room – if there ever was a floor – had been reduced to dirt. There was only one working toilet, used by customers and staff, male or female.
The bar didn’t serve beer on tap. Instead, beer in cans was vended from an old-fashioned Coca-Cola machine. Put in quarters, open the door and pull out a beer. Going to Springwater for a beer meant taking enough change to buy the cans.
Despite its location near Vanderbilt and a couple of neighborhoods, the place was never crowded in those years.
A crowd starts to gather as the band sets up at Springwater Supper Club & Lounge, which no longer has dirt floors.
-- Photos By Michelle Morrow |The LedgerThe club got a refresh eventually and began hosting bands by the late 20-teens. The beer selection is better, and now Springwater even has an Instagram account.
Like many low-density structures in booming Nashville, the land under the bar is valuable and could turn into much-needed midtown housing. Springwater’s zoning changed around 2007 to “mixed use intensive,” a dense mixture of residential, retail and office uses.
The zoning note even adds a bit of preaching about urban density: “Alternative districts promote alternative modes of transportation.”
The owner got a permit in 2019 for a five-story residential building. That permit expired, though, and Springwater is still kickin’ it in the neighborhood.
Idling on Music Row
Within the friendly confines of the midtown streets that made country music famous, Bobby’s Idle Hour (9 Music Square South) is operating in its third home since the late 1980s. Low key and unpresumptuous, Idle Hour is just a small, cozy little watering hole – smaller than either of its two previous spots in the Music Row area.
Bobby’s has continued its traditional décor of neon and show posters – and dollar bills. The walls and ceiling are papered floor to ceiling with $1 bills signed and taped up by visitors. On a recent visit, the other customers were visiting from North Dakota.
(Fun fact: Bobby’s is owned by an LLC in the name of Dane and Del Bryant, sons of “Rocky Top” composers and all-around Music Row legends Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.)
The tiny stage in the corner of the bar hosts musicians, and Idle Hour’s small parcel is adjacent to a building recently sold by the United Methodist Church. The rumor is the site will become a restaurant. The two will bring a little pocket of sociability on the quiet streets that made the business of country music famous.
Bobby’s Idle Hour Tavern located at 9 Music Square S., Nashville.
-- Photos By Michelle Morrow |The LedgerFor neighbors and Music Row workers, Bobby’s is just a short walk. For tourists, the cache of Idle Hours is that it’s the one place they can visit and say they went to a honky-tonk on Music Row.
Old trolley car, new tricks
Veronica Foster of Nashville’s Civic Design Center says bars, restaurants and coffeehouses are valuable “third spaces,” places that are neither home nor work.
The isolation of the pandemic brought into high relief the importance public spaces that contribute to a healthy society. Think parks, art galleries, hair salons, barbershops, coffeehouses, cafes and bars.
In the Hillsboro Village area, Brown’s Diner (2102 Blair Boulevard) has all the marks of a socio-spatial champ. It helps define the neighborhood’s sense of space and contributes to its character.
Like the lead in a music film, Brown’s had some slow years. But it survived, possibly because it’s a particular kind of space that’s serviceable. Nothing fancy, but a pleasant enough space of the type creative people and nearby neighbors find useful. Like a coffeehouse, but with beer.
At one time, you might have called Brown’s a honky-tonk – it was a little down-at-heels, there were bands, and it was usually just the locals.
The stage at Bobby’s Idle Hour Tavern is not what one might call expansive. But it works.
-- Photos By Michelle Morrow |The LedgerBought in 2021 by Bret Tuck, the new-and-improved Brown’s is a more “family restaurant” than “corner watering hole.”
A covered front deck increased Brown’s seating, while the expanded menu, including breakfast, has something for the early eaters, the lunch crew and supper crowd.
Brown’s breakfast menu rollicks through a long list of classics like 13 homemade biscuit combinations, six types of pancakes and heaping breakfast plates. It’s a wonderland of choices for early eaters.
Also a wonderland? The generous appetizer, hot dog and sides menus, plus a host of steamed sandwiches, a Knoxville tradition.
At the same time, Brown’s has greatly expanded its live music offerings, programming music every day ranging from the weekend brunchtime pickers Brown’s Old Time Breakfast Band to players on the national scene such as Emmylou Harris’ excellent backing band The Red Dirt Boys.
So yeah, not a honky-tonk. But that’s OK, since what we don’t need in our neighborhood places is tourists looking for the “real honky-tonks.”
Foster says she would “probably only label a few honky-tonks as true third spaces where locals go, but those are really special! Places that have been around for a long time are often intergenerational, bringing regulars from multiple decades to create space for new people to feel welcome.”
And that’s a goal – finding those opportunities where New Nashville comes together seamlessly with respect to the places that made the city an attractive destination in the first place – well worth lifting a glass to the sky.