Can’t say we didn’t all see this one coming…
If you’ve been to Nashville lately you know that lower Broadway has turned into a cesspool of tourist bars owned by country artists. Alan Jackson has one that’s great, but other than that most of them are pretty much all the same cookie-cutter bars owned by big hospitality corporations that throw in a country song or two every couple of hours between “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and Journey covers.
Garth Brooks also appears to be making moves towards opening up his own bar on Broadway too, after we uncovered records that seem to indicate he bought the old Paradise Park building after talking about wanting to open his own “dive bar” in Nashville.
Broadway has slowly destroyed any remaining country music history that’s left in downtown Nashville, and a few weeks ago we found out that Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop on Broadway would be closing too.
The record shop has been open on Broadway for over 50 years, and served as one of the last ties to the history of country music that you’ll find in an area that’s been taken over by these artist-owned mega-bars.
Well now we know what’s going to be replacing the historic record shop.
Walker Hayes announced today that he’ll be the next artist moving into Broadway, with an Applebee’s Bar & Grill coming to the site of the former Ernest Tubb Record Shop.
The four-story bar will feature all of the signature Applebee’s menu items (yes, even the “Bourbon Street steak” and the “Oreo shake”) but will also feature a stage and music venue for local Tik Tok artists, I guess to play 60-second clips of their one song over and over again.
In announcing the partnership with Applebee’s, Walker said:
“It’s every artist’s dream to have their own bar on Broadway right now. There’s so much history here in Nashville, so to partner with a company like Applebee’s that has so much of its own history is really a dream come true.
After “Fancy Like” took off we knew that it was more than a song. It really became a cultural movement, and we knew that it was a sign that people were hungry for more. It was something that we just had to capitalize on.
But we don’t want to do it like any other Applebee’s you’ve been into. This one will be unique, unlike anything else here on Broadway, a place to eat good right my own neighborhood.”
I mean, it’s only fitting that the next step in the ruin of Broadway is to replace a legendary building with an Applebee’s right?
The new Walker Haye’s Applebees Bar & Grill is set to open in the summer of 2023.
I honestly don’t even know what else to say about this news except:
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.
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April Fool’s.
Thank God this one is a joke…. at least for now.
