Are we finally going to get an opening date?
Back in 2021, Eric Church announced that he was working on a new bar in downtown Nashville called Chief’s.
The new venue will be located in the heart of downtown Broadway, among many bars named after his fellow country artists. But Church’s sounds like it’s going to be unique among them…
Church bought the building for $24.5 million along with Ben Weprin, founder of boutique real estate investment management firm AJ Capital Partners.
He’s also bringing in a taste of his local Carolinas by partnering with famous BBQ chef Rodney Scott, the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster and founder of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ, for the bar’s food program, which will be served from the rooftop and contain all-weather seating for visitors.
And to set itself apart from the other artist bars in downtown Nashville, Chief’s plans to feature a two-story seated music venue that would be able to host ticketed live events.
The bar recently shared a glimpse of the music venue that fans have to look forward to once the bar’s completed, with stained-glass windows around the multi-story venue reminiscent of the historic Ryman Auditorium just a few blocks away.
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And since announcing Chief’s, fans have been patiently waiting for an opening date so they could book those trips to Nashville.
Well it seems like we won’t have to wait much longer.
A countdown has appeared on the Chief’s website, and it looks like they will have some news to announce on March 12 at 9 AM eastern (if my math is correct).
The bar also posted a series of pictures on Instagram today, hinting that the bar would be “coming soon.”
And while it may seem like it’s taken a while, this one’s going to be worth the wait.
I sat in my downtown Nashville office literally watching construction workers dismantle the old building brick by brick, leaving nothing but the two walls facing Broadway and 2nd Avenue. So when Church talks about building a bar from the ground up, he means it: There was nothing but two walls left of the building just a year ago.
But again, brick by brick, Chief’s has started to come together.
And earlier today, Church announced that he was sending deeds to individual bricks in the building to every member of his Church Choir fan club, saying that he wanted fans to have ownership of the bar:
“This is our house. I’ve been involved in every step of restoring this historic building into a place we can call our own. And because you have been with me every step of my career, I’m proud to dedicate a physical brick of the Chief’s building to each and every one of you.
You’ve helped me build my career brick by brick, and I want the whole world to know that the building is yours.”
Church has said he wants Chief’s to be a place that his fans can gather, not just another stop on the endless bar crawl of honky tonks on Broadway. In fact, it looks more like a place that you can go to focus on the music that made Nashville famous and not the party scene that Broadway’s become.
And according to Church, who plans to perform at his bar once it’s open, that’s what he wants.
During an interview with Rolling Stone, Church discussed his plans for performing at Chief’s once it opens, and he said he wants to use the space to touch on more heavy subjects, like paying tribute to the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas, and to his brother, Brandon, who passed away suddenly in 2018:
“I want to do a show that talks about Vegas. It talks about my brother. It talks about things in my life. I’m not going down there to play ‘Drink in My Hand.’ It’s going to be stuff that’s very raw, very real, and it’s just me onstage.
It’ll be Church on Broadway.”
And if I’m right, we’ll know next week just when we can expect to be able to visit Chief’s for the first time.
