Located right on Broadway.
The heart of downtown Nashville, Broadway has become an endless (well not really endless but 5 blocks) of bars owned or named after major country artists. Everybody from Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks and Miranda Lambert to Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton have their own bars on Broadway.
Of course most of these bars aren’t actually owned by the artists themselves. Bars like Luke’s 32 Bridge, Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar, Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa, and Morgan Wallen’s recently opened This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen are owned by TC Restaurant Group, with the artist licensing their name to be used on the bar. Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row is owned by Riot Hospitality Group. Even Kid Rock’s bar is owned by Steve Smith, the owner of several other bars on Broadway including Tootsie’s, Rippy’s and Honky Tonk Central.
Now, I’m sure these artists get some portion of ownership in the bars. But as far as actually having a large part in owning and operating the venues, for the most part they choose to leave that up to other companies.
And it appears that’s going to be the case with Jelly Roll’s upcoming Nashville bar too.
A couple weeks ago, Jelly Roll announced during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that he would soon be opening his own bar in Nashville called Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville:
“I am opening my bar on Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee, which is a real big deal. You’ve been to Broadway, it’s all after country stars. I’m the first Nashville native to get a bar, so like the first kid from the city to get a bar.”
He also revealed to Joe Rogan that the bar will have an area inspired by Rogan’s Austin comedy club, The Comedy Mothership. Inside Rogan’s club, he has a bar honoring comedy legend Mitzi Shore – so Jelly Roll’s including a space in his own bar honoring his father, Buddy.
And now we know just where that bar will be.
According to a report from the Nashville Business Journal, Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville will be located at 209 Broadway, just across the street from another artist-owned bar, Eric Church’s Chiefs.
The location is currently under construction, and it was announced in 2022 that Bottled Blonde would be moving into the area. But early renderings of the venue’s sign submitted to the Metro Historic Zoning Commission contained clues that the bar might not be another location of the Bottled Blonde chain of bars, and may be a partnership with a country artist.
Original drawings showed the bar with a sign featuring the Bottled Blonde logo and “Country Music Star Bar.”
And we now know that country music star is, in fact, Jelly Roll.
New applications for permits were submitted to the commission in August showing the updated signage for Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville, featuring a skull with a crown and advertising “burgers, spirits and tattoos.”
Plans show that the bar will be five indoor stories, plus an open-air rooftop on the sixth story.
The bar will be in partnership with Evening Entertainment Group, the hospitality company that runs several brands across the country, including Bottled Blonde. No details about the partnership have been released, so it’s not known whether Jelly Roll is simply licensing his name to the company or whether he’s going to be an owner of the venue. But from what he told Joe Rogan, it sounds like he’s had plenty of input into the bar’s design.
According to the original press release issued by Evening Entertainment Group, the bar was first scheduled to open in mid-2024, but no updated timeline has been given for an opening date. The group also announced at the time that they were in negotiations with a “rising Country Music superstar” to serve as the face of what was then apparently going to be known as Bottled Blonde Nashville.
I’m sure we’ll find out more about the project soon, but if you’re in Nashville before it opens, you’ll have plenty of other options for artist owned bars until Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville opens its doors.
