Blake Shelton joins the growing list of country artists to have a themed bar on the popular Nashville Lower Broadway strip…
The downtown Nashville Lower Broadway strip continues to be a popular tourist destination with visitors flocking to the streets dubbed “NashVegas”. With increased tourism, the bars and buildings on the strip continue to evolve quickly just like the real Vegas. A new set of owners have been taking over Lower Broadway and if you’re reading this you’re likely big fans of theirs. As the evolution of country music album sales has declined and stars have to rely more on other financial outlets, mainly touring as a source of income; many country artists have taken notice of the success of the Lower Broadway strip of Nashville and have invested in their own honky-tonks.
Alan Jackson first had his hand in owning part of Acme Feed and Seed before opening up AJ’s Goodtime Bar last year. Dierks Bentley has been working on his fourth Whiskey Row location which is scheduled to open this year. While John Rich is finishing out an extension of his Redneck Riviera joint, following the recent opening of his Vegas location late last year. Most recently Blake Shelton announced the creation of an entertainment venue called “Ole Red” slated to open in 2018.
Blake has partnered with Ryman Hospitality Properties to open 2 venues which will include the Nashville location as well as one in Tishomingo, Oklahoma; the latter of which is slated to open later this year and will take over the previous location of ex-wife Miranda Lambert’s Pink Pistol Boutique.
It’s amazing to me to see a song that’s been such a big part of my career come to life in the plans for Ole Red” Shelton told CMT.
The bar which is named after his 2002 Billboard Top 20 hit “Ol’ Red” off his debut self-titled album, also pays homage to the Grand Ole Opry (which RHP also owns along with the Ryman Auditorium, Gaylord Opryland Resort and several other Nashville properties) with it’s changing of the spelling of “Ol’” to “Ole”.
The Nashville location will take over the Opry Originals store at 300 Lower Broadway. RHP paid $6.6 million for the 91 year-old 26,000 square-foot building; which after a $20 million-dollar renovation will feature a 2-level bar, karaoke stage, dance floor, mezzanine, restaurant, retail store, 450 person private event space and a 6,000 square-foot rooftop bar with stellar views of the city.
Stay up to date on the progress of both Ole Red locations via Instagram and OleRed.com!
Written by Josie Bisto