From star-studded new entrants to legendary old favorites like Tootsies Orchid Lounge and Robert’s Western World, there’s a honky-tonk to suit every taste in Nashville. Arena rock god Jon Bon Jovi is even getting in on the act after opening Jon Bon Jovi’s Live Music Rooftop Bar & Restaurant on Music City’s famed “Honky-Tonk Highway” (aka Lower Broadway) in early June.
Groups can raise the rafters and then retire to the rooftop in scores of Lower Broadway bars that stage the quintessential Nashville experience 24/7, 365 days a year.
[Related: What's New in Nashville. With Nashville CVB Chief Deana Ivey]
And while immersing your group in the controlled chaos of Lower Broadway is a quintessential Nashville experience attendees won’t want to miss, many top venues and properties such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Omni Nashville Hotel can bring the honky-tonk closer to you via hosting an exclusive songwriters night for meeting attendees and guests.
Meetings Today even tapped local nonprofit CreatiVets, which helps veterans cope with post-service challenges, such as PTSD. The CSR program at the Omni Nashville featured four noted Nashville songwriters partnered with Meetings Today LIVE! South attendees to collaborate on a country song about meeting planning, with the often-hilarious result presented at the event's closing night dinner at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
[Related: 4 Songs About Planning Meetings and Events That Will Leave You in Stitches]
Meetings Today caught up with three Nashville-based events profs who specialize in booking honky-tonk events to make sure your Music City night on the town hits all the right notes. Following are some favorites that fit the bill for a boot-scootin’ good time after the day’s meetings are done.
Katie Goyette, TC Restaurant Group
As vice president of event sales for TC Restaurant Group, which operates Tequila Cowboy, Luke’s [Bryan’s] 32 Bridge, Jason Aldean’s Kitchen & Rooftop Bar, Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa, Morgan Wallen’s This Bar and Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up Cookin’ & Drinkin’, Katie Goyette is someone you want to call first when considering a honky-tonk night during your Nashville event.
“Everything we do is very turnkey and easy,” Goyette said. “A client comes to me, I’ve got food, beverage, entertainment and we’re done—you’re in and out the door.
“Our owner started one of the first celebrity honky-tonks, called Florida Georgia Line (FGL) House, which was on Third Avenue. That kind of changed the game—that’s when everything blew up,” she said. “Within our own restaurant portfolio, I’ve got Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert; we just opened Morgan Wallen and we converted FGL House to Lainey Wilson. So, we have five celebrity concepts within our footprint.”
For groups that want to live even larger, Goyette, a 2023 Meetings Trendsetter, is also the person to call for large events, having organized multi-venue buyouts and full-on Broadway block parties.
“That’s been kind of my thing; I’m not trying to run as a DMC, I’m trying to create a tool and a product [that reveals] how easy it is to merge all these businesses even outside our footprint,” she said.
TC Restaurant Group, which operates nine venues in Nashville and can serve groups of up to 7,000, can also translate the quintessential Nashville honky-tonk experience into a full-blown affair. Goyette said it’s not all that uncommon to sell out her entire portfolio—and even work with other venues—for large events.
“We have an event coming up where it’s so large that we have actually started to buy out competing businesses around us,” Goyette said. “Two years ago, [I had a client that] bought out 2nd through 4th Avenue and brought 8,000 people downtown. The city’s gotten a little strict about shutting down roads—it was a no-brainer back in the day—so to overcome that challenge, I got video projection between the buildings. So, even if we do a block party on Broadway and the city denies us a permit, I’ve got all the businesses up and down the street and I can shoot video projection and integrate the event as if it’s one seamless entity and it doesn’t seem disconnected.”
While in some respects, TC Restaurant Group does operate like a DMC—it can handle most all aspects of a special event or recommend the best suppliers to hire, and does work closely with local DMCs—booking marquee performers such as the country music stars whose names festoon some of the top honky-tonks are typically handled by local booking agents.
Goyette said booking windows are starting to widen following Covid-era compression.
“I would say the average client’s booking is anywhere from six to nine months, out” she said. “However, I love business and I’m gonna make stuff work, so if a client’s 14 days out and they have 200 people, I will find a solution.”
Tips for Planners Booking Honky-Tonk Events
Goyette has been booking downtown Nashville for more than 10 years, so she has a great perspective on what works and what doesn’t for entertainment events of all sizes.
“[Planners need to] talk about their goals,” she advised. “If someone is doing an opening reception or closing reception, the energy of both of those are so different. If it’s an opening event, if people want to network and talk, we don’t want a full band on stage because it’s going to drown somebody out.
Those are small details to think about on the front end. We’ll have a band and then we’ll build up the energy, but we really want to understand their program and make sure we’re meeting their needs, because if you don’t take any of that into consideration, then you can totally destroy what the client is trying to build.”
And while honky-tonks and the neon Nashville definitely comes with its own brand of excitement, Goyette and others also pump up the volume via event activations.
“That’s one of the things that I know is really important for corporate events,” she said. “[Some may think], ‘Wait, we’re a honky-tonk; you don’t need to do a lot of stuff to dress it up.’ But all those little, teeny-tiny touches make a difference. So, we’ll do a site tour with a client, and we will get custom-branded swizzle sticks with charms and we’ll do a signature drink. One of our main activations is we work with a company called Twisted Sugar, and [Twisted Sugar’s] Lucia will be onsite and doing cotton candy, and she’ll stamp it with the client’s logo and offer fun hats and boots—all those little fun Nashville experiences that enhance the event.”
Another popular activation is a roving Dolly Parton impersonator who interacts with the crowd and jumps on stage to belt out Jolene. Branded hat walls that act as a step-and-repeat are another in-demand activation that fairly screams “Instagrammable moment!”
Goyette stresses that knowing what days of the week to book entertainment events is key in Nashville.
“If you host an event on a Monday through Thursday, awesome,” she said. “I don’t typically host events on Friday, Saturday or Sunday because of the traction of the city. You wouldn’t want to host a corporate event on Saturday night starting at 7 o’clock.”
Megan Schmidt, Reverie Hospitality Solutions
Representing 12 Nashville venues, Reverie Hospitality Solutions can set up events at top honky-tonks and other live-music entertainment venues such as Hank Williams Jr.’s Boogie Bar, Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and Jon Bon Jovi’s Live Music Rooftop Bar & Restaurant, as well as Bad Axe (a new axe-throwing venue) and the yard-game-focused Fogg Street Lawn Club, opening soon.
For Megan Schmidt, principal of Reverie Hospitality Solutions, the Nashville experience practically sells itself.
“It’s just the experience—there’s nothing like it,” Schmidt said. “The musicians are amazing, so no matter what bar you walk into you’re going to see good music, and we’ve really stepped up our game with the culinary as well.
“If you’re in Nashville for three nights, one of the nights has to be a honky-tonk night,” she added. “Every space is so unique, but I would say be clear on whether you’re getting private or non-private space, because the venues are big, and the bars are 21 and over. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for local activations. I love to do things like bringing in a local stitching company with a machine to embroider, or a hat giveaway. Really great leather companies can come in and do belts, koozies and also add logos and initials. And don’t be afraid to ask to see people’s music live or on video to see what you’re getting.”
One new Nashville venue that’s been getting a lot of buzz is Jon Bon Jovi’s Live Music Rooftop Bar & Restaurant, which is further diversifying the city’s live-music experience to include styles that veer away from its trademark country and western offerings.
“Bon Jovi’s is five floors, three of which have stages, and the fourth floor is banquet floor with a stage,” she said. “The really cool thing is the three [top] floors all have VIP decks that overlook the main floor.
“The whole venue is really set up for group events, and there are lots of nooks,” Schmidt added. “We’re ‘L’ shaped so we face Broadway as well as 4th Avenue, with open-air space, and on the fourth floor both ends of the L open, so it feels really breezy, with a full stage.”
The venue—like many of the other top honky-tonks, has ample rooftop spaces for event activations or for attendees to just drink in the Lower Broadway scene. Hank Williams Jr.’s Boogie Bar also boasts a popular rooftop venue with a stage, along with a main stage and terrace on the second floor.
Sonia UIrich, Chief's on Broadway
While the celebrity appeal of some Nashville honky-tonks may not extend much past a name-licensing agreement, Chief's on Broadway is a hands-on affair.
“We’re one of the rare independent venues on Broadway, so it’s one-of-a-kind, and it’s Eric Church’s venue, and it’s not a licensing deal,” Ulrich said. “It’s his own venue, his own money, and he was really, really involved in the design and guided the whole process very closely. He wanted Chief's to have a soul, basically.
“So, when you come here, you really feel the authenticity of the place,” Ulrich continued. “There’s a story behind everything. It’s kind of like the representation of his dream, coming to Nashville with a guitar and wanting to play on Broadway, and 20 years later, he’s got his own place.”
Chief's boasts six stories, with the first being your typical Broadway honky-tonk covered in tour posters with bands playing original music. The second floor has a dueling-piano-style bar with a stage in the middle of the room and the crowd filling in around it. The venue also has a ’70s-style neon bar with a “dive-y” vibe to it.
“We have a lot of floor buyouts, so they will buy the second floor, for example, or they buy the rooftop,” she said. “Once in a while, we’ll have a group that just wants the entire building and they have a party on all six floors, but I would say the wheelhouse is really around 150 guests and they pick one of the floors.”
The third and fourth floors are basically standalone music venues that resemble a church but with a huge stage. Owner and artist Eric Church did a 20-show residency there.
“When groups want to bring an A-lister, this is a really, really cool space because it’s been made by an A-lister for other A-listers with all that it requires in mind,” Ulrich said. “On the fifth floor is our barbecue restaurant. We have a partnership with Rodney Scott’s [Whole Hog BBQ], and he is a James Beard Award winner, so the food is just fantastic.”
The sixth floor lays claim to a rooftop space that towers above most of the competition.
“We’re one of the tallest on Broadway so we have great view of all the other rooftops, which is big,” Ulrich said. “And we’re close to the river, so we have a great view of the Cumberland on one side and Broadway on the other side. And if someone wants to buy out the entire venue, we can fit about 1,000.”
As with the other venues, Chief's is also very adept at activations.
“One thing we do that is different than the other buildings is we actually have a marquee outside, so we can have the name of the group or a message,” she said. “And then we have cigar rolling on the rooftop. People can roll their own cigars and then even smoke them on the rooftop, and we do a pairing with tequila. Also on the rooftop, we have The Pitmaster Experience because we have these giant smokers for Whole Hog BBQ. They leave with this feeling that they actually learned something; they had a good meal, they had a good drink, an awesome view and a party.”
Like her colleagues, Ulrich is quick to volunteer her warm-and-fuzzy feelings about her hometown.
“Nashville is a city of dreamers,” she offered. “People come here with a dream and a guitar and it creates that energy—that’s why it’s called Music City. It’s electric. It’s filled with creativity and inspiration. It’s vibrant. And that is infused in the events.”
A Key to the Honky-Tonk Highway
Meetings Today partnered with HipMaps to create an interactive map experience of the best honky-tonks to host your events in downtown Nashville. Scan the QR code on the map, download the HipMaps app and enter the following access code: MTNash.
HipMaps helps meetings, events, destinations and hotels enhance their guests’ experience with custom-designed maps and its innovative app. With the HipMaps app, users see their location right on their host’s map, read their curated comments about each place, link to websites and get directions.
HipMaps are also versatile: The host chooses what they want to share with guests, such as event activities, dine-arounds or highlights and hidden gems of the area to help guests plan their free time.
“We love helping planners look like the rock stars that we know they are, guiding guests to planned activities and curating recommendations for their free time,” said Rachel LeRoy, founder of HipMaps.
This is our second partnership with LeRoy, who also was a 2023 Meetings Trendsetter, and HipMaps. The first collaboration featured Meetings Today and HipMaps teaming up to produce a custom map of Las Vegas during IMEX America 2023.
Connect with them at HipMaps.com.
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