Garth Brooks sat on the edge of the stage at his Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk, located at 411 Broadway in Nashville’s famed neon neighborhood of celebrity-branded bars, restaurants, and gift shops. It was Thanksgiving week, days before Brooks would open the doors on Black Friday for his record-breaking concert on Amazon Prime, which attracted attendees from all over the world.
But on this day, he was worried the large logo on the dance floor was slightly tilted—so slightly that no one noticed but the singer. (He had it fixed.) However, his concern for the largest to smallest details is what makes his Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk a true reflection of himself and his wife, Trisha Yearwood.
“When the people walk in there, I want them to feel like they have a place,” Brooks told me. “I want them to feel kind of like how I feel when I walk into Chick-fil-A. I feel like the service is going to be good. I feel like it’s going to be clean. And I feel like I’m among people who love one another.”
Following the partial opening in November, Brooks’ four-floor, 54,715-square-foot entertainment complex opened bottom-to-top in March. The space offers everything from the sweeping dancefloor to multiple bars on every level. There is carefully curated delicious food, cutting-edge technology for lights, sound, and screens, and a rooftop that oozes ambiance. Palm trees surround the area that provides Lower Broadway views. And of course, Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk offers second-to-none customer service of which Brooks is so proud.
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Garth Brooks Named His Merchandise Store The G Spot
The first two floors include the singer’s merchandise store, which Brooks dubbed the G-Spot. There’s also an expandable stage, the most expansive screens on Lower Broadway, Brooks’ famed statue, which played heavily into his proposal to Yearwood, an LED wall meant for selfies, and more.
The first and second floors have one large footprint, with the second-floor opening overlooking the first-floor stage.
“I think that that is really sort of the honkytonks that Garth has worked in and been to,” explains Benjamin Goldberg with Strategic Hospitality, the company behind renovations and daily operation at Friends In Low Places. “It is whiskey and beer. It is a traditional honkytonk band in the center of the room, and the upstairs, being able to look down on it, is a really dynamic viewpoint. In this particular honkytonk, everything is just on 11.”
Yearwood was heavily involved in bringing the couple’s Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk to life. Her area is on the third floor, which is also used as a private event space. Since she’s also a celebrity chef with multiple cookbooks to her credit, Yearwood took special care with the menu. The bar offers juicy smash burgers, which might be the best on Lower Broadway, but she also made sure more homey options are available. There are wontons stuffed with collard greens, one of her famous chicken tenders in a hotdog bun topped with slaw, her veggie burger, meatloaf, and fried chicken along with a host of country sides, and caramel bottom apple pie, a slice of the couple’s wedding cake or chocolate chip cookies.
Trisha Yearwood: “This Was My Mom’s Recipe”
“This was my mom’s recipe,” Yearwood said on Good Morning America of the wedding cake. Her mother, Gwen, made wedding cakes before she passed away in 2011. “It’s a sour cream pound cake with just a decorative frosting, and it’s a piece of history for us. It brings my mom back into the kitchen, too.”
Garth Brooks capped his Friend In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk with a year-round rooftop bar called The Oasis, named after a famous line from his iconic “Friends In Low Places.” He outfitted the area with towering palm trees and plenty of space for a live band. There are rocking chairs and space heaters for when the weather gets cold. And bartenders will pour signature pina coladas across the floor from a little chicken shack that serves the best tenders in Music City.
“The Oasis is what you want it to be,” Brooks said. “It’s outdoor, so you’ll have sound coming from everywhere, but it’s also walled in. So, you get the outdoor space with the protection of the walls. You get to hear your own kind of music. The Oasis is fantastic because you can soak up the sun if you want to. You can be inside if you want to. It’s the best of all worlds.”
Jenny Deathridge of Strategic Hospitality Called the Oasis an “Immersive Experience”
“You’re in the song ‘Two Pina Coladas,'” she said. “You’re up there singing, dancing with your buddies, and it’s like you’re playing out Garth Brooks’ song in real-time, hopefully holding two pina coladas in your hand.”
Each floor is connected with Brooks’ Stairway to Seven. There, pictures are pegged to each of the singer’s seven CMA Entertainer of the Year. His most significant career highlights adorn the stairwell’s 20-foot walls.
Stairway to Seven starts at the bar’s ground floor with photos from 1991-92. As the stairs ascend, the years progress, and patrons will see the crowds grow in size to correspond with his popularity.
“You’ll start with a honky-tonk kind of tour that we won our first Entertainer of the Year for and go all the way up to the stadium tour where we won our last one,” Brooks said. “It’s cool. It’s all a dream. I wish I could articulate what you go through, but I just can’t. It seems like such an impossibility and a dream at the same time.”
Safety Is a Priority at Garth Brooks’ Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk
Fans can enjoy the music, fun, photos, and food at Brooks’ Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk knowing they’re safe while they’re doing it. Garth Brooks teamed with Metro Nashville’s police department to outfit a police substation for Metro Nashville PD’s Entertainment District Unit attached to the building. Brooks and Yearwood planned to fund the construction and furnishing of the two-story precinct. However, local businesses and contractors stepped up with donations.
“I’m extremely excited for all the patrons down on Lower Broad to have a police presence there,” Brooks said. “It’s one of those things you hope you never have to use, but how great is it that it’s right there?”
Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk is open daily at 411 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Its hours are 11 a.m. – 2 a.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. – 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Photo courtesy of Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk.
