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Nathan Zucker
It’s Thursday evening, and the vibe at Char, a modern spin on an old-school supper club in Green Hills, is sophisticated, convivial, and chill.
The lounge buzzes with bartenders stirring Sazeracs and Old Fashioneds for folks perched at the bar. Couples huddle at café tables over glasses of pinot gris, and share plates of spicy cocktail crab claws. Nearby, at a gleaming baby grand, is Lori Mechem, one of Nashville’s premier jazz pianists, treating all to a taste of Duke Ellington.
Those melodies make their way through the adjacent dining room, where guests clink glasses, and white-jacketed servers bring out platters of grilled New York strips with loaded baked potatoes, pan-seared redfish, and wedge salads cascaded with blue cheese.
Opened in fall 2018 in the new Vertis Green Hills development, Char is part of 4Top Hospitality’s family of restaurants, whose local members include Amerigo, Saltine, Etch, and etc. The original Char opened in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2001, followed by a Memphis location in 2016. At its heart, it’s a steakhouse with Southern roots, dedicated to being a neighborhood, rather than tourist-driven, restaurant.
“My partners and I believe in the concept,” says Doug Hogrefe. “Char can be used in a number of ways, whether it’s a quick, affordable, blue-plate special at lunch, a glass of wine, an appetizer, and live music early in the evening, or a full-on traditional, steakhouse experience for the night. We feel there is a void between upscale-casual restaurants and extremely expensive steakhouses; we hope Char fills that void in its own way.”
Key to making the concept work so well is its piano bar component. Hogrefe is grateful for the partnership they’ve formed with the Nashville Jazz Workshop, which makes live jazz a daily reality at the restaurant.
“A mutual friend put me in touch with Lori Mechem, founder of the NJW,” he says. “She wants to promote live jazz in Nashville any way she can and couldn’t have been more helpful in identifying who, and what, Char needed for our nightly music program.”
Through her, Hogrefe met Matt Endahl, a nationally known jazz pianist who works with the NJW. Endahl now oversees the bookings and plays most weekends.
While you savor an appetizer of New Orleans-style barbecued shrimp over grits, or share a mammoth cut of bone-in ribeye, rubbed in chili spices, and grilled to succulence, you’ll take in those rhythms—sometimes soothing, sometimes exhilarating. The music elevates a delicious dining experience.
3988 Hillsboro Pk, 615-891-7181; nashville.charrestaurant.com