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You can find a lot of things on Broadway. Live music. Cold beer. Bachelorette gatherings. But food doesn’t usually come to mind.
There are options, of course. Merchants for a seated meal, or Acme Feed & Seed for a few decent sushi rolls. But now, behind the neon signs, there’s a hideaway where music doesn’t pour from the windows and food is actually a good reason to go.
Downtown Sporting Club marks the eighth property under the umbrella of Strategic Hospitality and with it, gives founders and brothers Max and Ben Goldberg a dynamic, four-story venue that houses a few dining areas and bars, a coffee bar, plenty of games, and a boutique hotel.
As they’ve done with all of their establishments, the Goldbergs set out to create a space that they want to hang out in. On Broadway, that means no live music—there’s plenty of that nearby. But they do have great drinks and food, plus some good old-fashioned fun, as they like to say, from “rise till rest.”
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Mural by @thenash.tn
Built in 1949, the historic storefront used to house Carter Hardware, and then two furniture stores before the Goldbergs turned it into Paradise Park in 2006. Twelve years later, they closed Paradise (to the dismay of a few) and spent almost a year gutting and reconstructing the space. As usual, they enlisted many local craftspeople—from architect Manuel Zeitlin to Joslin & Sons Signs—as a way of staying faithful to their deep Nashville roots.
Downtown Sporting Club boasts a rooftop bar on the fourth floor and a smartly designed, 20-room boutique hotel on third. The second floor is where you’ll find 12 axe throwing bays along with gaming nooks and a large projection screen facing a faux grass pad strewn with lawn chairs. Down on the lowest level, a welcoming entryway gives way to a coffee bar called Carter Assembly and more casual dining area called The R.E.C. Room (all named in honor of the building’s original owner, Richard Edward Carter). Here, you can fill up on coffee and breakfast items in the morning, or indulge in hefty snacks throughout the day.
Just beyond the coffee bar, you’ll find the understated entrance of The Ribbon Room, a space that’s reminiscent of an old school supper club, set with broad, symmetrical brown leather banquettes and a u-shaped bar sits at the center. The décor is a throwback to the 1940s and ’50s, with its diagrammed sporting illustrations and mirrored back bar. Still, it feels fresh and modern—and a quiet place to escape the Broadway fray.
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Chef Amy Deaderick
Chef Amy Deaderick came to Nashville to run the restaurant after cooking in many top-notch kitchens in Los Angeles. (Fun fact: Before she started cooking, she toured the world playing the French horn.) Her menu might well be the chef-iest (in all the right ways) on the strip right now. Using super-fresh greens and vegetables, and propping up her menu items with a solid layer of seasoning, the dishes are thoughtful—and still manage to appeal to both tipsy revelers and a couple looking for a meal before catching a game at Bridgestone Arena.
The throwback theme carries over to the menu, which is full of solid American classics that have gotten a modern update. Tater tots are piled around a deep, glass bowl of queso that’s fattened with chunks of poblano chiles. Instead of chicken, Deaderick loads a platter with cauliflower nuggets, served with three dipping sauces. Both of those starters (and in fact most of the dishes) are hearty enough to feed more than two.
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Roast Beef Sandwich
What to order
Tots & Queso, $13
Cauliflower Nuggets, $12
Patty Melt, $14
Cast Iron Chicken, $23
Shrimp Scampi, $24
Deaderick’s salads might be reason in and of themselves to fight the Broadway crowds. All are things of beauty that are also hearty and well dressed. The gem lettuces arrive with long slices of avocado and Manchego cheese slivers; it’s all wrapped up in a peppery poppy seed dressing. The sesame citrus salad is a rather large pile of greens set with shaved radishes, beets, and carrots, and it all gets lifted with a miso dressing and bits of crunch from puffed rice.
There are three burgers to choose from, including a tribute to Paradise Park—that simple but mouthwatering number lives on. Our pick is the patty melt, made with a smashed Bear Creek Farm beef patty topped with swiss and Russian dressing on sourdough slices. It comes stacked up, a double decker pile of goodness, speared with icebox pickles. The club triple decker sandwich is another behemoth, multilayered and sliced into four.
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Plates are the main dishes—there’s a seriously crowd-pleasing cast iron chicken set with squash gratin and corn. But the cold fried chicken is irresistible: a crisp, dark crust and a jumble of cucumber, tomato, and feta salad alongside it. We’ll go back for the shrimp scampi, a tangle of buttery garlic-sauced linguine. There’s also mac and cheese, grilled salmon, and a daily steak special.
The drinks are a draw, too, of course (there are multiple bars throughout). To go with the food, we enjoyed the Slim Collins, made with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. In The R.E.C. Room, you can find a frozen whiskey and ginger—grab one before heading up to the axe throwing bays to work a few things out.
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The Goldberg brothers excel when given a blank space and tasking themselves with carrying a theme throughout—they obsess over every intricate detail. At Downtown Sporting Club, those details, shown in the décor and the overall vibe, don’t hit you over the head, but the motif can be traced into every corner of the building—even into the hotel suite that boasts double bunk beds.
What’s more, they’ve managed to strike that delicate balance of offering a space where the Broadway crowds feel welcome—and that locals feel comfortable calling their own.
Downtown Sporting Club, 615-271-4395; Downtownsportingclub.com