LeBlanc + Smith, the team behind Barrel Proof Nashville and Hillsboro Village’s soon-to-open The Chloe hotel, has something in mind for The Gulch, and it might not be what you'd expect. In an exclusive interview with the Scene, Robert LeBlanc and Jason Sorbet unveil plans for Love’s Alibi, their newest project scheduled to open in The Gulch later this fall.
“The Gulch is not where people traditionally assume a neighborhood bar could really thrive because it is so heavily trafficked with tourism,” says LeBlanc + Smith founder and creative director LeBlanc. “But there are a lot of people who live in that neighborhood, and there are lots of people who do go to that neighborhood and would rather have a little bit more of an honest, authentic local expression of Nashville.
“We always like to say it’s the place where you go to kick off or to end the greatest night of your life,” he adds of LeBlanc + Smith bars. “It’s not designed to be a special-occasion place.”
Nashvillian Sorbet, who runs Barrel Proof Nashville in Germantown, says the 2-year-old bar has a list of regulars, including some folks who show up four, five or six times a week. He wants to cultivate that same neighborhood vibe at Love’s Alibi. As regulars have requested specific items at Barrel Proof Nashville, the team has tweaked the concept to accommodate their requests. Originally, for example, Barrel Proof Nashville did not have TVs, but folks wanted somewhere to watch a game without heading to a sports bar, so they added a few screens. They expanded the food menu and added a pool table on request too.
As Sorbet has been working on Love’s Alibi, he’s been leaving the door open so when folks walk by, they can look in, ask questions and talk to him about what they want for their neighborhood.
Love's Alibi
Love’s Alibi, designed by Frank Favia, will feature a lot of Tennessee heritage whiskeys and will pour plenty of cocktails. Barrel Proof Nashville has more than 300 types of whiskey and another 100 in other spirits, so suffice to say the LeBlanc + Smith team knows how to stock a bar. Love’s Alibi doesn’t have the square footage to stock that many spirits, but Sorbet promises modern takes on traditional cocktails. The intention is for guests to have fun, so no one will have to wait even 15 minutes for a cocktail. Some drinks will be pre-batched to reduce wait times.
The bar will have a seated capacity of 55 to 60, with plenty of room for a standing, mingling crowd. The LeBlanc + Smith team doesn’t focus on turn times, like restaurants do, and instead encourages people to linger.
“If you think about your great conversations, your great dinners, your great nights out at bars with friends, the most magical and memorable experiences and connections are typically made in the second half of that experience, not in the first,” LeBlanc says. “In the first half, you’re just getting to know people, or you’re just getting reacclimated. In the second half, that’s when you’re vulnerable, that’s when you’re laughing, that’s when you’re crying, and that’s really where the memories kind of come in on these meaningful nights.”
If the focus is just on turning tables, he says, “We rob people of that opportunity to develop the second half of that night.”
Love’s Alibi will be located at 901 Gleaves St. and will be open daily from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.
