Sid Gold’s Request Room, which opened two weeks ago on Gallatin Pike, is the third outpost of the piano bar founded by Paul Devitt (who also created Beauty Bar) and Joe McGinty (who was the keyboardist for The Psychedelic Furs). The focus is on cocktails, karaoke and burlesque, all accompanied by live musicians.
The bar, named after one of the investor’s fathers, has locations in New York and Detroit. But sit down for a few minutes with Kira Small, Glen Pangle and “Cowboy” Keith Thompson, who are the local partners in this project, and you’ll quickly see how Nashville has already made this Sid Gold’s its own.
Our Sid Gold’s is nestled in the small space that used to be a (oddly beloved) Radio Shack on a strip of Gallatin Pike past where East Nashville morphs into Inglewood. It is next to Nelson Drum Shop, which provides a drum set on loan that musicians can play when performing in the new bar. If you want to walk out the door with a new drum kit, go ahead and purchase it and Nelson’s will bring another one over for musicians to use. The price tag hangs there during the set: It’s like the Minnie Pearl of drum kits.
Then there’s the crew. Small and Thompson know each other from touring with Lynda Carter. “Yes, Wonder Woman is my boss,” Small says in the way that barely raises an eyebrow in Nashville, but would cause crossing of Bracelets of Submission in other circles. (OK, fine, I did that in my head mid-interview.)
It might seem like a feat only someone with connections to superheroes would attempt: Open a small bar during a pandemic, when many neighborhood joints are already struggling. “The train had already left the station,” Small explains. The team had planned to open in the spring, and were delayed first by the backup of permitting that followed the tornado as folks worked on rebuilding, and then as coronavirus started to spread, by the related COVID-19 limitations.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Sid Gold’s opened without its signature karaoke or burlesque. The piano is in the back room, as is its formula, in the center of the room, and when things are back to normal, you’ll be able to sit around the piano. For now, there’s Plexiglas around the piano player: Small calls it “the salad bar.”
Temperatures are taken when you walk in, and you’ll use a contactless menu you scan with on your phone. Make requests of the piano player — and tip using Venmo — using your phone too, so you’re keeping the musicians safe while you sip your cocktail and enjoy their stylings. Wear a mask any time you are not seated at your table.
The Sid Gold’s space is divided into two. The front room is a groovy bar, with a retro sensibility, but not kitschy. Depictions of vintage boozehounds, i.e. a basset hound drinking a sherry, adorn the walls. This space is a lovely, cozy place for a cocktail, even with some of the seating removed to reduce capacity. The back room is the piano bar, and if you want to hear Small’s voice, which is anything but small, this is where you should head. When I walked in early for our interview, she was singing and playing “The Rainbow Connection” in a way that was earnest and poignant and nothing like a Muppet (not that there’s anything wrong with Kermit the Frog’s version). The walls are striped and lighting is dark, and vintage Halloween decorations hung on my visit.
The kitchen is tiny — 72 inches wide, to be exact, Thompson says — so the menu is limited to bar food such as hummus, egg rolls and Cuban sandwiches. Pigs in a blanket are the best sellers so far, by a long shot.
The bar uses decent liquor as its well — Tito’s, Beefeater and Old Overholt. Pangle, who is married to Small, spent months learning to craft the cocktails, including some classics that fit the Sid Gold’s vibe. I’m partial to the Ginger Baker, which is made with rye, Ramazzotti and ginger syrup. Happy hour runs from 5-7 p.m. and offers $1 off drinks and eats.
It’ll be fun, certainly, when Sid Gold’s can open to its full capacity, when folks can sing karaoke with a live piano accompaniment, with friendly faces sitting around the piano providing backup. The idea is not the stereotype rom-com drunken karaoke, nor the background-music-only hotel bar piano player, but something that falls in the middle. “As a pro musician," Small says, "I’ll be honest. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with karaoke. But this will be the experience for folks who want to be able to sing with a musician. If someone gets stuck, the pianist can kind of guide them along.”
But it is also fun now, when you just want to forget about the election and, well, everything else you want to forget about. Hang out in an intentionally decorated room with a carefully crafted cocktail and without a TV in sight, and let a pro play your favorite song.
Sid Gold’s Request Room is open Wednesdays through Sundays at 3245 Gallatin Pike.
