Say what you will about the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp and its chief executive Butch Spyridon — you have to admire, or at least recognize, the NCVC’s laser focus on attracting visitors and creating revenue for local businesses. The week between Christmas and New Year’s used to be a dead period for Nashville hospitality until the Music City Bowl and New Year’s Eve festivities turned Music City into a popular holiday destination. April was another slow time for restaurants and hotels as locals and potential tourists preferred to spend their time on a beach instead of in town — and so the NCVC bundled a few already-existing events into a promotion they named “Awesome April,” smoothing out the spring revenue curve for Nashville’s hospitality industry.
The NCVC’s latest proactive initiative aims at promoting Nashville’s culinary scene during the traditionally sluggish dining month of February. Now that the Nashville Local (née Nashville Originals) group of independent restaurants has essentially abdicated its role as the organizers of Nashville Restaurant Week, the NCVC has stepped into the void to create a monthlong, multipronged celebration named Dine Nashville: The Music City Way.
Lots of cities have restaurant weeks, but Nashville’s aims to be a little different thanks to three different options for diners to celebrate local eateries. The usual model features restaurants offering discounted prix-fixe menus to encourage diners to discover new spots or revisit old favorites, and Dine Nashville will indeed feature these sorts of opportunities from Feb. 21 to 27. On Feb. 7, the event website (VisitMusicCity.com/Dine-Nashville) will showcase the menus and open up for reservations, so you can pick from brunch, lunch and dinner deals ranging from $20 to $50 at destinations including stalwarts like The Loveless Cafe, Sinema, Elliston Soda Shop, Urban Grub and Nicky’s Coal Fired, as well as newer options such as Sadie’s, Jane’s Hideaway and The Hart.
In addition to discounted set-price meals, Dine Nashville will also feature discounts and deals during the last week of February at smaller spots you might not typically consider for a full sit-down dining experience. NCVC president Deana Ivey explains how these companies fit into the celebration: “Nashville has so many unique things to enjoy, we just wanted to include places like Goo Goo Clusters and Tennessee Brew Works.” Other dining options included in this tier of Dine Nashville discounts include all Nashville locations of Hattie B’s, 6th & Peabody, the new Cafe at Bobby, Pie Town Taco Company and Diskin Cider.
Undoubtedly, the most exciting component of Dine Nashville will be a series of special chef collaboration dinners taking place throughout the month. This fun idea came out of a task force of chefs and restaurateurs that the NCVC put together to help plan the experiences. When Ivey met with representatives of Strategic Hospitality and chefs including Maneet Chauhan, Pat Martin and Vivek Surti, they were especially eager to share kitchens with industry friends.
“Nashville is known for being such a creative city,” says Ivey. “The task force came up with the idea of doing it for a month and featuring the chef collaborations. It’s such a great way to celebrate the chefs and the restaurants.”
Some of these collaboration events have already sold out — diners are hungry to see, for instance, the results of chefs Sean Brock and Tyler Brown in the same kitchen for the first time since they worked together at the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage in the early 2000s. Other inspired planned pairings include a Valentine’s dinner featuring Ryan Poli hosting Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House’s Chef Rooney at Bobby, Deb Paquette cooking with Kahlil Arnold at Arnold’s Country Kitchen, Trevor Moran offering the chance for pitmaster Pat Martin to show off his culinary chops at Moran’s Locust, and James Beard Award winners Gerard Craft of Pastaria and R.J. Cooper cooking together at Saint Stephen.
Maneet Chauhan and Julia Sullivan will showcase newcomers to town as they welcome Andrew Carmellini of Carne Mare and The Dutch and Joshua Walker of Xiao Bao Biscuit to Chaatable and Henrietta Red, respectively. In other cities, some restaurateurs believe one restaurant must lose in order for theirs to win. But Chauhan and Sullivan are welcoming and introducing Carmellini and Walker to their own fans — and that’s the titular Music City Way.
Another important element of Dine Nashville is its charitable component, with a portion of the events’ proceeds going to The Giving Kitchen, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that has opened operations in Nashville. The Giving Kitchen provides emergency assistance to food-service workers through financial support and a network of community resources with the goal of strengthening the community of food-service workers by offering compassionate care.
“The Giving Kitchen has done such a great job helping to prop up service workers during this difficult time,” says Ivey. “We wanted to make sure to do our part to help support their efforts.”
This is the first edition of Dine Nashville, but Ivey expects it won’t be the last. “We hope it will be ongoing,” she says. “It’s already been great to work with all these restaurants, and the reception has been even better than expected. We’re being realistic about it, but hopefully it will really take off. As a new event, we weren’t expecting a lot in the first year, but we’re off to a great start!”
Offering discounted meals is always a tricky proposition for restaurants unless it encourages return visits in the future. (Remember Groupon? Seen much about them lately?) Trading potential profits for accelerated cash flow isn’t really the aim of programs like Dine Out Nashville.
“We want to give locals and tourists a reason to visit our restaurants in February,” says Ivey. “If the restaurant business is better than projected in February, that’s a win. Any added revenue is a success. We’re already receiving a lot of great PR about the event, and with this kind of response, I don’t see how we can’t continue it.”
