21c Museum Hotel Coming to Nashville — Could We See Proof on Broad?

The big local commercial real estate

was that

has planned to develop a new property in the former Metro human resources building at 222 Third Ave. N. With locations already up and running in Louisville, Ky., Cincinnati and Bentonville, Ark., plus others planned for Lexington, Ky., Oklahoma City and Kansas City, 21c is certainly pouring some gasoline on their expansion.

The contemporary art-themed boutique hotels feature bold decor, cheeky details like statues of penguins and video installations such as a urinal where it appears like gallery viewers are actually watching you as you do your business, but are actually just being videoed as they look at art in the hallway outside.

But most importantly for our purposes here at Bites, 21c Hotels are committed to great restaurants and bars in their properties. Proof on Main in Louisville is an award-winning contemporary eatery featuring Southern ingredients used in novel applications, and the bar at Proof is one of the best whiskey bars on the planet. Chef Levon Wallace replaced opening chef Michael Paley in the kitchen at Proof on Main in 2012 and has quickly gained a reputation as one of the most creative and talented cooks in Louisville, a city that is definitely on the culinary ascent.

Wallace is a native Californian, but he has been a frequent visitor to Nashville, even living outside the city for a while. He'll be coming to town again in June to cook at The Nashville Food Project's Nourish dinner, so could we possibly attract him to make a move down I-65 and open a Proof on Broad? I'll sure be trying hard!

Here's my first esoteric rationale why we should have yet another upscale Southern restaurant downtown. (Stick with me here ... it's a stretch.) The building that 21C plans to move into was originally built in the 1890s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The first tenant of 222 Third Ave S. was Gray & Dudley Hardware Co., the family business of the Dudleys, of Dudley Field at Vanderbilt and Richard Dudley, the 50th mayor of Nashville. Where did Richard Dudley live as mayor? In a house he constructed on Rutledge Hill that is now the home of one of the premier Southern restaurants in the country, Husk Nashville. It's kismet, I tell ya! The ghosts of the Dudleys demand that Chef Wallace come expand their collard empire into their former building.

Yeah, I admit that I'm probably straying into Betsy Phillips' Nashville history territory over at Pith, but dang it, I really love the food at Proof.