Hundreds Of People Showed Up For The Grand Opening Of A Raising Cane’s In Downtown Nashville, Which Is The Perfect Metaphor For What Broadway Has Become

Still waiting on that Applebees... If you've been to downtown Nashville lately, you know that Broadway is the center of the party with all of its bars and restaurants packed into a 5-block stretch in the heart of Music City. But if you haven't been to Broadway lately, you might be a little surprised when you get there. Far from the "honky tonks" that you expect when you visit Nashville, the strip is filled with massive multi-story bars, many of them named after country stars, and a lot of them playing more pop and rock than country these days. It often surprises people to learn that most of these bars aren't actually "owned" by the artist whose name is on the door. With a few exceptions like AJ's Good Time Bar, Eric Church's Chiefs and John Rich's Redneck Riviera, the vast majority of these artist bars are actually owned by hospitality companies that license an artist's name, throw some memorabilia on the wall, find a band who knows Blink 182 and Bon Jovi, and call it a "honky tonk." That's one reason that FGL House was able to reopen as Lainey Wilson's Bell Bottom Country so quick after shutting down. The same company simply rebranded the bar after another artist. The problem with these massive corporate bars is that, for the most part, they're pretty much all the same. Gone are the days when Broadway was filled with bars that each have their own personality, their own character, their own experience. Now the only decision is whether you want to get drunk in a bar with Jason Aldean memorabilia on the wall, or a bar with Luke Bryan's skinny jeans on the wall. But no matter where you go, the experience is going to be the same. Of course there are still a few exceptions. Robert's Western World remains as a throwback of sorts to the honky tonks and classic country music of an era that Broadway seems so eager to leave behind. Layla's and even AJ's Good Time Bar still play actual country music too. For the most part though, it's all corporate bullshit. So a chain restaurant seems like the perfect addition to a street that's already lost so much of its soul over the past few years. Raising Cane's opened their newest location today, right in the heart of Broadway in downtown Nashville, with hundreds of people showing up for the grand opening. https://twitter.com/JordanJamesTV/status/1805966833985405438 And sure, everybody loves Cane's. But another chain restaurant coming to Broadway just seems like a metaphor for the larger transformation that downtown Nashville has undergone in the past few years. Local bars and restaurants have closed to make room for cookie-cutter venues that appeal to the mass market of tourists coming to Broadway. Hell, even the iconic Ernest Tubb's Record Shop closed, taking away just another piece of the "old Nashville" on a street that continues to become more and more commercial and generic. I joked at the time that they would probably be putting in a Walker Hayes-themed Applebee's, because that seems to be the way Broadway is going these days. And hundreds of people coming out for a fast food chain opening on Broadway just seems a little too on the nose for the new Broadway.