The secret that built one of Nashville’s most visited neighborhoods.

Last night, I struck a conversation with the bartender at the restaurant where my sister works on 12 South.

He was a knowledgeable gentleman. 

Through our chat, he gave me recommendations for several restaurants in the city along with reasons why he’d recommended them, he informed me of the history of various Nashville neighborhoods and what they’d been like years ago, and he shared about his background working in the restaurant industry.

He told me he’d been working at the restaurant we were having our conversation in for 10 years and all the reasons he’d loved working there.

I asked him what the restaurant and neighborhood had been like when he started.

He told me it hadn’t always been the trendy and hip tourist destination it is today. He said people would look at you like you had a guitar sticking out of your head if you would’ve told them you were coming to 12 South fifteen years ago.

“In my opinion, it all started when the coffee shop called Frothy Monkey up the street opened up about 15 years ago,” he said. 

Like the curious writer I am, I wanted to know who those people were and what they saw in the neighborhood that made them want to open their coffee shop here. From what I understood, the neighborhood, when they made that decision, had little promise of becoming what it is today. 

“It was cheap and all they could afford at the time,” he said. 

Apparently, I was learning, contrary to my previous belief, it isn’t always necessary to have some grandiose and watertight business plan to create success. 

“It was a husband and wife. After opening the Frothy Monkey, they decided to open the restaurant we’re sitting in now,” he said. 

I enquired further. 

“So, lemme make sure I follow. The couple who opened the coffee shop up the street which they loosely based on a coffee shop concept they saw in Louisiana, found success with that, then decided to open the burger restaurant we’re sitting in right now?” I asked. 

“Pretty much. Then, they opened another restaurant called Josephine which is also located on this street,” he said.

Surprised by the risk, hard-work, and precognition one must have to turn a neighborhood without promise into the travel and dining destination it is today, I finished my juicy bison burger, my coffee and cream beer, and paid my tab. 

My curiosity and my appetite were simultaneously satisfied.

The founders' recipe for success and for building the neighborhood became clear. 

I understood their concepts had to have at least been serviceable but I concluded it was more than that. 

It’s the people. It’s gotta be the people. 

Hiring people like the bartender I’d spent over a half an hour chatting with who so happily talked about his love for his work, the city, and the life he’d created for himself because of his work at the restaurant, was, and still is the secret to this founders’ continued success. 

Turns out, in lieu of gimmicks, trickery, or a clairvoyant marketing plan, if we aspire to create something great, we can begin by relying on the help of really good people.

That’s clearly what these founders did

And, if we’re so inclined, we’d do a little better by taking a page out of their book.