Two Nashville bars cleared by state to sell alcohol 23 hours a day

At two Nashville bars, drinking is now allowed at 4 a.m. — and it doesn't have to stop until last call at 3 a.m. the next day.

The Diner Nashville in downtown and Scoreboard Bar & Grill on Music Valley Drive can sell alcohol for 23 hours a day after Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday signed legislation to expand their hours of alcohol sales. 

The two establishments, each owned by prominent Nashville bar owners, are now the only places in Davidson County with that distinction. 

The bill  — sponsored by Rep. Bill Sanderson, R-Kenton, and Sen. Thelma Harper, D-Nashville — was pushed as a way to better serve Nashville's booming hospitality industry, which includes waitresses, cooks, hotel workers and others who often get off work early in the morning.

Both chambers in the Tennessee legislature approved the bill by overwhelming margins — 60-9 vote in the House, with nine members present but not voting, and a 20-5 vote in the Senate.

The bill went into effect immediately upon Haslam's signature. The Diner Nashville is already moving ahead with the 23-hour alcohol sales. A representative for Scoreboard said they would be announcing later when they will do the same.

Under state law, liquor-by-the-drink sales must currently stop at 3 a.m. and can begin again at 8 a.m. Metro prohibits beer sales in Nashville between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. 

But the new state law, written specifically for The Diner Nashville and Scoreboard Bar & Grill, has given them their own separate hours in which alcohol sales is only prohibited between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.

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Nashville attorney Adam Dread, who represents The Diner Nashville, said the bar won't be holding a special event to commemorate the additional hours.

"There isn't really a lot of fanfare around it,' Dread said. "It's kind of the 'right thing to do law.'

"We're not throwing any kind of party around it or anything, but we would like those certain industry folks to know that starting this morning, and every other morning, please come out and have breakfast with us and a bloody (mary) or dinner and a bloody. We look forward to serving you."

The Diner Nashville, which opened earlier this year on the corner of Third Avenue South and Demonbreun Street, is six floors of bars and dining tables with different options on each. It is co-owned by Steve Smith, who also owns Lower Broadway’s Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Rippy’s Bar and Grill and Honky Tonk Central.

Dread said that The Diner Nashville, which was already open 24 hours a day even before passage of the new law, is located within walking distance for 5,000 to 10,000 hospitality workers at any time of the day.

"A lot of these folk literally go to work at 7 at night," Dread said. "Their entire body-clock is on a different schedule than ours, and they don't have that opportunity to go out and socialize and share a meal with their co-workers and friends."

The Scoreboard Bar & Grill, located in the Opryland area, is owned by Barrett Hobbs, whose other bars include Bootleggers Inn, Whiskey Bent Saloon and Doc Holiday's in downtown. Unlike The Diner Nashville, Scoreboard currently closes prior to 3 a.m.

Hobbs has said his bar would cater to the hundreds of workers at the nearby General Jackson and Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center if given the ability to sell alcohol at 4 a.m. He said he envisions his bar closing around 6 a.m with the new hours.

During debate in the legislature, some lawmakers questioned the fairness of giving two bars the ability to sell alcohol for more hours than their competitors. But Harper, the Senate sponsor, responded by saying that others are welcome to seek the same alcohol sales hours as well — they just need to file similar legislation with the state.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.