In July, members of the progressive group Indivisible held a presidential-debate watch party at East Nashville Beer Works. During commercial breaks, they plotted a primary challenge of U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper.
The next month, Mayor David Briley stood on a bench at a gathering of young progressives at the same Trinity Lane brewpub, where he “called bullshit” in the final weeks of his unsuccessful re-election bid.
Now local volunteers from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign gather monthly at East Nashville Beer Works for strategy meetings.
“It just felt like the right place,” says Liv Carter, a Warren volunteer.
Carter is organizing a binder full of paper copies of Warren’s famous plans, ready to explain them to anyone who — purposely or not — wanders into their November debate watch party at the bar. The volunteers have a sign-up sheet for interested Warren supporters, a full-size cutout of the candidate herself ready for photos, and debate bingo cards, including squares for “I have a plan for that” and “abolish the electoral college.” It’s part cheerleading, part organizing, as the team has already recruited more volunteers through its debate parties.
The first event the Warren team held at the brewery was back in August, when they encouraged supporters to bring their dogs in homage to Warren’s retriever Bailey. They needed a dog-friendly venue with plenty of space and sympathetic management. They found it in Anthony Davis, co-owner of the bar and, until recently, a two-term Metro councilmember.
“We knew Anthony was going to be open to hosting a political event, because not every venue is,” Carter says.
It didn’t hurt that Davis decided to endorse Warren.
Since Davis and his partners opened East Nashville Beer Works shortly before the 2016 presidential election, it has turned into a hub for progressive politics. A “Cabana of the East Side,” jokes Davis — a reference to the Hillsboro Village restaurant frequently used for Democratic fundraisers and campaign events.
The East Nashville version attracts a generally — though not exclusively — younger and more progressive cohort: Indivisible, Young Democrats and other lefty groups.
Though Davis and his partners sought to create a taproom that encouraged community gatherings, the political angle was not part of the original plan.
“We’ve gone back to pre-Prohibition, where there’s neighborhood breweries,” Davis says. “This is the renaissance of that. We were very intentional about the space. We set out to have a very community-centered, taproom-driven brewery.”
But they realized the place couldn’t survive on good atmosphere alone.
“We knew we had to have great beer as a foundation,” Davis says.
To create a place where people want to commune, Davis says ENBW intentionally avoided the “sports bar vibe.” That means rarely turning on the television volume. But they make regular exceptions for the presidential debates.
Like Tottenham Hotspur supporters gathering at Noble’s Kitchen & Beer Hall or Chicago Bears fans watching games at Beyond the Edge, liberal political junkies get together at East Nashville Beer Works. On what might otherwise be a quiet Wednesday night, the brewery is thrumming.
“They know that we’re a good space for it, and we’re going to be welcoming to them,” Davis says. “We never wanted the sports bar vibe, so we’re careful about sound, but it’s one of those things we will do every once in a while — and with them reaching out, it brings us a good crowd.”
