NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For more than five years, Pancho and Lefty's fit in like perfect harmony on Lower Broadway.
"We did not want to be a honky tonk. We did not want to be a bar. We wanted to be a refuge for Nashvillians coming down to a Preds game or coming down to a concert at the Ryman," said Will Newman, owner of Pancho and Lefty's.
They moved in summer of 2017 — the summer of the Nashville Predators' improbable, unpredictable quest for the Stanley Cup.
"There was just this sense of Nashville. It felt like Nashville, and it was safe. It was clean. It was fun, vibrant, full of Nashvillians downtown," said Newman.
But not anymore.
Newman, who also owns the popular Edley's Bar-B-Que chain, said he's alarmed by what he sees night after night.
"Since COVID, a radical shift has happened," he said. "It was evolving into some type of wild beast that was just uncontrollable."
Newman claimed security issues and public drunkenness have increased, while the number of locals spending time downtown pretty much plummeted.
"Not to be able to walk across the street with your kids to a Preds game and see just completely people out of control drunk," said Newman. "In essence, a tourist trap that only tourists are going downtown."
Which is why, this summer, they decided to trade what could be called a milieu of madness downtown for a much more mild Melrose neighborhood. Well, at least it will be milder once construction is complete on the inside.
"For us, it was a no brainer because it really fits our strengths," said Newman.
Their biggest hope is they'll host a lot more locals in the space that once housed The Sutler.
"Establish regulars, just be apart of this vibrant Nashville community," he said.
Whether or not that harmony between locals and tourists can ever exist on Broadway, Will says that song is still being written.
"We’re losing that soul of Nashville downtown, which made us unique, which probably attracted all of these people to visit us in the first place. It’s kind of evolved into a caricature of itself that again is just unrecognizable," said Newman.
Pancho and Lefty's new location in Melrose is expected to open at the end of September.
