There’s a lot more than music coming out of Nashville these days, and while the Tennessee town is still certainly the country capital of the world, it’s the restaurant scene that’s truly making noise. Loudest of all might be Benjamin and Max Goldberg, the brothers behind such beloved local institutions as The Catbird Seat, Paradise Park, Merchants, Aerial and The Patterson House, whose latest project, Pinewood Social, opens this week.
A combination coffee shop, bar, restaurant and bowling alley, Pinewood Social is what the Goldbergs are fond of calling a “third space.”
The entrance at Pinewood Social
“At our core, we’re a restaurant with a great bar program, but we also have always enjoyed the ancillary spaces that capture people at different points in their day,” Max tells DuJour. “We have this mentality of being a space to come in and do work at, or take a meeting or meet a friend for a cocktail, we have six vintage bowling, there’s private karaoke and private dining. We love the fact that we can use the space for different purposes at different times of the day for different reasons.”
A communal table in Pinewood Social’s “living room”
But about that restaurant! The kitchen is helmed by Josh Habiger, who’s logged time at The Fat Duck and Alinea, and will be turning out food all day, from a Reuben Benedict at breakfast to dinnertime treats including bacon-lettuce-and-tomato bruschetta, kale Caesar salad and an already buzzed-about fried chicken.
“When it comes to the food, we are extremely lucky to be able to work with Josh, who is the one of the most talented people we have ever met,” Ben says. “When we talked with him about the scope of this project, it reminded him of working in a diner growing up. He has a knack for taking items you’ve become extremely familiar with and doing them in ways you may not have seen before as well as taking things you’re not familiar with and making them approachable.”
Approachable seems to be the key to Pinewood Social, which aims to be the sort of spot where Nashvillians can pop in for a cortado or stay for a night of dinner and drinks.
“Max and I gravitate toward projects where we would be the first people to go as paying customers if they weren’t ours,” Ben says. “At this point in our lives, we’re interested in restaurants and third spaces in unique ways. When we dug in and had the opportunity to do something a little more unique and allowed people to stay for a longer time, it really appealed to us.”
And we’d guess they won’t be the only ones.
Pinewood Social
33 Peabody Street
Nashville, TN 37210
615.751.8111
Pinewoodsocial.com
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