Famous ‘Gold Rush’ Bar To Close Temporarily For Remodeling, Will Ban Smoking And Target Younger Audience

Nashville’s famous Gold Rush Restaurant and Bar will be closed down temporarily starting Monday, May 23, for renovations.

The 42-year-old neighborhood staple at 2205 Elliston Place is undergoing a major transformation. As one of Tennessee’s last remaining smoking establishments, Gold Rush plans to ban smoking when it re-opens in early June. The food and bar menus will also be updated in order to target a new client base.

“Gold Rush has allowed smoking in the restaurant for 40 years, but it’s time to make a change,” restaurant co-owner Brian Gruber in a statement to The Tennessean. “We’re offering more fresh products, but losing the ashtrays. We want everyone in our neighborhood and city to enjoy the new food choices and craft cocktails in one of Nashville’s most beloved dining venues.”

Gruber added to WKRN-TV Nashville that the restaurant will offer a “simpler, fresher menu, incorporating dishes with locally sourced, organic ingredients.”

Nashville staple The Gold Rush to ban smoking, upgrade to target Millennials: https://t.co/lsvk14ZEVo @Tennessean pic.twitter.com/E8l5d9I97D

— Lizzy Alfs (@lizzyalfs) May 20, 2016

Gold Rush first opened in 1974, and since then, the saloon-themed establishment has been venerated as a landmark. The bar announced the changes less than a week after another iconic Nashville location, the Springwater Supper Club, also converted itself into a non-smoking establishment. Nashville Scene reported that the “gritty last bastion of sorts for misfit barflies, old-school punks, outsider musicians and, notably, inside smokers” made the final changes on Saturday.

The number of Nashville establishments that still allow smoking is decreasing rapidly. The state enacted the Non-Smoker Protection Act passed in 2007, which bans smoking in all public establishments, including restaurants, but allows exceptions for places that restrict access to persons aged 21 years or older. Now, few such places that allow smoking still exist. The new wave of style represents a part of the so-called “Neo-Nashville” revolution.

Other plans for the Gold Rush include minor cosmetic changes to the interior decoration, sprucing up the exterior, and upgrading with new awnings. In addition to the new local and organic items on the menu, it plans to update the bar by incorporating a new craft cocktail program made with fresh ingredients and beginning to sell local craft beers. Though the menu will be streamlined and include new organic food, the bar pledges its main dishes, such as the famous Gold Rush Bean Roll, will remain on the menu and unchanged.

We'll be healing hangovers all day, starting with #brunch at 11! #Nashville pic.twitter.com/k1SPJz4c8P

— Gold Rush Nashville (@The_Gold_Rush) November 1, 2015

The signature Gold Rush Bean Roll was described by Nashville Scene in a separate report.

“Your instrument of time travel, thick as a Louisville slugger and swimming in gooey orange cheese, arrives on a foot-long metal oval with a pillowy scoop of sour cream. Diced tomatoes and shredded lettuce lie heaped on one side; on the other, a fat jalapeño lolls in a lagoon of puréed tomato. You cut into the bulging flour tortilla, raise a forkful of cheese and refried beans, and take in the whole gloriously sloppy bite.”

“The city’s local brew scene is booming. And we want to be the No. 1 spot for locals and tourists to enjoy craft beers and inspired cocktails,” Gruber said to The Tennessean. The updates are intended to cater to both Gold Rush’s existing customer base and appeal to the large number of millennials moving to Nashville.

Gold Rush aren’t the only ones updating their look to change with the times. Just a few days previously, the Metro Council approved a smoking ban for Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater. The ban for the new riverfront establishment will go into effect July 1. Nashville’s millennial growth is projected to be among the nation’s highest, making up 30 percent of Davidson County’s population. The growth rate for millennials in the southern city grew 37.1 percent between 2007 and 2013, mainly attracted to the job prospects, low unemployment, and high home price appreciation.

[Photo by Rusty Russell/Getty Images]