First look: New Nashville cocktail bar to bring vibrant nightlife back to Hillsboro Village

Robert Higgins walked into the brightly-lit nightclub on a late afternoon. It was a weekday — not a time to be dancing.

He was ready to work.

The longtime restaurateur has been planning the opening of Jar, one of his hospitality group's three new restaurants located in Nashville's Hillsboro Village neighborhood. It's been a process years in the making.

"I hoped and I prayed, but I didn't know for sure if it would come to light," he said.

Supper Club on Belcourt was the first neighborhood spot to open under the Make A Play Hospitality umbrella (October 2023). It has an upscale steakhouse vibe, and even serves a gold-leaf-wrapped cut of meat. There's another location of Supper Club in Memphis, operated by Joe Johnson, his business partner.

Bungalow10, right next door, is scheduled to open sometime in late January. It features a globally inspired menu and borrows inspiration from Randy Rayburn's Cabana, which formerly operated out of the same Belcourt Avenue space.

Jar will be the last of Higgins' three restaurants to open, and it will be vastly different from anything else currently offered in Hillsboro Village. It's a nightclub atmosphere with an exclusive flair — an RSVP to the nightly guest list will be necessary for customers to enjoy the live DJ and drinks.

Jar aims to bring nightlife to Hillsboro Village

Higgins said he wanted to create a place in the neighborhood where patrons can end their nights — Jar will be open 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the weekends — something that hasn't existed much in Hillsboro Village for a long time, aside from the longstanding but small Villager Tavern.

The strip is perhaps better known these days for its numerous women's clothing boutiques and the ever-popular breakfast option Pancake Pantry. Weekend mornings are busy for the neighborhood, which is flush with college students from Vanderbilt University and Belmont University. But much of the activity dwindles after dinner time, in part due to a lack of nightlife options.

"This area had been so vibrant for 20 years," Higgins said. "It was the hospitality area of Nashville in the 1990's and the early 2000's."

That history was in part thanks to Randy Rayburn, an acclaimed Nashville restaurateur and creator of nationally-recognized Midtown Café. The longtime business owner operated Cabana and Sunset Grill in the Hillsboro Village neighborhood.

Higgins wants to bring that vibrant nightlife energy back.

"What I want to do is have a place where you can have a drink, eat good food, but you also can dance if you want to," he said "And I think that's the thing Nashville's been missing."

Student of 'the greats'

Higgins is taking inspiration not only from Rayburn, but other local and national restaurateurs.

He admires hospitality groups in Atlanta and Memphis, and takes inspiration from nightclubs in Los Angeles and New York.

"I've been a student of the game since I was 10 or 12 years old and eating at these places," Higgins said.

Part of that inspiration will influence the way guests engage with Jar. People can add their name to the online guest list for free entry before 10 p.m. That way, Higgins said, there is a feeling of exclusivity without any huge barriers.

Another perk: no waiting in line to get in. Any extra space after 11:30 will open the doors up to anyone who wants to join the party. DJ performances will come from local and national artists.

Jar is meant to be somewhere to end a night out, but it's part of Make A Play's strategy to inject energy into Hillsboro Village.

"Come for drinks, come for cocktails, come for good music," Higgins said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New Nashville cocktail to bring nightlife back to Hillsboro Village