Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood welcome Nashville to the 'Oasis' at grand opening for 'Friends In Low Places'

Garth Brooks' Friends In Low Places honky-tonk opened in downtown Nashville's Lower Broadway.

The event heralds how both Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, have discovered how to merge the aesthetics and culture of Nashville and country music of yesteryear into a guiding symbol for Music City's commercial and social evolution.

And yes, via a menu built in a space that literally could be called Yearwood's own "Southern Kitchen," Brooks — as he so often states — is proven correct: Chicken tenders do solve everything.

Friends In Low Places plans to be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. CT Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. The honky-tonk's food menu will be available 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. CT.

'Two years of love and sweat'

At present, roughly a dozen country star name-driven locations between Broadway's intersections with 1st and 5th Avenue celebrate how massive country music's decade of cross-pollination with popular culture allowed the genre to become.

However, unlike those spaces, Brooks is as much a name and face festooned throughout Friends and Low Places' multiple levels as he is a physical presence shaking hands and giving tours as a co-owner and investor in 411 Broadway.

At a Thursday morning press conference, Brooks offered that "two years of love and sweat" went into the various processes regarding the purchase, renovation and opening of the 54,715-square-foot venue.

"The money and hours I put into redeveloping [411 Broadway] will be reflected when [Friends In Low Places] is still here, 20 years later, and it still represents how I personally gave my best shot — beyond just giving my name — to this building. I will always be that person who wants, anytime a fan [interacts with me or my brand] to know that I am them and they are me. Being one and the same with my fans and the patrons of this space."

He added an emphatic metaphor.

"This bar is a Garth concert. It isn't Garth karaoke."

Brooks and Yearwood offered that their new Amazon Prime docuseries, "Friends in Low Places," best highlighted how uniquely deep their "passion and dedication" extended into the venue's development.

However, one walk around the beach-themed "Oasis" rooftop denotes how well the duo created a destination space for a guy who sang that "painting the town" with "two pina coladas" causes "smiles that [go on] for miles."

Yearwood's 'simple, yet sustainable' influences

Before mentioning the venue and its specifications, he highlighted the Nashville-based architects, bricklayers, builders, carpenters, contractors and welders responsible for completing work in the space and the venue's employees.

"Their artistry and good-heartedness is phenomenal," Brooks stated.

"A knowledge and respect for country music's history and culture [runs throughout Friends In Low Places]."

That knowledge and respect include Grand Ole Opry member Yearwood, whose touches are most notable in the bar's hand-crafted first and second-floor menu and the Yearwood-designed back half of the third-floor private event and VIP area.

Yes, while the front of the "Sevens" level feels like a den and living room designed by Brooks, the back half, including an aesthetically pleasing and yes, fully operational kitchen, literally takes the cake in every way.

Brooks said he often argued with his wife about "what went where" as they executed the venue's overall design.

"Ms. Yearwood has been right 99 percent of the time," he stated, with nary a joking note in his voice.

She's also right about the menu, which draws as much from the success of her "Trisha's Southern Kitchen" Food Network program, multiple best-selling cookbooks and a touch of Nashville-traditional flair — including the "Meat and Three," comprised of "Mama's Meatloaf" or "Fried Chicken with white gravy" and choice of 3 sides, plus other culinary specialties.

"I am a fan of simple and sustainable things that I'd make for my family — whether that's chicken tenders and steak fries, the same chocolate chip cookies I made in the eighth grade, or the wedding cake my mother made for Garth and me [in 2005]," Yearwood offered.

Safe, yet spectacular

Brooks quickly discussed opening a police substation at the honky-tonk, developed in partnership with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Brooks offered that for the past half-decade, Nashville's emergence as one of America's leaders in population growth, real estate development and tourism also demands that the city's police department be able to enforce laws and regulations to ensure public safety amid that growth.

It's one of many clear nods in the space to a governing ethos of being safe yet spectacular, which is a clear, unifying theme throughout the venue.

To wit, MNPD consulted with Brooks on bar safety, including sexual assault prevention training and the installation of a system that, in the case of a medical emergency, allows for, with the press of one button, the lights rising, music lowering and the ability for that patron's issue to be addressed.

The 157 million record-selling Country Music Hall of Famer hopes the system will be installed initially in all of Lower Broadway's venues.

Brooks offers that a military and rodeo-style family atmosphere built on "living and breathing spaces [existing in communal] energy" was what he ideally wanted to see.

"It'll be loud and fun here while people are having the times of their lives, but it'll also be safe.

Nashville evolves with 'love,' 'fresh, exciting moments'

Brooks and Yearwood conducted the press conference while standing before a state-of-the-art LED screen on a 30-foot stage featuring a "Circle G" emblem repurposed from the Central Park stage, where he performed to over a million people in 1997.

It's a far cry from where he was a decade before, playing honkytonks on Lower Broadway in the late 1980s.

"We've got a green room in the back and one of the best stage setups with crowd views that rival anywhere in the city," stated Brooks.

"It's probably too nice, but supporting the local artists who will play on this stage demands that they have a fresh, exciting moment."

When asked about the value of his venue at this moment in country music, Nashville and the world's history, Brooks offered a comment that defined a unifying thread between them.

"This world's in a nasty place right now. [Friends In Low Places] will become that ripple [of love out into the world]. Here, we'll treat people like they want to be treated. We'll have first-time customers by chance. They'll be repeat customers by choice."

"What you do matters, but who you do it with matters more. This is a space where people who want to love one another come, and the backdrop [where they get to do that] is country music. It doesn't get better than that."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood unveil Nashville's Friends In Low Places