New Nashville bar Four Walls joins The Joseph Hotel, with a star bar manager at the helm

A new cocktail destination is slated for The Joseph Hotel Nashville, also home to the James Beard-nominated Italian restaurant Yolan.

Four Walls, named after a song by the late country music singer-songwriter and Nashville Sound progenitor Jim Reeves, will be an intimate bar experience with nods to Southern culture and Italian style. The bar menu and service will be led by beverage consultant Kenneth Vanhooser, whose credits include The NoMad, Boulud Sud, and Ford Fry's Le Loup.

The bar, slated to open July 20, is built with personalized service in mind, with only around 65 seats.

"It's going to be more of a one-on-one service (style), which I think is super special for Nashville, especially when you think of all the other concepts around town built for the masses," Vanhooser said.

The cocktail bar draws inspiration from Joseph founder Joel Pizzuti’s Italian-American heritage. His grandfather's name was Joseph, and his grandmother's name was Yolanda, which inspired Yolan's name, said Joseph marketing director Nicky See.

That Italian influence comes alive in the house-blended bitters, the acidity of which will be punched up by limoncello.

It's also in the “La Famiglia Negroni” portion of the menu.

"When people think about the family tree of Negronis, they think about all of these stirred cocktails that are boozy and bitter, but surprisingly there's a lot more that came before and came after the original Negroni that can fit everyone's palate," Vanhooser said.

That family tree includes an aged Negroni and other variations on the classic drink, such as the Boulevardier and the Kingston Negroni, made with Jamaican rum.

Four Walls will also pay homage to Italian aperitivo culture with its drinks and menu of shareable snacks blending the flavors of Nashville and Italy. The abbreviated food menu includes fried cheddar farfalle crisps and Nashville Hot Corn Nuts. Aperitifs and digestifs will be well-represented, with a sizeable amari collection and a variety of vermouths.

More about Vanhooser: How Le Loup in Nashville rethinks vodka's role on the modern cocktail menu

Cocktails expressing the blend of Southern and Italian cultures include the Gentleman Jim, made with rye whiskey, a blend of vermouths, bay leaf, celery and cardamom. The Moth to a Flame blends gin, sea buckthorn, citrus, white balsamic and espresso dust.

The bar will be connected to the hotel, though it will be set in a distinct space on the second floor, which is not currently open to the public. The bar's decor will be rich with textural elements and art, from Daniel Arsham wallpaper to wall coverings that evoke cowhide. A blood-red, Rosso Levanto Italian marble bar will stand as a centerpiece to the service at Four Walls.

Southern touches include thinly sliced green tomatoes, rolled into a rose and frozen into an ice cube. Green melon will serve the same purpose. The color of both is intended to contrast with the red bar. It's all part of crafting a cocktail menu that tells a story.

"It's going to be a lot of fun and I think people are going to be blown away by presentations, by technique, but also the warmth of the space and the warmth of attention to detail both in the space itself and in the service," Vanhooser said.

Serving as a reminder of the level of detail in the service at Four Walls is an old-fashioned typewriter that will live behind the bar.

"Anybody who wants a recipe, it will be typed up and given to them personally," Vanhooser said. "Whether that's a cocktail recipe, how we make our cane syrup, or how we make our frozen martini, there will be no secrets. We'll share that with everyone."

If you go

What: Four Walls draws inspiration from founder Joel Pizzuti’s Italian-American heritage, with whispers of spaghetti western cinematography as an homage to classic cowboy culture in a textured, design-forward ambiance.

Where: Four Walls will be on the second floor of The Joseph at 401 Korean Veterans Blvd. Access will be through a dedicated elevator.

When: Four Walls will be open Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-midnight, starting July 20.

More: Learn more at fourwallsnashville.com or on Instagram @fourwallsnash.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New Nashville craft cocktail bar Four Walls joins the Joseph hotel