Odie’s, the local hang dreamed up by country act Old Dominion and Good Time Design, will open this summer in Nashville. The idea was born when band member Trevor Rosen ran into Ty Hauter of Good Time Design at his restaurant in Franklin, TN. While there, Rosen remembered how much fun his band had playing at Hauter’s Moonshine Flats and Moonshine Beach in San Diego.
From that conversation to conceptual drawings, the project evolved as Rosen and his bandmates – Matthew Ramsey, Brad Tursi, Geoff Sprung and Whit Sellers – reminisced over memories of the hole in the wall establishments they’d hang out in around Music Row in their early days as a band.
“We didn’t quite know what it was,” Rosen says, “but we also knew what we were missing. The more we talked, the more we realized we wanted a bar like the places we went to when we were just having our first cuts, hanging out with other writers.”
Old Dominion wanted a place that would inspire others to jam with fellow musicians and provide “No Bad Vibes”. Hauter and his crew were necessary for Odie’s creation because they understood the creative heart and spontaneous fun this place needed to capture. Eventually, 1919 Division became available. Previously, the location had been home to the cherished ReBar. Old Dominion knew placement near the Red Door and Losers and Winners would be the perfect home for Odie’s.
“And we wanted it to be a place where a group of songwriters who might have a band could play,” continues Rosen, “or someone starting out might be able to be part of a writer’s thing and get heard. You know, pay it forward because all these years later, we know it works. That’s much better than just a temple to who we think we are.”