Restaurant heavy hitters to open rooftop bar at new West End hotel Graduate Nashville

The owners of a boutique hotel under construction on West End Avenue have tapped Los Angeles-based hospitality bigwigs to operate a rooftop bar and a coffee shop at the site.

Marc Rose and Med Abrous of award-winning cocktail bar The Spare Room, iconic LA Chinese restaurant Genghis Cohen and notable restaurant Winsome will spearhead the food and beverage options at the Graduate Nashville, slated to open this fall at 2004 West End Ave.

“It’s no secret that Nashville is an unbelievable city, and it’s exciting to create something that we hope will become a part of its cultural landscape with our partners from Graduate Hotels. We have the greatest admiration for their team and their brand, and are inspired to build upon what we’ve created with them in Seattle,” Rose and Abrous said in a joint statement.

In Seattle, the talented hospitality duo partnered with AJ Capital Partners, the owner of the Graduate Hotels brand, to open rooftop bar the Mountaineering Club, Poindexter Coffee and an upcoming restaurant at the recently opened Graduate Seattle.

"We have been thrilled with our partnership in Seattle with Marc and Med and couldn’t be more excited to get the band back together again. We are excited to bring our distinctive hospitality to the vibrant and creative city of Nashville, and to become a cornerstone of the West End community," said David Rochefort, senior vice president of asset management at AJ Capital Partners.

AJ Capital Partners purchased a pair of West End Avenue retail properties for $12.75 million in 2017. The company debuted its university-centric lodging brand, Graduate Hotels, in 2014, and now has more than two dozen hotels open or in the pipeline in university-anchored cities.

Graduate Nashville will be a 12-story, 203-key hotel designed by architectural firm Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture. The property will feature the coffee shop, rooftop bar and meeting/event space. The design will include nods to some of Vanderbilt’s rich history.  

Reach Lizzy Alfs at lalfs@tennessean.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.

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