The steady march of the Four Seasons urban expansion has come to Nashville, and with it the brand’s imperial form of luxury. Halls of polished stone, buffed to a sheen, are matched with rooms of steel grays and glacial blues. In a glass tower just a short distance from Broadway, the hotel group has opened its first outpost in Nashville, which is the latest subject for our column on exciting new hotels, Room Key. The property is the newest luxury feather in the cap of one of America’s fastest-growing destinations, the other five star options being the 1 Hotel, The Hermitage, and the Conrad.
The flashy honky-tonk town of rhinestones and sequins meeting sleek splendor could be a jarring mixture, but here at the Four Seasons Nashville it’s been wrought with a light touch. For instance, while the rooms have a more universal Four Seasons aesthetic, the tables in those rooms are made to look like records and the accompanying light fixture like the stylus. Dark walnut, native to Tennessee, is used throughout the hotel including on all the room door frames. Activations are another way the hotel is leaning into its location’s cultural scene.
While one can only imagine the horrific sounds that would have come from us taking advantage, musically inclined guests can have a loaner guitar supplied by legendary instrument manufacturer Gibson. (A safer option for the non-musically inclined is probably to take advantage of the hotel’s ability to arrange an exclusive tour of the Gibson Garage, a musical Aladdin’s cave located downtown that combines an instrument museum, performance space, repair shop, and gift shop, all dedicated to the Gibson brand.) A more interesting option we’d have selected had our stay been longer was the Suite Sounds package: In a collaboration with Songwriter City, a booking and management company for songwriters, the hotel offers guests a performance by a hit songwriter in their suite. Afterward, the guest and songwriter can hang in the restaurant downstairs–a chance to sate your curiosity about a musical genre often synonymous with its storytelling.
The hotel occupies an ideal spot–yes, near all the action on Broadway but backing up onto a park overlooking the river, providing some peace and quiet. Across the river is the stadium and around the corner is the Ascend Amphitheater. The hotel’s 235 rooms occupy the 7th through 14th floors of the building (the rest of the floors are occupied by residences) and look out either over the city or the Cumberland River.
As part of its effort to create an escape within the city, the hotel has a heated pool deck open from sunrise to sunset, as well as a full gym and a spa (that you’ll be happy to know is not in a basement and does not feel like an afterthought).
The place the hotel feels most alive, despite only being open for a short time, is its lobby bar and restaurant, Mimo. Whoever is overseeing F&B for Four Seasons domestically is on top of their game, as I thought I was going to go out and enjoy the city but I was so thoroughly stuffed after a meal here I just wanted to be rolled up to my room. To work up an appetite, start at the bar where those tending all seemed to be writers or musicians themselves, and the drinks go down dangerously easy. (I went with the “I Love Yu-Zu” which mixed Zacapa rum, yuzu, and Chinotto soda.) At the restaurant itself, while the caviar linguine is the signature dish, the roasted cauliflower with sprouted wheat and a seaweed emulsion absolutely melted in my mouth and was a fascinating combination of buttery and sour.
Oh, and, since this is Nashville, the clientele brought in the rhinestones.
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