White Limozeen, located at 101 20th Ave. N., is named in honor of country music icon Dolly Parton.
Graduate Hotels, alongside hospitality duo Marc Rose and Med Abrous, officially opened the rooftop bar and restaurant in July 2020 — several months into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Esquire’s editors in their preamble to this year’s list wrote the 2021 collection is a reflection of the desire to experience wonder once more after a year in which bars were forced to transform into takeout joints, operate under limited capacity or close due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here’s what they wrote about White Limozeen:
“Named for Dolly Parton’s twenty-ninth solo album, White Limozeen perches atop the roof of the Graduate Hotel like an outrageous wig. The decor — crystal chandeliers and an onyx wraparound bar — is matched by the cocktail menu: the frozen Aperol spritz, the magenta-hued Queen of the Rodeo and Champagne Jell-O shots topped with Pop Rocks. The large deck beckons with its chaises and fringed pink umbrellas. Guests can take a dip in the pool, admire the view of Nashville, or just lounge in the shadow of Dolly’s larger-than-life bust (excuse the pun), a ten-foot-tall sculpture fashioned from pink chicken wire.”
Landing on the list the kind of great press that can be a shot in the arm for any hospitality business, particularly one that opened in the middle of 2020 and endured various shutdowns and capacity regulations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s always a privilege to be recognized nationally and amongst a bunch of our incredibly talented colleagues across the country,” Rose and Abrous said in a statement to the Business Journal. “Even more impressive is how all of us have figured out new ways to operate in the midst of a pandemic and in doing so have hopefully found ways to push our industry into the future.”
The hospitality duo continued, “Nashville is and always will be a city that prides itself on hospitality, and now more than ever we are ready to welcome people back (safely) to eat, drink and celebrate with us.”
