Blake Shelton Helps Announce Ole Red Orlando Restaurant
The fourth Ole Red location will open in Orlando, Fla., in 2020. The bar and restaurant was announced on Thursday (Sept. 13), with Blake Shelton promising it will fit right in.
Ole Red is a series of restaurants owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties. The "Turnin' Me On" singer is the face of the franchise, with the first location opening in Shelton’s hometown of Tishomingo, Okla., in 2017. This spring the Nashville location opened on Broadway, with additional locations planned for Gatlinburg, Tenn., in 2019 and now Orlando in 2020. The new $15 million bar, restaurant and music venue will be in the Icon Orlando 360 development, a popular tourist area seven miles northeast of the Walt Disney World Resort.
Ole Red's name was inspired by Shelton's song "Ol' Red" from 2002. The Nashville location offers a restaurant and stage on the lower level, with a balcony and more seating upstairs. Additional floors include a private events space and a rooftop oyster bar. Each location features unique menu items.
While not new, bars and restaurants owned or represented by country music A-listers are becoming very popular, especially in Nashville. Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean have opened restaurants in Nashville's popular Lower Broadway area in the last 15 months. Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentlley and John Rich are three more with bars along the tourist strip. In fact, there are four locations of Bentley's Whiskey Row, with three located in Arizona.
Previously, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill rapidly expanded nationwide, but now just three locations remain, all in Oklahoma. Rich's original Redneck Riviera location in Las Vegas also closed last winter after one year in business, per the Las Vegas Eater. Florida real estate could be the next attractive move for many. In May, FGL's Brian Kelley teased a Boat House location of his restaurant along the Florida panhandle.
Expanding one's portfolio to food and drink is not just an option for the living. Merle's (Merle Haggard) Meat + 3 Saloon is currently under construction in downtown Nashville, at 121 3rd Ave. South. Haggard died in 2016.
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