During my recent trip to Nashville, we were doing videos with some mastering engineers who use our equipment in their studios. One of the mastering engineers we did a testimonial video with was an old friend who was with us up in Indianapolis last summer. His mastering studio is in the historic RCA Building on Music Row in Nashville. He's using one of the old offices on the 3rd floor for his mastering studio and we got to hang out with him for a good portion of the day. We decided to break for lunch and he suggested we go to a taco place not too far from Music Row.
He said it was a short walk from the studio, so we took off on a cool December day. When we turned the corner and started walking toward the restaurant, I said, "Oh! Velvet Taco! I've seen this place before in Chicago, but I didn't realize it was a chain." I'd always wanted to try the Velvet Taco in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and now I was going to get my chance, albeit in Nashville.
I didn't realize how big of a chain Velvet Taco was (nearly 50 locations in 8 states - and growing) until I started to dig into the history of the restaurant. The first Velvet Taco opened in Dallas in 2011, started by two restaurant industry veterans who were looking to have a fast-casual Mexican restaurant concept that catered primarily to adults, but would be OK for children to go to, as well.
Pennsylvania-native Jack Gibbons started out as a server at Pappadeaux seafood restaurants in Houston as an undergrad at the University of Houston. After getting his undergraduate degree, Gibbons became a general manager, then helped open Pappadeaux locations in Dallas and Chicago. While working at Pappadeaux, Gibbons became friends with Randy DeWitt who was working for Pappadeaux's parent company Pappas Restaurants. DeWitt eventually left Pappas Restaurants and was the co-developer of Twin Peaks, a sports-centric restaurant that competed with Hooters and Tilted Kilt in the fast growing "breastaurant" concept. Over the years, DeWitt also developed a number of other restaurants including Rockfish Seafood Grill and Half Shells Oyster Bar & Grill.
After rising to the C.E.O. of the Pappadeaux restaurants, Jack Gibbons decided that he needed a change of scenery. After 25 years at the restaurant chain, Gibbons left in the early 2000's to study for his M.B.A. at the University of Dallas. During his time at UD, Randy DeWitt heavily recruited Gibbons to join him in a partnership that would help develop restaurant concepts. After getting his degree from Dallas, Gibbons joined DeWitt and the two established the Front Burner Society - now FB Society - restaurant group. DeWitt and Gibbons sold off Twin Peaks and developed a handful of other restaurants over time including The Food Hall Company, Haywire, Ida-Claire, and Mexican Sugar Cocina.
Gibbons and DeWitt lived near each other in Dallas' Highland Park neighborhood and all that seemed to be in the area were the usual chain restaurants. The real estate market had taken a hit and there had been a number of commercial properties that were available in the area. Gibbons and DeWitt had talked about coming up with a fast-casual taco joint that was a step above most of the fast food Mexican places in the area. Someplace that was funky, yet fun, with high quality ingredients in the food.
A Church's Texas Chicken location had gone out of business on N. Henderson Ave. and Gibbons and DeWitt took it over to open the first Velvet Taco location in 2011. By 2017, there were four Velvet Taco locations around Dallas and Gibbons and DeWitt decided to up the presence of Velvet Taco locations.
The same year, the duo invited the equity group L Catterton to join them in the expansion venture and they hired former Raising Cane's executive Clay Dover to spearhead future expansion plans. Dover took over as CEO and continued in that capacity when Leonard Green and Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, purchased the majority interest in Velvet Taco in 2021. Gibbons and DeWitt continue to have a stake in the Velvet Taco restaurants.
Velvet Taco's entry into the Nashville market happened in 2022 when a small version of the restaurant with a limited menu opened in the Assembly Food Hall in downtown Nashville. Later that year, a regular version of Velvet Taco opened in the funky and hip Midtown neighborhood in Nashville. And in March of 2023, a third location opened in East Nashville on Gallatin Road. As of now, all Velvet Taco locations are company-owned with some plans of franchising foreign locations and licensing of the Velvet Taco brand that will be found in airports around the U.S. In addition to Dallas, Chicago and Nashville, you can find Velvet Taco locations in Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Phoenix, South Florida, and in Oklahoma.
Before we get into our visit to Velvet Taco, a little bit about the historic RCA Building where our friend had his mastering studio. The building was built in 1965 by musicians/entrepreneurs Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Bradley's brother Harold Ray Bradley. It was next door to what became known as historic RCA Studio B that was built in 1957 - home to some 47,000 recordings by artists such as Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison and countless others. The studio that was built in 1965 as part of the new building became known as RCA Studio A.
Both studios closed in 1977 and the building was bought by Owen Bradley outright. Bradley remodeled the studio and operated it until the late 1980's. Another studio took over the property and eventually musician Ben Folds leased the building in the early 2000's.
By 2014, a developer wanted to buy the building and tear it down to build condominiums. However, a group of music industry heavyweights - including record company mogul Mike Curb - bought the building and began to lease the office spaces and the studio. In 2015, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places joining the attached Studio B which had been given that designation in 2012.
While Studio B is now operated by the Country Music Hall of Fame and used by Belmont University's Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business from time to time, Studio A is leased out to Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb who has recorded the likes of Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, and the rock group Rival Sons in the studio. Posters of some historic recordings and some of the artists who recorded at both studios grace the walls of the hallway in the main building.
Our friend who had his mastering studio in the RCA Building had hoped to be able to show us both Studio A and Studio B that day, but he couldn't get access from Dave Cobb (who lives outside of Savannah, GA), and the Country Music Hall of Fame had a private function going on in Studio B. He told us that there had been times when he's walked in to go to his studio and there would be big-name musicians who had assembled in the main lobby by Studio A. "It's kinda cool," he told us. "They're all just hanging out, shooting the shit. And they're all pretty nice guys, too." He said that he's down some mastering work for Cobb, but the biggest name he had worked with was the heavy metal group Metallica when he re-mastered their entire music catalog. "That took about nine months and a lot of conversations with (drummer) Lars Ulrich," he told us a few months ago.
It was the Midtown Velvet Taco location that we walked to that day. (see map) Along the way, our friend pointed out longtime dive bars and new restaurants that dotted the neighborhood. A couple of the places I would have rather gone into and I made some mental notes about visiting those places on upcoming visits to Nashville. But, quite honestly, Velvet Taco was fine for lunch that day.
The Velvet Taco isn't a big place and features a large community table in the center of the room under drop-ceiling frames. There's a half-wall between the order counter and the dining area with banquette seating along that half-wall. More high top tables and stool were near the front of the restaurant. And just beyond the front windows was a covered patio that had about 10 to 12 tables. But it was pretty cool that day and we ate inside. Since all of us were involved with music, we were sort of taken by the selection of music that was playing at Velvet Taco that day. It was an interesting mix of contemporary country music from Lainey Wilson, R&B/hip-hop from Amber Mark, pop music from Missouri-native Chappell Roan, and country-pop from Russell Dickerson. We also heard musical selections from Welsh singer Cate Le Bon, Indie-rocker Stephen Dawes, and Irish artist Dermot Kennedy. We were there for well over an hour having lunch and discussing things, so we heard a lot of different music.
The menu for Velvet Taco was on the wall near the order counter. There were about 20 different types of tacos to choose from made with chicken, pork, beef, seafood and veggie items. They had a chicken & waffle taco, a Korean pork with fried rice taco, chimichurri skirt steak with buttered cilantro basmati rice, and a panko-fried shrimp taco in a sweet chile sauce. They also had three or four off-the-menu tacos that were featured the month we were there.
Sides included chips & queso dip, chips and guacamole, brisket nachos, and tots topped with a sunny-up egg, along with an herbed goat cheese, smoked cheddar, avocado crema, chile butter, peppered bacon, and scallions. They even had red velvet cake as a dessert. My colleague from Los Angeles got an order of chips with guacamole and roasted Mexican corn to start out.
We all ordered at once, but my colleague from L.A. and our friend from Nashville had their orders come out first. My L.A. friend got the Mexi-Cali shrimp taco - blackened grilled shrimp, topped with slaw, sriracha aioli, avocado slices, a roasted corn pico de gallo, and cilantro. He also got the Chicken Tikka Masala taco - crisp chicken tenders topped with a spicy tikka sauce and buttered cilantro basmati rice, then finished with an Indian yogurt raita crema and Thai basil.
Our friend from Nashville also go the Chicken Tikka Masala taco, as well as the fried goat cheese taco that was a special taco for the month. He also got a grilled salmon taco that was topped with slaw, a citrus/lime crema, an avocado crema, pickled Fresno chiles, and a roasted corn pico. He said, "I have to get the Chicken Tikka Masala every time I come here."
My vegetarian friend got the fried paneer taco and the Nashville Hot tofu taco - fried tofu tossed in a Nashville hot sauce, topped with slaw, a cool ranch crema, and finished with house-brined pickles. He had ordered the beer-battered cauliflower taco, as well. But after we had ordered and gotten some Modelo beers to drink during lunch, the young lady at the counter informed him that they were out of the beer-battered cauliflower tacos. He was fine with that he got.
Our Nashville friend sold me on the Chicken Tikka Masala taco and I'm glad I got it. It had a nice spicy bite to go along with the fried chicken tenders. I also ended up getting the Cuban pork taco - slow-roasted citrus pulled pork topped with gruyere cheese, honey-baked ham, peppered bacon, mustard aioli, and the house-brined pickles. I thought abut getting the Birria pork, but the Cuban pork sounded good to me. And it was very good. And I also got the brisket taco after vacillating between the brisket taco or the grilled steak and mushroom taco. The brisket taco was a winner with slow-roasted barbacoa style beef brisket topped with a red chile aioli, avocado slices, roasted corn pico de gallo and finished with a white cheese sauce and cilantro. All the tacos at Velvet Taco were in flour tortillas made in-house.
The brisket taco was outstanding - by far the best of the three that I had at Velvet Taco. There were a combination of flavors with each bite and it was killer. The Chicken Tikka Masala was a close second in my ranking, and the Cuban pork brought up the rear. Not that the Cuban pork taco was bad - far from it. Even though it was very good, I thought I may have liked the Birria pork taco a bit better.
And if I come across a Velvet Taco in my travels in the future I'll be sure to try the Birria pork taco. And maybe the chimichurri skirt steak taco. And maybe another Chicken Tikka Masala taco. There's so many interesting tacos on the menu to try that you could go to Velvet Taco five or six times and try a number of different-styles of tacos. Everyone in our group liked what they got and I was more than stuffed when I finished. Enjoying a couple Modelos while we were sitting around after eating lunch helped my meal settle very well. I'm glad I finally got to try a Velvet Taco and it's a guess that I'll run into another one the way they're expanding across the nation.
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