The Pharmacy brings back classic burgers from closed Nashville restaurants
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The Pharmacy reimagines the Rotier's burger. Photo: Nate Rau/Axios
If you've lived in Nashville for a while, you can probably close your eyes and conjure up the taste of the iconic burger at Rotier's.
Flashback: The hole-in-the-wall Elliston Place restaurant served juicy, hand-patted cheeseburgers on thick hunks of French bread. The family-run business closed in 2021 after 75 years when new building owners wouldn't renew their lease.
The latest: The Pharmacy is bringing the Rotier's burger back for the month of September as part of a new special celebrating Nashville's long-lost gems.
- The new series, called the "Nashville Burger Time Machine," will revisit classic burgers from closed restaurants every month through February.
- Rotier's leads the way in September. The Pharmacy will resurrect burgers from Arnold's Country Kitchen, The Gold Rush and Edgefield Sports Bar & Grill in the coming months.
Why it matters: The rise and fall of these burgers tells a significant part of Nashville's story. The steady drumbeat of beloved restaurant closures has become a part of life over the last few years.
- An influx of new residents has attracted buzzy restaurants and business opportunities. But that's strained many neighborhood staples, which have struggled to keep up with rising rents and mounting pressure from developers.
Between the buns: The Pharmacy's director of operations Daniel Frazier wanted to celebrate his lost favorites.
- "Nashville's food scene has exploded in the last 10 to 15 years, but many don't know that there's been a great and diverse food scene in the city for much, much longer than that," Frazier tells Axios.
- "We wanted to pay homage to some of the titans of Nashville's food history and have fun while doing it. It's a legacy that we want to uphold and always remember."
If you go: The burger specials will be offered at The Pharmacy's locations in East Nashville and at Fifth and Broadway.
💠Adam's thought bubble: Nate and I are mostly made up of burger meat, so when we heard about this promotion, we made plans to check it out as soon as possible.
- Nothing will ever come close to the real thing from Rotier's, but The Pharmacy's approximation was a good conversation starter that brought back glorious memories of meals we shared back in the day.
- It's also a potent reminder to visit remaining local institutions while you still can.