The Front Street Pub owner Thomas Williams with sister Cari

Even if you’ve never set foot inside a neighborhood bar, you probably know what one looks like, thanks to television sitcoms. Baby boomers and old-rerun-watchers alike are acquainted with Archie Bunker’s working-class watering hole, Kelsey’s Bar, and at least two generations have now made virtual visits to Springfield suds staple Moe’s Tavern, where Homer Simpson and his cronies have quaffed countless bottles of Duff’s. Though far less known (sometimes even in its Smyrna hometown), Ron’s Tavern has long been a comparable, if non-fictional, place to quench one’s thirst for affable conversation over a beer or two.

Late last year, owner Ron Russell sold the business, since renamed The Front Street Pub. If Ron’s Tavern was Smyrna’s equivalent to Moe’s, then the repurposed Pub is becoming its non-urban counterpart to TV’s Cheers. If not everybody knows your name the second time you step through the door, it’s a good bet that Thomas Williams will. Williams, the Pub’s genial new owner and host, is eager to build upon the family-like community that joins him at his home away from home in Smyrna’s historic Depot District.

A longtime regular at Ron’s, a little-known Depot staple since 1994, Williams had long believed that the tavern’s easygoing, trouble-free climate could make it a more popular stop if a larger share of locals knew about its charms.

“I always liked the vibe that Ron’s Tavern offered,” Williams begins, adding that Russell “always prided himself on keeping at bay any nuisance, both publicly and within the bar.

“There were never problems. People would hug you when you’d leave, and it was like family,” he recalls. “You can walk into an O’Charley’s or a Legends or any of these places and you don’t get that personal connection,” Williams observes. “I just always felt that here.”

When Williams found himself between jobs in 2016, he spent a month working at the bar, helping Russell, his brother-in-law. After returning to the corporate sector and working as a successful but swamped account manager for Brentwood-based firm Comdata, Williams “held onto” the warm sense of connection with the customer base he’d made at Ron’s. An avid lover of music—unlike Ron Russell—he kept one foot in the bar business by volunteering to run karaoke on weekends. Williams entertained no illusions about owning a bar, yet his vision for Ron’s Tavern couldn’t help but bubble up at times.

When Russell began eyeing retirement in 2020, with reservations about selling to just anybody, he approached Williams about possibly taking over the tavern. “For him to offer me that, that was huge,” Williams says. “This was his legacy. I thought, ‘If I don’t try this, I’ll regret it.’”

While it’s Williams’ face you’ll see most often upon crossing the threshold, this is hardly a one-man show. Not surprisingly, the family-like experience at Front Street Pub is undergirded by the closest members of Williams’ tribe: his wife, Rachel, is a semi-regular presence, while daughter Lexie handles social media, a key component of the establishment’s advertising strategy. Completing the family are teenage son Landon and grandson Kaden, 6.

“My wife and kids make sacrifices and have helped me tremendously with the Pub,” Williams asserts. Spouse Rachel, he says, “is my rock to all of this. Without her, none of this could even be possible, because she does so much behind the scenes and helps work the bar every other weekend.”

Also serving a vital function is Williams’ sister Cari, a familiar and friendly face who is seen around the Pub so often that customers might assume she’s on the payroll. “Her role is unique in that she is the big sister who just wants to see her little brother succeed,” Williams says. “When it comes to helping me, she has no limits. She is very much part of the Pub. Just ask our awesome customers—they will tell you how great she is and how much they enjoy her.”

Williams’ only changes to Ron’s low-key routine have been to open earlier, offering a simple but tasty menu (including rave-reviewed burgers) to the professional workforce taking lunch breaks in the area, and to introduce music into the mix, a trademark feature Thomas says will likely evolve beyond its present, country-centric role on the schedule. Pro singer-songwriter Brad Howard (who boasts a Spotify following pushing 10,000 monthly listeners) performs originals and classic country at 6 p.m. on Saturdays, prior to karaoke (which occupies the Friday night slot as well). Anyone who can hold their own in an acoustic jam is welcome to tote in their instrument on Tuesday nights.

The wild card on the entertainment schedule—line dancing—was the result of a request from a carryover tavern regular, Lizzie Mae Orr.

“When Thomas told me he had bought the place,” recalls Orr, “I just smiled and said ‘so what about line dancing?” I think we should bring that here.’”

Though Williams had once belonged to a well-oiled line-dance team that appeared on cable TV’s The Nashville Network, he hadn’t made line dancing part of his business plan. “I never expected there to still be a demand for it,” he says. “When Lizzie said that to me I looked at her like she had two heads.”

Williams agreed to meet with a friend of Orr’s, Terry Fisher, who teaches group line dancing. After Fisher quelled Williams’ concerns about limited floor space, assuring him a weekly line dance night could be held there, the new owner was game to try it. Orr admits that Williams “probably thought I was crazy, but you should have seen those smiles the first Thursday night we were able to stomp our boots!” Says Williams of the customer response, “People are now planning their week so they can be here on Thursday nights.”

Orr, 28, whose mom initially introduced her to the bar during the Ron’s Tavern era, is an ideal example of the Pub’s multi-generational appeal. “With Sam Ridley [Parkway] and Murfreesboro now full of big chains,” she says, “it’s uncommon to see what we are seeing here. And it’s a community coming together in support of each other,” says Orr, whose successful suggestion to offer line dancing might not have come to fruition at a venue where the boundary between customer and owner was more boldly drawn.

Williams admits that the topsy-turvy economic climate did instill caution, delaying his originally planned May 2020 takeover, but tells the Pulse he realized he “needed to go for it, and be all in or all out.” The risk of opening in less-than-ideal social conditions appears to have begun paying off. During February’s savage ice storms, for example, Williams decided to try opening for a few hours . . . and had his best week since debuting the bar as the new owner in January.

“While I would have never encouraged people to get out in the snow and ice, we opted to open so that those suffering from cabin fever had a place to come to. People have been quarantined and secluded from their families, and with this snow,” Williams reckons, “I think they were chomping at the bit to get out and interact with others.” To Williams’ delight, new customers of various ages showed up, joining the Ron’s crowd that has remained behind—now including Ron himself.

Williams’ community-mindedness shows up in his praise of his customer base, which he says includes many who’ve offered to lend a hand around the Pub should it be needed. Of his regular and carryover customers, says Williams, “They help me lay the foundation for my vision in assuring safety, comfort and acceptance here. We pride ourselves on our current slogan: enter as strangers, leave as friends. We truly mean that.

“Just Saturday night we had a girl telling us how much she appreciates the fact that when she walks through the door we remember her . . . it felt like a Cheers atmosphere to her. I think people want to feel like something other than a number or a sale.”

While Williams has been very pleased with customer response thus far, he is also quick to thank those from neighboring establishments for making him and his family feel welcome in the Depot. “Front Street Sign Company’s owner, Jeremy Byrd, came over to introduce himself in the first week. He made my sign without me asking—he just did it!” says an amazed Williams. He also cites Carpe Cafe’s proprietors as kindred spirits who see the value in bringing a musical and artistic element to the historic strip, a last vestige of the era when Smyrna was truly a small town.

There are numerous bars and restaurants in the vicinity, yet Williams’ only competitor of concern, he says, is himself. “Did I show someone kindness? Did I help someone forget about their problems for an hour or two, or share in something exciting that may be going on in their life? Those,” says Williams, “are the beacons that guide me through this adventure. If I can say yes to those each day, then I’m right where I need to be competitively.”

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The originally posted story was an early version intended to contain more information than was possible to fit into the abridged version appearing in the March print issue. Apologies to the Williams family for the initial omission of important details.]
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The Front Street Pub
104 Front St.
Smyrna, TN 37167
facebook.com/TheFrontStreetPub.Est.2021
Serving beer, soft drinks, sandwiches and sides
Smoking permitted after 2 p.m.
Mon.–Thurs.: 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat.: 11 a.m.–midnight
Tuesday night: Acoustic jam session
Thursday night: Line dancing with instructor Terry Fisher
Friday night: Karaoke with hostess Ashley Hughes
Saturday night: Singer-songwriter Brad Howard (6–7 p.m.), karaoke

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