Fairlane Hotel
A 1972 savings and loan that somebody had the sense not to gut.
Nashville, TN · 401 Union Street
To Broadway
Six Minutes on Foot
Check In
4 p.m. · 21 and Up
Here's the thing about the Fairlane that took me a minute to work out. It sits four blocks up from Broadway, which is close enough to walk to the noise in six minutes and far enough that the noise doesn't come home with you. Downtown Nashville has about fifty hotels that are in the middle of it. This one is beside it, on the banking end, and at eleven at night that's worth more than a rooftop pool.
The building went up in 1972 as the Nashville headquarters of Fidelity Federal Savings and Loan. It's travertine, it's got a proper mid century lobby, and when it got turned into a hotel in 2018 somebody made the correct decision to leave the good parts alone.
Landon Bryant
@LandonTalks
01
What They Kept
The conversion was done by Manuel Zeitlin Architects with interiors by Reunion Goods and Services, and the through line is restraint. The terrazzo floors, the brass, the wood paneling and that travertine skin are all original.
About a third of the furniture in the building is vintage, hunted down piece by piece. There's a reupholstered round sofa by Milo Baughman in the room they call Big Business, sitting next to the actual 1970s boardroom table that came with the building. Modern Mexican pieces from Luteca fill in around the old stuff. The owner's description of the lobby is that it has a grandness to it like the great mid century lobbies of the era, and for once the marketing line is just true.
Casey Pierce is the hotel's artist in residence, and there's local work on the walls throughout.
The penthouse was the bank president's office
Up top, in space that used to be mechanical plant, there's a suite with a hanging fireplace and a terrace looking 280 degrees across the city. The owner calls it the bank president's personal seventies playpen. It isn't a standard bookable category, so you'd have to ask.
02
The Rooms
Eighty one rooms as built, seventy nine on sale at any given time, across twelve floors plus the penthouse level. They're bigger than the downtown average, around three hundred square feet, with floor to ceiling glass.
Standard and Double Standard
The value plays
Euro top beds, a 55 inch television, marble shower, robes. The Double Standard adds a separate water closet and a minibar stocked with local things.
King and Corner King
Worth the upgrade
Separate water closet, coffee maker in the room. The Corner King is the one to ask for, because it has wraparound glass instead of one wall of it.
Boss, Cherry and Jet suites
Twelve suites total
Lefroy Brooks fixtures and more room to spread out. The hotel's own descriptions of these three are nearly identical, so if the difference matters to you, call and ask a human which one you're getting.
Accessible rooms
King and Cherry Suite
Grab bars, handheld shower, wheelchair accessible sink, remote controlled curtains. One configuration has a roll in shower with a fold down seat.
In room you get iPads, charging ports and the hotel's guest app. You do not get a record player, whatever you read somewhere, and there's no pool in this building either.
03
Eating and Drinking Here
This part has changed more than once, so ignore anything you find from before 2025.
Modern Love
All day · open to everybody
Opened August 2025, run by Ben Clemons and Jamie White, the pair behind Pearl Diver and Tiger Bar. Coffee and breakfast from seven, then lunch, then dinner. Truffle fries at nine dollars, a tavern burger at twenty two, hot chicken schnitzel at twenty one. Seven to eleven Sunday through Thursday, seven to midnight Friday and Saturday. Reservations through OpenTable.
Night Owl
Same room, after three
Not a second restaurant. Modern Love changes character in the afternoon, and by late it's a dance floor with a DJ booth. There's a room off the side with a pool table and four light fixtures spelling out L O V E, which is the most 2025 sentence I've ever typed.
Ellington's
Fourth floor · mostly private now
This used to be the restaurant with the terrace and the skyline. The hotel now describes it as a space for private events and gatherings it books itself. Third party listings still show public dinner Tuesday through Saturday, so the two don't agree. Don't plan a night around walking in. Call first.
CAPRIcious
Rooftop · summer only
An Italian coast pop up with spritzes and golden hour views. In 2026 it ran June 12 to September 6. Twenty one and up, no reservations, walk in through the front doors. If you're reading this in the fall or winter, it's closed and it'll be back in the spring.
Which means that outside the rooftop season, eating on property at night is Modern Love and pretty much only Modern Love. That's fine, it's a good room, but plan accordingly if you're there for four nights.
04
The Money Nobody Mentions
Two charges that don't show up on the room rate and that the hotel's own website doesn't publish.
Budget an extra hundred a night
There's a destination fee of roughly twenty eight to thirty dollars a night, collected at check in, on bookings made since January 2025. The hotel only mentions it in the context of waiving it, in a package that knocks it off for stays of two nights or more. Parking is valet only, no self park, running about sixty five to seventy five dollars a night. On a hundred and fifty dollar room those two lines are most of another room.
Worth knowing: if you're coming just to eat at Ellington's, valet has been complimentary with a fifty dollar minimum spend.
05
What's Actually Walkable
Nashville hotels all claim to be near everything. Here's what near means from this door, on foot.
Printers Alley
Two minutes. It's basically around the corner.
Ryman Auditorium
Six or seven minutes.
Broadway
Five or six minutes. The hotel says two blocks, but by the street grid it's three, so give yourself the walk.
Bridgestone Arena
Ten minutes.
Frist Art Museum
Fourteen minutes, and it's a real walk rather than a stroll. It's out at 919 Broadway.
The airport
BNA is 8.1 miles, about eleven minutes when the road cooperates. Rideshare runs thirty five to fifty.
06
Know Before You Go
Address
401 Union Street, Nashville, TN 37219, at the corner of Fourth and Union.
Check in and out
Four in the afternoon, eleven in the morning. Early and late can be arranged for a fee.
Minimum age
Twenty one to book and to check in, with photo ID and a card. This catches people out.
Dogs
Yes. Seventy five dollars per pet per stay, two per room, fifty pound limit. A bed and a bowl show up at the door.
Gym
There's one. They named it Jim. I did not make that up.
Pool
None. The pool they mention is a pool table.
Breakfast
Not included. Ten to twenty five dollars a head at Modern Love.
Two names, one hotel
Management moved to Storey Hospitality in October 2025, but the booking sites still say Fairlane Hotel by Oliver. Same place.
Reputation
4.8 on Tripadvisor across about 1,280 reviews, ranked ninth of 236 Nashville hotels, and a 2026 Travellers' Choice. The restaurant scores lower than the hotel, on a much smaller sample.
One more thing about the 7 Paintings dinner
Ellington's hosts a ticketed two and a half hour, seven course projection mapped dinner called 7 Paintings. The hotel says it's one of only two places in the country doing it. Tickets go through 7paintings.com, not the hotel, and the price isn't published on any hotel page.
