Jack Cawthon, the founder of Nashville’s Jack’s Bar-B-Que, has died from cancer at age 80. The restaurateur built a business that became a recognizable part of the city’s dining landscape, particularly along Lower Broadway, where its flying-pig sign stands among downtown’s familiar storefronts.
Cawthon established Jack’s in 1989, well before Nashville’s recent tourism and development boom. The business bearing his name became a destination for barbecue in a downtown district now known nationally for live music, honky-tonks and crowds of visitors.
His death marks the loss of a restaurant founder whose career connected two distinct periods in Nashville’s history: the years when downtown was still working to attract sustained investment and the era in which Lower Broadway became one of the city’s busiest entertainment corridors.
Jack’s Broadway restaurant, at 416 Broadway, sits in the historic commercial stretch near the Ryman Auditorium. Its location places it within walking distance of venues and landmarks that have helped shape Nashville’s identity as Music City. For visitors exploring downtown, barbecue and live music have long been complementary parts of that experience.
The restaurant’s identity is also unusually visible. Its rooftop sign, featuring flying pigs, offers a food-focused landmark amid the neon signs advertising music venues and bars. In a district where businesses compete for attention from passing pedestrians, that image helped give Jack’s a recognizable presence beyond its dining room.
Jack’s also has operated outside the downtown entertainment district, with locations on West Trinity Lane and Charlotte Avenue. Those locations connect the business to customers whose daily lives are centered in Nashville’s neighborhoods rather than its tourist core. The West Trinity Lane location is particularly relevant to residents and workers on the city’s north side.
That geographic reach matters in a city where a restaurant can serve several different communities at once. Downtown establishments draw convention attendees, vacationers and concertgoers, while neighborhood locations can be more accessible for residents seeking lunch or a family meal without navigating the busiest blocks of Broadway.
Barbecue itself occupies an important place in Tennessee’s food culture. Memphis is internationally associated with pork barbecue and dry-rubbed ribs, while Middle Tennessee’s restaurants reflect a broader mix of traditions. Nashville barbecue menus often bring together pork shoulder, ribs, beef brisket and other smoked meats rather than adhering to a single regional style.
Jack’s is known for that broad approach, serving smoked meats with a selection of sauces and traditional side dishes. Counter service and cafeteria-style ordering are part of its format, giving customers a direct view of the food as they move through the line. The approach fits both quick meals and the casual dining experience many people associate with barbecue.
Cawthon’s business developed during a long transformation of downtown Nashville. The reopening of the Ryman as a performance venue in the 1990s, the arrival of the downtown arena and subsequent investment in hotels, residences and entertainment helped bring more people to the area. In later years, large, multistory venues and celebrity-branded bars further changed Broadway’s commercial character.
Restaurants established before that expansion offer a connection to an earlier downtown. Their continued visibility helps residents and returning visitors recognize a streetscape that has otherwise changed substantially. Jack’s belongs to that generation of businesses whose names became associated with Broadway before the latest wave of growth.
For Nashville residents, the death of a longtime restaurateur also underscores the role locally founded businesses play in a city’s identity. Restaurants are workplaces and commercial enterprises, but they also become reference points for meeting friends, bringing out-of-town relatives to dinner and remembering how a neighborhood looked in an earlier decade.
Customers planning a visit to Jack’s can check the restaurant’s official website for location information, current hours and contact details. Those heading to Broadway should also check downtown traffic and parking conditions, especially when concerts, sporting events or other large gatherings are scheduled nearby. WeGo Public Transit provides route and service information for riders traveling downtown.
Cawthon’s name remains attached to a business he founded more than three decades ago. From its distinctive Broadway sign to its presence beyond the tourist district, Jack’s Bar-B-Que forms part of the restaurant history of a city that changed around it.