Max & Benjamin Goldberg: The Brothers Who Built Nashville's Hospitality Scene — Gumball Machines, Michelin Stars, and 19 Years of Partnership

Join host Sam Davidson as he sits down with Max and Benjamin Goldberg, co-founders of Strategic Hospitality and two of the newest announced members of the Nashville Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame 15th class, to be honored at the NEXT Awards on October 19th, 2026. Over 19 years, the brothers have built one of Nashville's most celebrated hospitality companies — earning Michelin Stars and James Beard Awards for their chef partners, opening concepts that helped define entire neighborhoods, and doing it all without losing either the partnership or the perspective on why any of it matters.

This conversation covers the full arc: from a 16-year-old's gumball machine business and a bar nobody crossed the street to visit, to partnerships with Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, and some of the most talented chefs in the country. Along the way, Max and Benjamin talk about what Nashville's hospitality culture actually is and why it's rare, the pivot from "selfish" opening to chef partnerships that changed everything, the bets that scared them, the ones that didn't work, and why Benjamin still believes the restaurant business is fundamentally insane.

The episode also gets at something harder to quantify: why they keep doing this, what a regular customer asking for a table actually means, and why giving back has never been a separate line item for either of them.

Episode Highlights:

0:23 — The first entrepreneurs they remember: father, grandfather, and each other
1:43 — "The Man in the Arena" sign: three generations, one office wall
2:28 — Max's revelation: the first real entrepreneur he ever saw in action was his older brother
3:15 — Benjamin's first business: one gumball machine in a batting cage to buy a car at 16
4:20 — 18 months of convincing Max to leave New York — and what the actual argument finally was
5:18 — Bar 23 in the Gulch: Benjamin with a flashlight outside, 23 shades of white inside, and one of the world's top nightlife spots
7:02 — Max's college years: promotions company, a TV show, student body president, and Lady Gaga (who opened for them, he'll have you know)
9:28 — Their father's linen tablecloth intervention: a Sharpie list of every reason this partnership was a bad idea
11:05 — August 1, 2007: Max moves back. Their wife took the photo of them signing the contract.
11:28 — What Nashville's food and hospitality scene looked like when Benjamin opened his first bar in 2003
15:54 — Why Nashville's culture of mutual support is genuinely different from every other city they know
17:13 — Arnold's Country Kitchen as the secret weapon for recruiting world-class chefs
18:12 — Locus named 20th Best Restaurant in North America, and what Pat Martin did while the team was in Vegas
20:35 — The two chapters: the first 10 years of "selfish" openings vs. the last decade of chef equity partnerships
21:17 — Why every single chef partnership they've entered has earned a Michelin Star or James Beard Award
23:48 — Company scope today: ~12 concepts, Garth & Trisha, airport, stadiums, hotel under construction
26:32 — The first restaurant: Paradise Park Trailer Resort and why quality was non-negotiable from day one
28:18 — CMA Fan Fest, hundreds of thousands of guests, and a pricing policy they've never broken
29:48 — The Patterson House: 78 seats, no bar standing, $12 cocktails, and zero industry support — until it changed Nashville's entire cocktail culture
31:48 — "The restaurant business is so dumb." Benjamin on what hospitality actually is at its core.
32:22 — Why they keep doing it: a customer, a question, and a woman meeting her father for the first time
33:55 — Placemaking: the Gulch before there were streetlights, Wedgewood Houston before Josh Habiger named it, 12 South, and what comes next
37:20 — Burt Matthews and Jodi Moody: the mentors and partners who changed every big bet
38:08 — Is Nashville growing past the point where the next Max and Benjamin can get started?
41:17 — Why giving back isn't scheduled for "after the exit" — it's built into how they operate every day
43:12 — Max's framework: earning, learning, returning — and why they're in all three phases simultaneously
44:09 — Imposter syndrome at the table, and what they want their kids to witness
46:12 — Closing: Hall of Fame, October 2026, and what showing up actually costs

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Relevant Links:

• Strategic Hospitality
• Nashville Entrepreneur Center
• Circle Back Podcast
• Nashville Post

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