A four-person family franchise group has signed a three-unit development agreement to bring The Brass Tap to Middle Tennessee, marking the craft beer bar and entertainment concept's first on-premise presence in the state. Led by 23-year-old Ohm Patel alongside partners Chan Patel, Sanjay Patel, and Shivam Patel, the deal targets suburban markets in Brentwood, Murfreesboro, and Franklin — three of the fastest-growing communities in the Nashville metro corridor.
The agreement expands The Brass Tap's footprint beyond its current 50-plus locations across 16 states. Parent company FSC Franchise Co., the Tampa-based multi-brand franchisor that also operates Beef 'O' Brady's and Newk's Eatery across more than 250 combined locations nationwide, has been systematically filling suburban white space with the Brass Tap concept, which relies on a neighborhood bar format heavy on rotating local and regional tap handles, specialty cocktails, and premium wines.
On-Premise Format and Beverage Mix
Each location will anchor its beverage program around local and regional craft beer, a SKU mix that aligns with growing consumer demand for hyper-local tap selections in suburban on-premise accounts. The format also incorporates specialty cocktails and premium wines, positioning each unit as a multi-category on-premise account rather than a single-segment beer bar. Entertainment programming — live music, trivia nights, sports watch parties, tap takeovers, and community events — is built into the operating model as a traffic driver to sustain depletion velocity across dayparts.
The Brentwood market is the group's planned first site, with Murfreesboro and Franklin to follow as site selections are finalized. The suburban positioning is deliberate: The Brass Tap's franchise development strategy has consistently targeted high-density bedroom communities where competition for premium on-premise socializing is thinner than in urban cores, and where household incomes support higher average check sizes on craft and premium pours.
Franchise System and Market Outlook
"Our development strategy is built on finding the right partners in the right markets, and Ohm and his family are a perfect fit for Middle Tennessee," said Chris Elliott, CEO of FSC Franchise Co. Elliott framed the signing as validation of both the brand's suburban model and the appeal of its franchise system to a younger generation of multi-unit operators entering the on-premise hospitality segment.
For distributors and craft beer suppliers operating in the Middle Tennessee market, three new Brass Tap units represent incremental on-premise placement opportunities for local and regional brewery partners. The brand's tap takeover and exclusive beer tasting programming creates recurring wholesale volume events beyond standard weekly depletion. As The Brass Tap crosses the 50-unit threshold nationally, its wholesale purchasing scale across tap handle contracts and cocktail ingredient supply chains continues to grow, a dynamic that becomes increasingly relevant to regional distributor account teams.
The Tennessee deal reflects a broader pattern in the craft beer on-premise segment, where suburban family-entertainment concepts are absorbing share from both independent sports bars and casual dining chains. Operators running beverage-forward formats with rotating tap programs have shown resilience in post-pandemic on-premise recovery, particularly in Sun Belt suburban markets. For more on franchise expansion trends shaping the on-premise beverage channel, coverage from our network at Food & Beverage Magazine tracks broader foodservice growth signals across the region.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
