barMystery Diners · Season 11, Episode 12 · Aired April 6, 2016
The Stillery
Nashville, Tennessee
Good outcome here: the business is still trading today.
On the show
Season 11, Episode 12 · April 6, 2016 · restaurant/bar
'Rigged Rental' episode, second of two businesses featured (see Nashville Street Tacos, same episode); rental-scam sting run out of the venue
What happened after
Downtown Nashville restaurant/live-music venue still operating with regular hours.
What happened on the show
The same Nashville sting that exposed a rental scam over Steve Kovach's apartment put his second business, The Stillery, at the center too, since the manager behind the scheme ran that restaurant. Charles Stiles sent mystery diner Brooke in undercover as a Stillery waitress while a second diner posed as an apartment renter, with investigator Kimberly having found the unit listed online. As aired, the Stillery manager and a prep cook from the taco spot were running the illegal rentals and comping unwelcome guests half-price meals across both venues, denting sales at each. The confrontation has Steve firing both. Given the scripting claims that later dogged Mystery Diners, this half of the rental sting is best framed as broadcast rather than as verified.
After the cameras left
The Stillery is still open, a going downtown concern the episode never threatened. The restaurant and live-music venue at 113 2nd Avenue North keeps regular hours, its own site showing it open at our 2026 check. An established downtown room that appeared on a crisis show simply kept serving, its survival the ordinary kind rather than a rescue. The rental drama that spilled over from its owner's apartment made an episode; it was never the measure of whether this venue would last, and it has.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.