Cees Brinkman
TENNESSEE
From Dutch Skies to Nashville’s Beer Garden: The Story of Cees Brinkman
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By Eric Barton | Aug. 18, 2025
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Cees Brinkman landed in Nashville the way a lot of great restaurant stories start—by accident.
In 1990, he was a Dutch guy headed to flight school in West Virginia, with a plan to pick up an unseen ’74 Chevy Impala wagon in Memphis from another Dutchman. He got there on a Greyhound, bought the car, and aimed for the Smokies.
He ended up in flight school in Murfreesboro, but what he remembers most vividly from those early days is the food. “I absolutely loved every bit of it because we did not have any of those options in the Netherlands,” he says, rattling off his first Tennessee indulgences: pitchers of beer at Toot’s, a pizza buffet at Mario’s, Whoppers at Burger King.
Three decades later, Brinkman’s name is synonymous with The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden, a place that’s done for Nashville what those long afternoons in European biergartens once did for him—create a space for connection, flavor, and community. Each fall, that mission takes center stage at The Pharmacy’s Oktoberfest celebration, when the beer garden transforms into a lively mash-up of Munich tradition and East Nashville neighborhood gathering.
The Pharmacy’s pretzel
For years, he embraced the all-you-can-eat America he’d found. But eventually he started to miss something he couldn’t get at a wing joint or salad bar—the long afternoons in European beer gardens, where the food had flavor and friends lingered for hours. “The flavors of the foods in Europe were stronger; food that made you feel something, even if it wasn’t for everyone,” he says.
Hospitality ran in Brinkman’s family. On his father’s side, his grandparents ran a café and restaurant called De Sport. His mom’s parents owned a butcher shop. “Even my Opa’s parents had a café-restaurant, so I grew up surrounded by the spirit of serving others,” Brinkman says.
That led him to open The Pharmacy, an East Nashville mash-up of German beer hall, Southern backyard, and soda-fountain nostalgia. Nearly everything is made in-house—burgers, bratwurst, buns, even the syrups for the phosphate sodas—and the menu stays tight so nothing gets phoned in. “We’re not a fast-food joint,” he says. “We specialize in quality… That’s the Pharmacy way.”
Brinkman's grandparents at De Sport.
Restaurants ran in the Brinkman family
The name came naturally once he discovered nearly a hundred old glass pharmacy bottles during construction. The building really had been a pharmacy once, and Brinkman leaned into it: two original soda fountains, a roster of house-made sodas, and some of Nashville’s best milkshakes. He figured burgers, beer, and sodas might be just the thing to bring neighbors together in a part of the city that was still rough around the edges.
The burger
If the beer garden feels like it’s been there forever, that’s partly because Brinkman has infused it with his own family history. His grandparents on both sides ran cafés or butcher shops in the Netherlands, and his grandmother was famous for slipping her grandkids extra meatballs and candy bars with a conspiratorial wink. “That sense of care and generosity stuck with me,” he says. Behind the scenes, that’s what he’s built—every employee gets a hug, fist bump, or handshake at the start of a shift and a thank-you at the end.
That approach has fostered a kind of loyalty most restaurants dream about. Many staffers stay for years, some over a decade, even if they leave for music tours or college in between. The team has weathered tragedy together, closing twice to grieve losses, and the bonds have only deepened. “That deep-rooted connection among our staff shines through in the way we care for our guests and the quality of the food we serve,” Brinkman says.
Jagerwurst
Even with two additional locations, the East Nashville spot remains the mothership—a place where staff from other outposts come to “experience what it means to be part of The Pharmacy family.” And for Brinkman, semi-retirement just means he might not show up before 9 a.m. anymore. He still loves “getting the beer garden up and running for the day,” the way it always seems cooler in summer, warmer in winter, under the canopy of trees and lights.
This fall, The Pharmacy’s Oktoberfest celebration will return. Expect house-smoked bratwurst, Bavarian pretzels, and steins of German beer, alongside live music and a mix of family-friendly games and neighborhood hangouts. Brinkman says it’s as close as Tennessee gets to the Oktoberfests of his youth.
Brinkman
On days off, he’ll take his coffee—two pots, minimum—out to the deck with his wife, Jenna, their three rescued German shepherds, and a hot tub that’s more therapy than luxury. “Doesn’t get much better than that,” he says. Which sounds a lot like his beer garden—simple pleasures, done exactly right.
