NASHVILLE IS FAMOUS FOR DULCET

NASHVILLE IS FAMOUS FOR DULCET HARMONIES
AND WHISKEY-SOAKED BALLADS, BUT ITS
NEW TUNE IS DARING CUISINE AND RESTAURANTS
WITH PATRONS FLYING IN ON PRIVATE JETS.
A LONGTIME HABITUE TRACES THE EVOLUTION
OF THE CITY’S RED-HOT FOOD SCENE.
ALTCOUNTRY
By Jay McInerney
Photographs by Andrea Behrends
LOCAL FLAVOR
A
fter spending the 1980s in Manhattan, and
barely surviving the experience, in 1992 I married a Nashville native and bought a house in
that city. I found much to capture my interest
there in the coming years; what I didn’t find
was a thriving dining scene. Although I was
impressed on my first visit by a lively New
American bistro called the Sunset Grill, where Emmylou Harris
and Steve Earle were twirling pasta, Nashville’s restaurants seemed
stuck in the ’50s. Even after Birmingham and, later, Charleston
had become centers of a Southern culinary renaissance, I used to
fly to New Orleans to get a decent meal.
Now people are flying to Nashville just to eat. The city the New
York Times called the “it” city of 2013 is being transformed by the
hundreds of young people who move there every week, many of
them hungry and discriminating in their tastes. During my period
of residence I discovered the reason for Nashville’s culinary dormancy when my wife mentioned that she had had a bodyguard for
part of her childhood. It turned out her father, a prominent local
businessman, was an outspoken advocate of legalizing liquor sales
in hotels and restaurants, which some of the more traditional elements of the community opposed, to the extent of threatening my
father-in-law and his family. The legalizers eventually triumphed,
but I suspect that the long tradition of dining at home or at
HAPPY HOUR
Pinewood Social houses
two outdoor pools,
a bowling alley, and a
restaurant. Opposite:
The inventive tasting
menu at the Catbird
Seat is critically
acclaimed. Both
restaurants are owned
by brothers Benjamin
and Max Goldberg.
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the country club, where cocktails and wine with dinner were
allowed, persisted among Nashville’s upper middle class, many of
whom had personal cooks. How else to explain the city’s culinary
backwardness? Foodies and wine collectors could sometimes be
glimpsed at the now defunct Wild Boar, a very formal, very French
restaurant set in a sterile office complex that boasted an impressive wine cellar, with thousands of bottles, though for many of us
the wines were ultimately more memorable than the haute cuisine,
which arrived at the table concealed under heavy silver cloches that
were removed with dramatic flourish by the tuxedoed waiters.
Given the limited dining options, we did a lot of entertaining at home, where I shared cooking duties with Mildred Bell,
who had been cooking for my wife’s family for decades. Given
Mildred’s skill set and heritage, the menu skewed Southern; fried
chicken was a frequent main course, collard and turnip greens
favored sides, though I would sometimes ship ingredients in from
elsewhere, including soft-shell crabs, the sight of which horrified
not a few of my native Southern friends. Our guest list also featured visitors from New York and beyond. I remember a night
that included Steve Earle, Mia Farrow, Julian Barnes, and the late
Senator Fred Thompson. Another mixed Jimmy Buffett, Donna
Tartt, and Stephen Fry. I believe that was the night my wife disappeared during the first course and returned during the cheese
course with blood on her dress, having delivered a baby goat in
the laundry.
PRIMAL CUTS
At Husk Nashville
the menu changes daily,
and all ingredients are
locally produced. Here,
a prime steak from
grass-fed cattle.
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LOCAL FLAVOR
hile Mildred’s fried chicken was renowned among our
Paquette, who had opened a restaurant, Zola, a few years before.
friends, the chicken at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack,
(Her latest eatery, Etch, was named best in Nashville by Zagat last
located across town in a shabby strip mall, was world
year.) “Margot and Deb did the spadework,” says Steve Cavendish,
famous. The current owner is André Prince Jeffries, who has
a former editor for the Nashville Scene. Among those who worked
operated the joint since 1980, before which it was owned by her
under McCormack was a young chef named Tandy Wilson, who in
great-uncle Thornton Prince. According to Jeffries, credit for the
2007 opened a restaurant called City House, which some consider
invention of hot chicken belongs to Thornton’s wife. One morning
the Big Bang moment of Nashville’s current dining scene. City
in the 1930s, Thornton, a tireless womanizer, came home from a
House is unpretentious but polished, a restaurant that pays homnight with one of his girlfriends and demanded some fried chicken.
age to Italy by way of California, with just a bit of Southern spin.
In a vengeful spirit, his wife cooked a batch loaded with cayenne,
For a food-obsessed New Yorker, however, it was the opening of
but he liked it so much he opened a restaurant devoted to it. Today
the Catbird Seat, in 2011, that reverberated. (The buzz was so loud
some 14 establishments in the Nashville area are dedicated to servthe New York Times wrote it up just a few weeks later.) If City House
is Nashville’s equivalent of Union Square Café, the Catbird Seat is its
ing hot chicken, although the term “restaurant” might be a little
Chef ’s Table at Brooklyn Fare: a
grand for some. Prince’s occusmall-plate, tasting-menu destinapies a cramped storefront with
a black-and-white checkerboard
tion restaurant run by chefs with
floor that matches the compointernational credentials. Some
diners found the prices high
sition of the clientele, the lucky
for Nashville—around $100 on
diners sitting in plywood booths
average, before beverages—but
while the rest hover around the
as word from ecstatic early eaters
door and the order window.
spread, it became tough to secure
Hot chicken is traditiona stool at the U-shaped 20-seat
ally made with a lard-cayenne
bar. By the time I managed to get
paste brushed on before or after
in, the original team of Josh Habcooking—or both—and served
over white bread with pickles. At
iger and Erik Anderson, whose
Prince’s it comes in mild, medium,
résumés included the Fat Duck,
and extra-hot, and the joke is
Alinea, and the French Laundry,
that white people aren’t allowed
had been replaced by Trevor
to order it hotter than medium.
Moran, an Irishman who had
I once ordered the medium and
spent four years at Noma. While
wept for hours, trying to find a
it didn’t seem to bode well that
EUROPEAN IMPORT
beverage to ease the bonfire in
the founders had departed less
Rolf & Daughters, which occupies a former
my mouth. Every few years afterthan two years after achieving
factory, serves “modern peasant food” by Philip
white heat, it’s hard to imagine
ward the memory of the pain
Krajeck, a Southerner who grew up in Belgium
and attended hotelier school in Switzerland.
the Catbird Seat was ever better
would fade and I would return,
than it was on my first visit.
though I now order the mild,
Moran’s cooking is precise and highbrow, but he also likes to
which is plenty hot for me. Coke seems to be the preferred accommake references to lowbrow treats. The first course, or perhaps it
paniment for the dish, although some swear by Mountain Dew.
was the second, was a crispy piece of peppery hot chicken skin—a
After the hot chicken shack, Nashville’s most notable culitasty salute to Nashville’s hometown dish. It was served alongside
nary institution is the “meat-and-three,” exemplified by Arnold’s
something that looked very much like an Oreo, though it was in
Country Kitchen, a lunch-only buffet. The meat-and-three seems
fact a savory porcini cookie filled with a parmesan cream. Moran
to have originated in central Tennessee; the name refers to a menu
nods to his Irish roots with a dish of potato puree flavored with
offering one fatty protein—typically fried chicken, country ham,
beer yeast left over from Nashville’s Yazoo Brewery and crunchy
a pork chop, or a country-fried steak—and three sides, such as
pieces of smoked bread. Best damn potato I’ve ever had. Moran has
lima beans, collard greens, and macaroni. My favorite meat-andalso taken note of the local bounty of country ham, which is one
three when I lived in Nashville was a postcard-perfect place with
of central Tennessee’s—and America’s—great culinary treasures.
a country-music-song-title-ready name: the Loveless Café.
(Ask David Chang, who was one of the first chefs to treat counI sold my house in Nashville in the late ’90s, but I visit intermittently, always looking for a decent meal. In 2001, I dined at Café
try ham like pata negra or prosciutto.) Moran gets his from the
Margot in East Nashville, a-down-at-the-heels neighborhood sepaHamery in nearby Murfreesboro. The night I was there he sandrated from the city center by the Cumberland River. Chef Margot
wiched country ham marrow that originated at Karen Overton’s
McCormack’s food was fresh, simple, and tasty, with Provençal
Wedge Oak Farm between two slices of pear. In the category of
and Italian influences, and it offered something new to Nashtastes-way-better-than-it-sounds: duck heart dehydrated with brine,
then rehydrated with Dr. Pepper, which seemed to pair particularly
ville—and for the neighborhood: a seasonal, eclectic, farm-to-table
well with “Lawyers, Guns, and Money,” which was playing as I ate it.
restaurant. In subsequent years I was intrigued as a New Yorker
As with many Nashville restaurants, the wine list is not as exciting
by the way the development of East Nashville as a center for arts,
as the menu—it takes a lot of capital and connections to build a
food, and culture mirrored that of Brooklyn. Margot was not only
deep list, and Tennessee’s restrictive shipping laws don’t help—but
an inspiration but a nurturer of local culinary talent, as was Deb
W
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LOCAL FLAVOR
neighborhood better known for payday loan outfits and fast food
the food here is creative, delicious, and fun. And I daresay this is
franchises, Miel is the brainchild of Seema Prasad, a wine-savvy
the first restaurant in Nashville that attracts patrons who fly in
restaurateur who moved from Seattle in 2001.
on private jets for a few hours of dining bliss, as one couple I met
Nashville has indeed become a magnet for talent from afar,
recently did. The news that Moran is returning to Noma has sadsuch as Philip Krajeck, who grew up in Belgium and did stints at
dened Music City foodies, but the fact that the restaurant thrived
Gramercy Tavern and Blue Hill before opening Rolf & Daughters
after the departure of the founding team is reason for optimism.
in a former factory in East Nashville. Krajeck, who describes his
The Catbird Seat is the creation of brothers Benjamin and Max
fare as “modern peasant food,” was in hotelier school in SwitzerGoldberg, Nashville natives whose portfolio includes the kitschy,
downtown Paradise Park Trailer Resort, a burger and beer joint,
land when he fell in with a group of Italians, who taught him about
as well as the Patterson House, a hip, expensively appointed bar
pasta, and it’s the inventive homemade pastas at Rolf & Daughters,
devoted to craft cocktails with eight kinds of ice made from twicelike garganelli with heritage pork ragu, that keep me returning.
filtered water. Can’t say I’ve ever set foot in the former, but the PatAnother out-of-town culinary star to plant his flag here is Jonaterson House, just downstairs from the Catbird Seat, is the most
than Waxman, who in the ’80s introduced New Yorkers to Calisophisticated backdrop in town
fornia cuisine with his restaurant
for an assignation and an artiJams. Waxman, whose grilled
chicken still tastes amazing some
sanal negroni. Another Goldberg
30 years after I first sampled it,
project, Pinewood Social, seems
opened Adele’s in a former tire
to span their high/low aesthetic.
warehouse in the downtown
A kind of entertainment comneighborhood known as the
plex inside a former warehouse,
Gulch, which is home to several
it encompasses a six-lane bowling
of Nashville’s newest restaurants,
alley, two outdoor plunge pools,
including the 404, located in a
an espresso bar, and a restaurant
former shipping container.
with a sophisticated menu creThe latest high-profile chef
ated by Catbird Seat alum Josh
to open up shop in Nashville is
Habiger. His take on hot chicken
Chopped judge Maneet Chauinvolves deep-fried sweetbreads
with the perfect dose of cayenne
han, who moved her entire fampaste. The restaurant serves three
ily from New York to Nashville
meals a day, and the atmosphere
to open Chauhan Ale & Masala
is conducive to creative malinHouse, a gastropub with an
Indian-inflected menu in an old
gering; the living room next to
OPEN KITCHEN
warehouse just across Broadthe coffee bar is outfitted with
City House serves unpretentious Italian cuisine
couches and work stations.
way from Adele’s and the 404.
with a California-Southern twist. Chef Tandy
Chauhan pays tribute to the
Wilson is credited with starting Nashville’s
food revolution.
meat-and-three tradition with
hen I first ate at
a lunchtime choice of a protein
McCrady’s, in Charlesand three sides, such as chicken keema served with daal, paratha,
ton, South Carolina, during a food and wine festival in
and a spicy cabbage. Finally, the latest sign of Nashville’s growing
2009, Sean Brock was just beginning to make a name for himself
culinary sophistication is Avo, Jess Rice and Susannah Herring’s
as the avatar of a new kind of Southern cooking. I had no idea then
raw vegan restaurant, which has become my vegetarian daughthat he had spent three years at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville.
In 2013, Brock made a triumphant return to Music City, opening a
ter’s new favorite dining spot. That Avo is thriving in the land of
branch of Husk, the restaurant he had created in Charleston three
chicken-fried steak says everything you need to know about the
years earlier. In both outposts the food is locally produced and stricity’s transformation, but anyone who still doubts that the homedently Southern. (My kids still do a great impression of the waiter
town of the Grand Ole Opry has morphed into a Southern version
reciting the pedigree of the sow from which the ham was derived
of Greenpoint as well as a dining destination should check out the
and the farmer who raised it.) At first Husk Nashville seemed as if
tragically hip Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden, or Margot
it might be a pale imitation of the original, but I have visited both
McCormack’s latest restaurant, Marché Artisan Foods, where you
establishments recently, and it’s at least as good if not better. (GQ
have a chance of running into Jack White or one of the Black Keys.
restaurant critic Alan Richman thinks it’s way better.) Located in
I was sad to hear that the Sunset Grill closed last year. Nashville
a former governor’s downtown mansion, it’s serving the best fried
was a more intimate city when it opened, and the grill was a kind
chicken in town—cooked in butter, chicken fat, rendered ham fat,
of clubhouse where singers, songwriters, and music execs mixed
and god knows what else. Brock is also a virtuoso of pork, but his
with politicians and adventurous bluebloods, including the late
plate of Southern vegetables could convert a carnivore.
cross-dressing, macho aristo Neil Cargile, who didn’t believe his
Another Charleston chef who decamped to Nashville is Andrew
taste for Chanel and Cardin should prevent him from collecting
Coins, the chef de cuisine at Miel, fresh from the Charleston Place
beautiful girlfriends. Like many Southern communities, Nashville
Hotel. Like Brock, Coins attended Johnson & Wales University,
has a high tolerance for eccentrics. The influx of newcomers has
although his menu at Miel is a little more Mediterranean and a
changed its character, but there’s no question the food is way betlittle less Southern than Husk’s. Located in Sylvan Park, a scruffy
ter. I’m really looking forward to my next visit. �
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ANDREA BEHRENDS/COURTESY CITY HOUSE; OPPOSITE: COURTESY LOVELESS CAFE
W
E A R LY B I R D S
The Loveless Café,
a Nashville dining
institution since 1951,
is open all day and
serves an exceptionally
good “meat-and-three,”
a traditional Southern
offering of one protein
(fried chicken, country
ham, pork chops) and
three sides (such as
creamed corn, green
beans, potatoes).
F E B MR OU AN RT HY 2 0 1 65
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