I’m undecided what number of diners in Nashville are conscious that Oak Steakhouse and O-Ku Sushi are associated as members of the Indigo Street Hospitality Group based mostly in Charleston, S.C. I imply, in the event you converse Japanese you’d in all probability acknowledge that O-ku is (roughly) the phrase for “oak” in that language, so maybe you’d suss it out.
Indigo Street is constant its punny methods with the upcoming opening of Indaco within the Modera Riverview complicated at 1408 Adams St. Indaco is the Italian phrase for indigo, the plant that was a major a part of the Charleston economic system in colonial occasions and offers its identify to the restaurant group.
Indigo Street has grown into a major hospitality group, and the brand new Indaco will turn out to be the sixth outpost of that individual model when it opens this Friday, March 6. It received’t be the final one although, as a West Palm Seaside, Fla., location will open quickly.
Nashville’s Indaco will likely be below the auspices of chef Chris Ayala, previously of Ellington’s on the Fairlane Lodge downtown. He has skilled with Indigo Street culinary director Josh Begley and at a pair different Indaco places in preparation for taking up the kitchen on the border between Germantown and Salemtown. This coaching is necessary, as a result of every Indaco has a distinct menu that should categorical the private fashion of the lead chef.
Whereas a few of the dishes are standardized — particularly the quick checklist of wood-fired pizzas — every chef can fiddle with elements based mostly on seasonality, regionality and private desire. On a preview go to, I acquired to pattern three dishes courtesy of Chef Ayala that taught me quite a bit about who he’s as a prepare dinner.
The primary was a easy burrata appetizer plated on a mattress of polenta. Reasonably than serve it with bread, Ayala picked the Italian model of grits to steadiness the fiery Calabrian chili, herbs and unguent olive oil. Mandarin orange slices added a candy zing to the dish additionally.
The second course was a bowl of pillowy artichoke agnolotti in an orange broth. After I informed the chef how a lot I preferred it, he let me in on a bit of secret — the dish is 100% vegan. He doesn’t name it out on the menu, however he likes to have one thing in his again pocket for visiting vegans and vegetarians that avowed carnivores would get pleasure from too. It’s a labor of affection, as a result of the method of making the broth with out butter (utilizing olive oil as a substitute) and soaking cashews to simulate a tacky part takes additional time. It was effectively value it.
The truth is, whereas pricing wasn’t last on the time I visited, it appears to be like like all the menu will likely be fairly affordable with only some dishes over $40. Chef Ayala says, “I’d moderately feed 1,000 folks than promote one factor for $1,000.” One other good possibility is that each single wine on the all-Italian checklist will likely be out there by the glass, so friends can attempt various things as a substitute of committing to a big-money bottle. Beers, cocktails and spritzes had been additionally effectively in line for neighborhood costs. (I visited within the morning, so I didn’t get to pattern the “Greenback Slice,” a gin cocktail made utilizing pizza-infused gin. I’ll report again on that one!)
Indaco’s Doppio Ravioli
The final dish I sampled was a plate of doppio ravioli, actually “double ravioli,” with a single dumpling painstakingly full of mushrooms and mascarpone on one half and sofritto and ricotta on the opposite. The peppers of the sofritto present by means of the pasta dough, making that facet purple whereas the opposite is pale. It actually was a dramatic presentation. The kitchen rains truffles over the dish so as to add a bit of decadent luxurious and as a tip to the mushrooms inside. The ultimate contact is a pleasant cashew gremolata so as to add a bit of acid to interrupt up the creaminess of the pasta.
The pizza oven wasn’t as much as temp once I visited, however it is going to quickly be pumping out pies at a speedy charge because of the 700-plus-degree hearth that can prepare dinner hand-stretched dough discs in lower than two minutes.
The newly constructed restaurant takes benefit of two tales of the Modera constructing to supply a dramatic vaulted area over the open kitchen. That will even give the warmth of the pizza oven someplace to go. Over the eating area, they’d put in a dropped ceiling with attention-grabbing lighting fixtures hanging right down to create a cozier ambiance. Whereas they don’t take particular reservations for the chef’s bar trying straight into the kitchen, that’s the place I plan to put up up for my subsequent go to.
Reservations at the moment are being accepted on Open Desk, so make plans to drop by and see what all of the fuss is about.
