Eight years in the past, few Nashvillians knew who chef Julio Hernandez was — except you have been a member of the Hillwood Nation Membership, the place he sharpened his French cooking strategies within the kitchen. After a brief stint as the manager chef at Nectar in Donelson, Hernandez struck out on his personal with the Maíz de la Vida meals truck. Integral to the truck’s success was his small commissary kitchen simply throughout the Cumberland from Ted Rhodes Golf Course at 3101 Clarksville Pike in Bordeaux.
From that single slot in a strip mall — in any other case crammed with a vape store, a Cricket Wi-fi cellphone retailer and two barbershops — Hernandez and his crew launched Nashville to the wonders of contemporary masa made utilizing heirloom corn imported from Mexico, which the kitchen floor and nixtamalized on website. After years of shopping for inferior grocery retailer tortillas, numerous us lastly found how essential corn is to genuine Mexican meals. As Julio says, “Sin maíz, no hay país” — with out corn, there is no such thing as a nation.
The meals truck is now arrange exterior Chopper, with a brick-and-mortar deliberate for the spring
For the primary few years of operation, the tortillería was a preferred spot for many who knew to drop in and speak corn with Julio — and take residence tortillas, masa, mole, beans and small ready dishes. I’ve eaten on the hood of my automotive there greater than as soon as as a result of there was no room inside, and I didn’t have sufficient self-control to attend.
After Hernandez opened his brick-and-mortar Maíz de la Vida restaurant in The Gulch, he just about stopped selling carryout from his Bordeaux retailer in early 2024. “This was our R&D kitchen,” he explains to me by cellphone. “We wanted it to prep for the restaurant. That is the place the birria is simmering and the masa is made.”
At the same time as The Gulch spot continued to increase, Hernandez missed his roots in Bordeaux. “Initially, that is the place we made all our mates. Locals don’t publish about it, so the vacationers don’t know. We’ve got a love for this aspect of city, whether or not it’s cooking for our neighbors on the Waffle Home or for the fellows who go to the smoke store first after which get carryout from right here. We’ve acquired an entire get together occurring right here. We’ve acquired a system!”
He tells me he’d cook dinner totally free if he may — after all he can’t. However he has watched his cooking crew be taught and progress to the purpose the place he feels comfy reopening the tortillería to the general public. He’s additionally wanting ahead to spending some mornings within the store as a substitute of stressing about reservations. “It’s a love mission,” he shares. “We’d be positive with out it, nevertheless it’s one thing I’ve been desirous to do.”
Chef Julio Hernandez’s new restaurant is an extension of the Maiz de la Vida idea
The brand new enterprise will likely be named Maíz de la Vida Fonda Fina. A fonda is a small household restaurant in Mexico, and fina signifies positive eating, so that is actually a fine-casual expertise with simply 12 seats — one neighborhood desk and a four-top. Hernandez plans to open for enterprise Wednesday, April 29, after which the hours will likely be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday by way of Saturday for eating in and finishing up. The kitchen will stay open till 9 p.m. for Uber Eats orders and extra takeout enterprise.
The chef clearly loves designing menus, as a result of I recall he modified the complete Gulch menu within the first week between the 2 instances I dined there. The Fonda Fina menu has been by way of a few iterations since I first spoke to him in regards to the mission. He has (hopefully) settled on a decent menu of burritos, quesadillas, flautas and empanada and a taco bowl. You may positively anticipate to see some quesabirria on supply in addition to a brand new merchandise that he’s particularly enthusiastic about.
Memelas are thicker than a standard tortilla, hand-shaped into an oval after which coated with lard or garlic oil earlier than a fast kiss of the grill. “I’ll be hand-pressing these,” Hernandez promised, “as a result of it’s all in regards to the masa and that’s what makes them so good!” The memelas will come two to an order with one topped with a model of Julio’s transcendent (and Iron Fork-winning) mole negro and the opposite with a zingy salsa roja. “It’s simply masa, fats and sauce!” he tells me — and I can hear his huge grin over the cellphone.
Fonda Fina may also supply just a few grab-and-go objects out of a fridge close to the door. “We’ll have salsa, beans and tortillas by the one-pound and three-pound bag,” Hernandez says. “We’re additionally partnering with Naked Bones Butcher on a Mexican-style aged chorizo that we’ll promote. We will case chorizo, however we don’t actually need to, so we’ll give them the spice, they usually’ll make them. We must always have these by the start of the summer time.” Personally, I can’t wait!
Quickly after opening, Hernandez hopes to buy new gear to up his agua fresca and horchata sport each in Bordeaux and The Gulch. “The horchata will likely be one hundred pc corn, no rice!” he swears. “I am enjoying with candying and nixtamalizing some pumpkins and squash, and we’ll do stuff with chia, cucumbers and jalapeños, and every drink could have its personal particular garnish.”
Hernandez has at all times thought of his humble tortilla store to be the guts of Maíz. However now, just like the garnishes on his bebidas, it would simply be the cherry on prime of his empire!
