Chef Andy Little
After Smokin’ Thighs proprietor Matthew Carney died after being struck by a automotive in 2024, his widow ran the enterprise for a number of extra months earlier than closing it in October of that 12 months. Since then, the constructing at 611 Wedgewood Ave. has drawn quite a lot of curiosity — particularly since Strategic Hospitality introduced it will be opening its twelfth hospitality idea at that web site.
Sally’s Keep Awhile will probably be Max and Benjamin Goldberg’s second enterprise (after Bastion) within the burgeoning Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, and the duo’s accomplice/chef Josh Habiger will probably be concerned in menu growth and seasonal updates to the foods and drinks choices at Sally’s.
Main the day-to-day operations within the new restaurant will probably be one other unbelievable chef whom the Goldbergs have been capable of pull from their very deep bench of expertise. Andy Little joined Strategic Hospitality in 2024 after the unlucky shuttering of his beloved 12South restaurant Josephine. He has been, and can proceed to be, Strategic Hospitality’s director of culinary operations as he takes the helm at Sally’s when the restaurant opens someday in (hopefully) late spring this 12 months.
I sat down with Chef Little and Benjamin Goldberg to debate the challenge, beginning with the place the title got here from. It turns on the market’s some historical past behind it.
“We all the time attempt to establish the challenge first after which begin wanting on the historical past behind it,” Goldberg tells me. Like The Patterson Home — which is known as after the Tennessee governor who vetoed statewide Prohibition in 1909 — Sally’s is known as after an actual particular person, not simply the woman to concern “when the wine runs out.”
In keeping with the official announcement of the newest information: “The restaurant’s title attracts from native historical past, honoring Sally Rains Merritt, the daughter of Captain John Rains, who settled the unique 640 acres of land in 1779. After his passing, Sally constructed the well-known Merritt Mansion simply down the road.”
Rains Avenue runs into Geodis Park’s entrance, so I count on quite a lot of Nashville SC followers to hop backwards and forwards between Sally’s restaurant and her dad’s avenue on match days.
Additionally historic is the horse emblem that will probably be emblematic of the restaurant. It’s meant to symbolize Wedgewood, one of the vital well-known racing trotting horses of the nineteenth century, who gave his title to each the road and the neighborhood.
Tax data put the date of the small constructing’s development at 1935, and it has a private connection for Goldberg.
“After we have been first engaged on Bastion,” he remembers, “I lived in Wedgewood-Houston, so I used to hang around for beers and wings at Smokin’ Thighs. I felt the legacy and function of the constructing, and it’s a significant area for the neighborhood.”
The footprint of the brand new constructing will probably be largely unchanged. The workforce will preserve the identical 30-space parking zone, an actual commodity in that neighborhood, and so they have enclosed a former out of doors patio so as to add extra seating. It should nonetheless be a reasonably small restaurant, seating about 60 to 65 individuals.
Above all, Goldberg and Little need the area to really feel like dwelling.
“We simply need individuals to have one much less step of their lives,” explains Goldberg. “Simply park and eat. We wish to be the simple choice and the snug area. It’s going to be an informal, come-as-you-are restaurant, and we determined to make use of the cinderblocks to our benefit to provide that vibe.”
In the course of the rework, the inside has just about been stripped again to these cinderblock partitions. Little had very particular requests, which have been largely granted. Even so, the method felt totally different this time.
“It’s daunting to start out with a rectangle field,” says Goldberg, “however we gave Andy what he needed — together with a window from the kitchen to the eating room, a double-sided hood and the largest walk-in ever!”
Little knew taking up the problem of cooking three-and-a-half meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch — would take quite a lot of planning. Gracefully transitioning between menus throughout the course of the day takes finesse, and Goldberg admitted they’d discovered classes from the multipage clipboard of a menu that Pinewood Social opened with.
Whereas there will probably be outlined menus that change all through the day, if a patron is available in 5 minutes after breakfast ostensibly ends, and there are nonetheless a number of pastries or breakfast sandwiches within the retail case, Little’s default perspective is all the time to say sure and discover a option to make it occur.
Early morning will characteristic conventional breakfast dishes, however don’t assume Sally’s goes to be a diner.
“Our menu will probably be nothing however fastballs,” shares Little, an enormous baseball fan. “However they’ll be ready with care and a focus to element.” Count on house-made pastries, recent fruit, yogurt bowls, egg dishes, pancakes and extra.
Lunch will revolve round salads, sandwiches and soups, whereas dinner could have larger-format dishes like prime rib and pasta, all accompanied by seasonal greens and different conventional aspect dishes, together with rotating nightly specials.
Little additionally plans to supply take-home meals so prospects can cease in for some time on the best way dwelling from work and decide up a meal for the household that is able to warmth and eat. The chef guarantees he has bought his rotisserie rooster on lockdown, and I think about that will probably be a extremely popular merchandise.
There can even be a full bar with cocktails, beer and wine plus an open-to-close espresso program from Strategic’s longtime mates at Crema Espresso Roasters. Above all, Little needs to emphasise the “Keep Awhile” a part of Sally’s title.
“The menu at Sally’s will replicate the snug, neighborhood spirit of Wedgewood-Houston,” Little says within the announcement. “We wish it to be the sort of place the place you possibly can cease in for breakfast in your option to work, meet a colleague for lunch, after which return later with your loved ones for a relaxed dinner, all at inexpensive costs.”
Extra updates, together with opening date and hours of operation, will probably be introduced quickly. Observe alongside for updates, behind-the-scenes moments, and menu previews at @sallys_stay_awhile on Instagram and TikTok.
