When Max and Benjamin Goldberg first opened The Catbird Seat at 1711 Division St. means again within the fall of 2011, they modified Nashville’s culinary scene dramatically. Opening cooks Josh Habiger and Erik Anderson launched native diners to the form of elevated chef’s desk eating expertise that was not often seen outdoors of the big culinary facilities like New York Metropolis and Chicago. Initially, the meal was seven programs with possibly an additional course or two to amuse your bouche, and the novelty of watching cooks put together your meals and really current it to you took away the sting of what on the time felt a little bit jarring — a hard and fast worth of $100 per diner!
Quick-forward to immediately, and it’s no drawback to drop a hundo at J. Alexander’s for those who order a salad and a glass of wine along with your prime rib. The Goldberg brothers have organized their restaurant group underneath the Strategic Hospitality banner, Habiger has joined the possession and administration workforce, Anderson has earned a number of Michelin stars, and The Catbird Seat has remained true to its chef-incubator gestalt whereas deliberately biking by six completely different iterations of kitchen leaders.
Andy Doubrava and Tiffani Ortiz
The Catbird 6.0 operates underneath the route of cooks Tiffani Ortiz and Andy Doubrava, who’ve introduced new vitality to the kitchen, delighting diners with meals sourced by native farmers and foragers whereas selling zero-waste kitchen practices. As of Wednesday, Could 14, Doubrava and Ortiz will take over the keys to a brand-new kitchen and restaurant area on the fifth flooring of the Invoice Voorhees Constructing at Paseo South Gulch at 700 Eighth Ave. S.
Together with The Catbird Seat, TPH will reopen on the fifth flooring of the Invoice Voorhees Constructing on Could 13
The transfer gives each aesthetic and sensible benefits, finishing a well-deserved refresh to such an necessary Nashville restaurant establishment. Sharing a foyer with The Patterson Home will probably be useful, as Catbird visitors can arrive early and take a left to pregame earlier than the eating expertise, or they’ll retire to TPH to bask within the afterglow of a 15-course salvo of ingenious meals. (Learn extra on The Patterson Home’s new digs right here.)
Much more thrilling, there’s now a devoted bar area inside The Catbird Seat, an expensive space they’re calling The Wine Lounge. Secreted away off the primary entrance to the eating space, The Wine Lounge gives bar seating for six at a dramatic emerald inexperienced counter product of quartzite together with area for eight at a velvet sales space within the nook of the lounge. Seating for 2 patrons can be out there at a few tables within the lounge, however most significantly, the brand new area permits gifted beverage director Sarah Salim to run the entire wine and cocktail program with sufficient room to prepare her workspace.
Strategic Hospitality labored with Nicok Dryden of Dryden Studio on the design refresh of the brand new area. Dryden is the mastermind behind among the most dramatic eating places on the town, together with different Strategic ideas Locust and Bastion. The brand new iteration of The Catbird Seat is one other jewel in Dryden’s crown, an expensive area that shines like a jewel field atop the Voorhees Constructing.
Friends who’ve skilled the unique model of The Catbird Seat will in all probability discover the room acquainted and excitingly new on the similar time. Logistically, the workforce has moved the hood and most important cooking space to the rear of the room, close to the bigger kitchen that adjoins the cooking area at The Patterson Home. Habiger is worked up to have the prospect to revamp the kitchen area and processes from scratch with greater than a decade of working expertise to determine what works greatest.
“I’m simply glad we don’t must go down a hearth escape to get to the walk-in anymore,” he shares with a chuckle.
Behind the scenes, the transform permits for way more cupboard space, two cooking islands for the chef workforce and two plating areas. Whereas it was at all times entertaining to observe the kitchen workers dance round one another within the former area, I’m certain Ortiz and Doubrava will admire the additional room.
The 25-seat U-shaped cooks counter may even appear acquainted to Catbird followers, however the slabs of Tennessee pink marble add an additional layer of drama to the experience. Talking of drama, two of the three marble slabs cracked earlier than they had been absolutely put in, in order that added one other diploma of complexity to getting the restaurant open on schedule.
Tennessee pink marble is mined solely in a small part of East Tennessee, making it among the many rarest of decor supplies. It has been utilized in legendary building tasks just like the U.S. Capitol, the Tennessee Supreme Court docket Constructing, the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork, the Nationwide Air and House Museum and the ground of the primary terminal at Grand Central Station. Oh, and people two well-known lions guarding the doorway to the New York Public Library? These are product of Tennessee pink marble, too!
Much more dramatic are the cabinets and storage cupboards that run above the counter over the diners’ heads. Skinny veneer slices of chicken’s eye maple are backlit to emphasise the tiny swirling grain of the gorgeous wooden, a sample present in lower than 1 p.c of maple lumber. The nice and cozy gentle from above combines with pure gentle flowing by floor-to-ceiling home windows draped with dramatic curtains to permit the restaurant to manage the ambiance for diners.
The previous area might really feel a little bit industrial at occasions, since there was no pure gentle, and the workers wanted gentle to work by. Now they’ll open the curtains throughout every day prep and create a extra intimate ambiance throughout service.
By means of 14 years of chef residencies, The Catbird Seat has frequently reinvented itself as an necessary stalwart of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now with this main improve to the bodily areas behind the scenes and within the eating room, we will solely count on even higher issues from your complete workforce!
