It’s been a busy time for food-and-bev comings and goings, and nothing is constant but change when it comes to the Nashville culinary scene. Here are some recent updates. Whenever people tell the story about how Nashville evolved from a town where Pizza Hut won “Best Italian” in newspaper polls to the culinary destination that we enjoy today , the story of chef Tandy Wilson and his restaurant City House needs to be mentioned in the first few paragraphs.
The city’s only James Beard winner for Best Chef: Southeast has been a pioneer since he first opened his own place in 2007 in Alan LeQuire's former sculpture studio. At the time, Germantown was pretty much a dining desert, and Wilson was a big part of attracting new, younger residents to the neighborhood. The concept of farm-to-table was just starting to enter the regional zeitgeist, mainly in the form of Southern restaurants that began to extol the farmers from whom they sourced produce and listing them on their menus by name.
Wilson, however, stretched beyond simply using regional ingredients to make regional dishes. He strived to create rustic Italian cuisine while limiting himself to just a few imported ingredients, demonstrating the connection between American and Italian cuisine, where your grandma isn’t too far from a nonna. Along the way, Wilson has trained some fantastic talent in his kitchen — many chefs who have gone on to open their own successful restaurants.
One that has stuck around for a long time i.