Dining
Molly P, the lunch-basket spin-off of Martha’s at the Plantation, has closed its doors after a brief life on White Bridge Road.
“I just spread myself too thin,” says chef-owner Martha Stamps, who has returned full-time to her elegantly earthy restaurant located on the grounds of the historic Belle Meade Plantation.
With her attention focused back on the flagship restaurant, known for its creative high-Southern cuisine such as chicken croquettes and sweet-potato biscuits, Stamps is taking the opportunity to add a few flourishes. For one thing, she has installed a take-out case in the dining room, stocked with various casseroles, potpies, soups, croquettes, fried chicken and baked goods. She’s also planning to set tables out on the patio in the next few weeks for visitors who want to pick up a sandwich and head outside.
As the growing season approaches, the restaurant will work hand in hand with the plantation to create a small interactive agricultural community. The restaurant will compost its refuse for use in the plantation’s kitchen garden. In turn, the garden will supply fresh vegetables to the restaurant. This summer, expect a creative array of tomatoes, melons and okra on Martha’s menu, with a focus on organic products. Stamps, author of the cookbook The New Southern Basics, is also in the process of scheduling cooking classes for the spring.
Meanwhile, as Molly P’s snappy red-and-black storefront sits empty, owner Tom Zazzi is talking to a veritable who’s-who of local restaurateurs in an effort to fill the spot. So far, he hasn’t found any takers, but he’s keeping his eye out for an independent food or coffee biz in search of space that’s ready to roll.
Martha’s at the Plantation is located at 5025 Harding Road, 353-2828.
Wine geek
Will Motley is holding his breath, waiting for a permit to sell wine and liquor. If the paperwork comes through in the next week or so—as he’s expecting it to—he could open his wine store at Five Points in East Nashville by mid-May. Motley has leased the space at 1001 Woodland Street, where he will hang his shingle for Woodland Wine Merchant, a parking lot away from Margot Café and Marché Artisan Foods and across the road from the much-anticipated East Side outpost of Rumours Wine & Art Bar.
Motley, who most recently quit his day job at Best Brands liquor distributors to dive full-time into entrepreneurship, has a wine-soaked résumé that weaves from Nashville Wine & Spirits in Belle Meade to Kenwood Vineyards in California. He plans to bring his years of booze-based work to bear on a store that will specialize in unique finds in the $20 range, with many wines under $12. As the former wine rep for Margot Café, Motley plans to partner with his restaurant neighbor to hold wine tastings and dinners.
Sip and see
Over at the intersection of McGavock and Riverside, Kathryn Snell-Ryan is pouring herself into a coffee shop she expects to open this summer. Sip, as the Ingleside resident has dubbed her entrepreneurial venture, will serve French press coffee, pastries, sandwiches and paninis. Located in the building to the right of Castrillo’s Pizza, Sip will have a back porch that opens onto a common area with chess tables and a dog-watering fountain, a public space Snell-Ryan and others hope will soon become known as Riverside Village. 1402 McGavock Pike
Bread all about it
Bread & Company, the local four-unit bakery-café chain, is getting a lot of ink lately. Some of the publicity is in a tiny entry in the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News, which quotes Bread & Company’s George Green in a trend story about new-employee orientations. In the article, which also cites managers from Red Lobster and Ruth’s Chris, Green encourages businesses to make new-employee orientation “funny and something to enjoy.” (Good luck with that. It sounds like a blast.)
But the company is even more excited about the March issue of Saveur magazine, which profiles renowned pastry chef Michael London and dubs him “America’s Greatest Baker” on the cover. As an official Michael London-licensed bakery, Bread & Company uses the same recipes for artisan breads and pastries—such as fruit tarts, chocolate demi-spheres, framboise mousse and crème brûlée—as the famed Mrs. London’s bakery in upstate New York, co-owned by (and named for) London’s wife, Wendy. OK, so Saveur doesn’t actually mention Bread & Company or executive pastry chef Karen Bess, who trained under Michael London. But the bakery’s weekly newsletter gives Bess—and London—ample congratulations.
On the block
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is conducting an online auction as part of its annual fund-raising efforts. Like a local eBay, the auction lists more than 100 items, with plenty in the way of food and drink. Leave it to Nashville’s restaurateurs to pony up the goods, including a Slow Food dinner for two at Margot Café, brunch for eight at Martha’s at the Plantation, a wine-and-cheese tasting for 10 at Rumours Wine & Art Bar and wines from the private cellar of Randy Rayburn. The auction runs through 6 p.m. on March 30. Fristcenter.org.