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Nashville, Tennessee

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Dining
December 20, 2007


Hill of Beans
Crema brews in Rutledge Hill

by Carrington Fox

If you think you smell an espresso-scented tipping point somewhere South of Broadway near the river, that’s Crema, the coffee shop brewing in the burgeoning Rutledge Hill neighborhood. Named for the foamy, golden-brown extraction that develops in the filter and encrusts the top of an espresso serving, Crema (rhymes with “Emma”) is the latest food-forward (or beverage-forward, to be specific) establishment to hang up its shingle in the once-forgotten district.

Owner Rachel Lehman, who spent the last four years managing Sam & Zoe’s coffee shop in Berry Hill, isn’t the first person to think Rutledge Hill can become an enclave for foodies. Andrew Chadwick, a former executive chef for Ritz-Carlton, recently debuted his showplace of a restaurant in a nearby historic residence. (Be warned, Andrew Chadwick’s on Rutledge Hill, located at 37 Rutledge St., is so entre-nous, it doesn’t even have a shingle.)

Lehman, a Chicago native who has spent a decade in the coffee industry, hopes the same kind of discerning people who seek out Andrew Chadwick’s (i.e., people who “are anal about their coffee”) will discover Crema and its menu of traditional European coffee drinks made with locally roasted Drew Brews, along with pastries, sandwiches and quiches. Don’t expect a phalanx of flavored liqueurs and oversize coffee shakes. Lehman’s focus is “latte art” and espressos served in traditional (read “small”) European sizes.

Slated to open in January, Crema is at 15 Hermitage Ave. (255-8311), and will be open 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Open house
Tandy Wilson and Anne Kostroski’s Italian-inspired culinary haven, City House, debuted last week, and word is traveling quickly about the house-cured salami, fresh sausage and stunning pastries at Nashville’s newest destination restaurant.

Alumni of Margot Café, pastry chef Kostroski and Wilson, who served as sous chef at Margot, got hitched a couple of years ago and took a newlywed-cooks’ tour of Italy. Now, with Wilson at the stove and Kostroski manning the front of the house and the dessert roster, they’re bringing a rustic taste of the boot to Germantown, where the couple have transformed the former studio of sculptor Alan LeQuire into an “extraordinary” space (according to one enthusiastic early report), with a wood-fired pizza oven and open view of the kitchen.

Located at 1222 Fourth Ave. N. (736-5838), City House opens for dinner at 5 p.m. and is closed on Tuesday.

For more on these subjects, visit the Scene’s food blog, Bites (blogs.nashvillescene.com/bites).

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