Hartel has been running the place solo since co-chef Corey Griffith left a while back, and she’s ready to recruit some help in the front of the house.

“I’ve taken on the restaurant by myself for three years, and I realized I need a guy around here who can do things out here [front of the house] better than I can,” she said with a laugh. “The whole thing is more cohesive when we’re doing it together.”

It’s also just the kind of opportunity her new business partner, Jan Firek, has been looking for ever since he moved to Nashville two years ago.

Firek started out as a schoolteacher in Michigan, but eventually landed in the big-city restaurant biz, working his way up the ladder in New York and Los Angeles. He doesn’t like to name-drop the famous restaurateurs he’s worked with, but he will mention a couple formative workplaces: August, the popular bistro in New York’s West Village, and the acclaimed Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.

Currently they offer mandatory valet parking to help control the expected volume of cars, but some street parking is also available. Just don't try to park in the liquor store lot, especially during the holidays.

The interior of the building is as impressive as the large facade, with attractive wall coverings designed to mimic bourbon barrel staves. A large stage runs the length of the main dining room, and management promises a schedule of rock bands to entertain patrons after the dinner hour is over.

As soon as you enter you'll notice what appears to be a typical small wine cave/cellar just inside the front door. A closer look will reveal that the cage is designed to hold hundreds of bottles of whiskey, from the cheap stuff up to velvet bags concealing the oldest vintage of Pappy Van Winkle.

In another exciting development, chef Arnold Myint has created a menu of sandwiches, wraps and salads that will be available for dining in or carryout. Prices are in the $6-9 range, and Myint especially recommends the "Italiano" sandwich which he put together to honor the heritage of Garage Coffee Company owner Robert Camardo.

Here's the full menu for your consideration:

• twitter.com/feastonfifth
• Miso Filet Kebabs, one of the recipes being tested for the upcoming Feast restaurant.

One important update is the target day for opening, which is Dec. 3, less than two weeks from today and a date that would give neighbors and other curious folks a chance to gather there for drinks and dinner (and to check out the new joint) over the holidays.

Hatz has also named his restaurant team: Mike Harris is the operating partner, and Frank Courreges will run the kitchen as executive chef. Harris is a 30-year veteran in the business, with experience at the Loveless Cafe, Sam’s Sports Grill, Logan’s Roadhouse and Christie Cookies.

Courreges trained as an apprentice chef in Europe and attended the Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University. He has worked in hotels and restaurants in Charleston, West Palm Beach, Fla., and Nashville.

Both Harris and Courreges describe their culinary approach as delivering classic dishes with a twist. Harris promises house-ground burgers, unique salads, hand-cut steaks and fresh vegetables, along with a few surprises.

The restaurant space, as you may remember, was originally the location of Germantown East, which closed permanently after the death of chef and co-owner Jay Luther in a freak accident in the produce cooler. The original Germantown Café remains a vital fixture in Germantown under co-founder Chris Lowry.

Hatz has pledged to honor the original owners by contributing to the Jay Luther Memorial Scholarship Fund for aspiring culinary professionals.

A version of this post appeared in my Food Biz column in this week's print edition of The City Paper and online in the Nashville Post.

Most brewpubs and several grocery stores and beer marts fill up 64-ounce beer jugs called growlers, but none of them currently offer the variety that The Filling Station has put together in their first week of operation. Currently their system can handle 24 different beers, and they are committed to always maintaining at least one offering from each of our local breweries like Yazoo, Blackstone, Jackalope, Fat Bottom and Calfkiller. They also see the chance to be the best place for craft beer fans to try out a rotating selection of new brews that aren't widely available. For example, when they opened Saturday, The Filling Station was already one of the only places in town to buy three different beers from Goose Island out of Chicago. Since the cost of bottling is the most expensive part of the craft brewing business, remote breweries are much more likely to open up Nashville as a draft beer market if they can cut the extra expenses.

If a full growler is more than you want to commit to, because hey it might be a weeknight or you can't drink three beers (wuss), The Filling Station is selling what they call Growlettes, 32-ounce bottles. If you buy a branded growler or growlette from the shop for $5, you can trade up or down any time you want, depending on whether you want a large or a small. They'll handle all the cleaning and sanitizing for you and give you a new growler of either size whenever you want to swap one out.

They ordered over 300 full-size growlers in preparation for their Saturday opening, but had already run out by Sunday. Fear not, thirsty friends, more are on the way and they have plenty of the small sizes left. In fact, Newman promised, "We'll fill up a milk jug if you bring one in." Half growlers of beer run from $5-7 with full ones available in the $9-13.50 range. Figure you'll pay double that for a milk jug.

Luckily, you don't have to search hard to find the restaurant, since it's located in the Kroger center (near Iroquois Wine and Spirits) at the corner of Old Hickory Boulevard and Highway 70S. If you need the address for your GPS, it's officially at 7073 Highway 70S.

Once you get there, you should also find yourself immediately at home. The comfortable atmosphere seems very friendly and pubby, with a well-stocked bar running most of the length of one wall and high-def televisions sprinkled around the room to show popular sporting events. The menu was still being tweaked a bit when I visited last weekend, but it looks like it will be extensive and inventive.

You can start off with the bacon sampler, which is served in a tall glass lined with Arthur Treacher-like waxed paper printed like a newspaper. Three strips of different preparations of bacon include applewood smoked, candied maple bacon and chocolate-dipped bacon. Wow, I got a little flushed just typing that ...

Other appetizers include a variety of flatbreads, which were a little lighter and sweeter than your typical pizza crusts, but otherwise you could call them pizzas. We also sampled a couple of their panini and a hearty shepherd's pie served in a precious little cast-iron skillet. They also plan to serve a big chocolate chip cookie in that same type of skillet, so save room for dessert.

The overall selection of pub food looks like aspires to rise a little above your typical comfort grub. As always, if you get a chance to eat your way through more of the menu than I did, share your experiences in the comments.

His goal is to create a comfortable, unpretentious neighborhood hangout where patrons will want to dine several times per week to experience the changing menu. Both the design of the restaurant space and Krajeck's menu development demonstrate what he calls a common sense approach to fine dining. "We want to cook the food that we like to eat and stock the bar with things that we like to drink." The small, but focused wine list emphasizes Old World styles at affordable prices, and Krajeck aims to rotate the wines seasonally to match the morphing menu. "We want to build a relationship of trust with our customers, so that they'll take our advice and occasionally try something new."

The gorgeous dining room also emphasizes a sense of community with long rows of banquettes encouraging diners to meet their neighbors and two communal ten-top tables which will be used for walk-ups and normally not eligible for reservations. In an effort to temper the acoustics of the high ceilings, exposed brick and tall windows of the space, the ceiling of Rolf and Daughters is covered with rough hewn sawmill scraps of lumber from the same craftsmen who built all the restaurant's 76 seats.

I've seen a draft menu, and it really looks spectacular. Krajeck will print the menu in-house so that he can change it at his whim based on his latest farmers market finds. Highlights will include house-made squid ink pasta served with gulf shrimp, squid and chorizo, and other pasta dishes like spaghetti carbonara with guanciale and black pepper and Spinach Garganelli with heritage pork ragout, pecorino. There will be small plates for snacking and plenty of vegetarian options as well. Main dishes revolve around seafood and heritage breed meats. Most entrees will be less than $23 with many options in the $12-$15 range.

The new pub fills the space formerly held by Snappy Tomato Pizza. In fact, it’s the same ownership team, made up of local entrepreneurs Kevin Alexandroni, Simon Sedek and Uzi Shmueli. They decided to ditch the Snappy Tomato franchise and serve up craft beer and comforting pub fare instead. (The chef, Liz Standridge, cooked at the Iron Pork Chop and Battle Ground Brewery.)

General manager Melinda Johnson said the place will have a neighborhood hangout vibe, with 10 beers on tap and a selection of “classic cocktails with a modern twist.”

{Pub}licity, at 7073 Highway 70S, is expected to open around the second week of November.

A version of this story appeared in my Food Biz column in this week's print edition of The City Paper and online in the Nashville Post.

Sushi Train is on track to open soon in the restaurant space on White Bridge Road where Chef Yang’s Chinese buffet used to reside.

Chef Alan Yang is also the owner of Sushi Train. He closed the buffet five months ago to completely renovate the space and reopen it with a new focus on sushi and other Japanese favorites like tempura, along with hibachi and Chinese entrees.

The buffet is gone, replaced by a more unique food delivery system: the titular sushi train. It’s actually a conveyor belt that circulates sushi and other delicacies on little plates for diners to spot, grab and make their own.

The new place will serve beer and wine, as well. Sushi Train aims to open around Nov. 1 at 94 White Bridge Road.

(A version of this story appeared in my Food Biz column in The City Paper and online in the Nashville Post.)

Cawthon's most famous restaurant is the popular Jack’s Bar-B-Que location on Lower Broad (at 416 Broadway). There's also a Jack's at 334 West Trinity Lane.

The new restaurant will have 80 seats indoors as well as 36-seat patio. It's part of the redevelopment of the Midtown portion of the Charlotte Avenue corridor, which is expected to heat up after the opening earlier this month of the 28th Avenue Connector linking Charlotte and West End.

Check out the Post's story here.