Chef’s Market Cafe & Take Away

900 Conference Dr., Goodlettsville. 851-2533

Hours: 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Full menu available at www.chefsmarket.com

How do you handle a hungry man? That depends on the man and the appetite, but a heaping plate of comfort food is nearly always a safe bet. More challenging, how do you handle a dozen hungry men? Unless you’re accustomed to cooking for a crowd, you might want to call a trained professional—someone like Jim Hagey, the restaurant industry veteran who owns Chef’s Market Cafe & Take Away with his wife, interior designer Cheryl. Hagey opened the eat-in/takeout restaurant and catering company six years ago in Goodlettsville. His goal was to provide what he calls “gourmet comfort food” at reasonable prices in a pleasant setting, or packaged to go so that the quality of the food wouldn’t be compromised by travel time.

The question most often asked by inner-loop snobs like myself is, “Why Goodlettsville?” Well, if you haven’t been that far north on I-65 in the last five or 10 years, you would be astounded to see the amazing growth that has enveloped Hendersonville and Goodlettsville. What was once undeveloped farmland, rolling hills and wooded areas is now subdivisions, car dealerships, motels, gas stations, fast food outlets and shopping centers, all serving one of the fastest-growing populations in the Middle Tennessee area.

It’s enough to make a savvy entrepreneur think he could have a piece of the action, which is pretty much what Hagey was thinking when he opened Chef’s Market. “I have been in the restaurant business a long time,” he says. “I always loved to eat at Clayton-Blackmon when they were open, and of course I have so much respect for Corner Market. But I live in Hendersonville, and it seemed to me that as this area grew, there was a segment of the population here not being served as they were in Nashville or Brentwood. I thought a place like this would do well here. When we first opened, people would come in and say 'Thank you for opening out here!’ Then they would look sort of worried and say, 'Gee, do you think you’ll make it?’ We were sort of wondering the same thing at first.”

Not only has Chef’s Market made it, by all indications it is thriving, with a steady stream of customers. Cheryl Hagey transformed what was once a Dress Barn into an inviting cafe, retail and service area with washed ocher-hued plaster walls, distressed concrete floors, cheery prints, freestanding metal shelving, antique sideboards and wooden tables and chairs. The main service lines are toward the back, fronting the open kitchen; a small coffee, dessert and pastry cafe is to the left of the entrance, dispensing the welcoming scent of brewing coffee to arriving customers.

Since opening, Hagey has done some tweaking on the products carried and the services offered, but he has remained consistent to the original vision of gourmet comfort food. Executive chef is the aptly named Rodney Munch, a graduate of Johnson & Wales Culinary School, who says he is challenged to find the balance between the familiar and the creative. “People in this area still insist on their regional comfort foods, and they love casseroles,” he says. “So we are cognizant of that, but we use fresh, quality ingredients and try to do the standards a little bit differently.”

Hot prepared foods, sandwiches, leafy salads made to order and prepared salads are menu staples. Munch has the old faithfuls like pot roast, macaroni and cheese, squash casserole, mashed potatoes and green bean amandine, but he avoids what he calls the Luby’s Cafeteria look by using the freshest ingredients and utilizing lots of color. “I just can’t bring myself to use canned,” he says.

Munch’s attention to both conventional and more refined palates has resulted in a menu with diverse options. Hence diners can choose among old-fashioned chicken salad, smoked Mexican chicken salad and basil Thai tuna salad. For those wanting something more interesting than the fresh fruit salad, there’s a fresh berry salad with cinnamon balsamic dressing, as well as jicama slaw, Spanish couscous salad and other selections. Fresh tossed leaf salads include a Club Med with pine nuts and goat cheese, and the apple jack, with apples, bleu cheese and spicy pecan vinaigrette. Diners wanting to play it safe with the wrap sandwiches can order the classic club, while vegetarians can go for the three grain wrap, with Spanish couscous, wild rice pilaf, tabouli, hummus, baby greens and tomatoes; meat-eaters and spice-lovers can opt for the grilled flank steak wrap with ancho barbecue sauce and horseradish. Munch and Hagey debated the merits of serving a burger—he was for, Hagey opposed—but the chef won out. Several hot pastas are available after 5 p.m.

Chef’s Market has also greatly expanded its catering business, purchasing the store next door a few years ago to add a large, separate catering kitchen. The Hageys have their own floral designer and a tremendous collection of props for on-site decorating.

Since opening, Chef’s Market has appealed to busy suburban dwellers who find that after the commute home from Nashville, activities at church or school, and driving to soccer practice and ballet lessons, there is little time left for kitchen duty. And what time of year is more frantic and stress-inducing than the holiday season? Since opening, the store has expanded its repertoire of cooked holiday foods, so much so that a fabulous spread—from appetizers to desserts—can be put out with nothing more required of the host or hostess than some pretty serving dishes.

I put the holiday menu to the test with 12 hungry men, and not just any men, but a dozen of Nashville’s manliest: Shift A of Nashville Fire Department Companies 9 and 5 at The Bottoms, the fire station at the foot of the Shelby Street bridge. This was perhaps the last Thanksgiving meal that Shift A would sit down for together in the fire hall, which has been on Fourth Avenue South for about 70 years. The building is currently scheduled to be torn down next year, and the new $120 million Nashville Symphony Hall will be constructed on the site.

Typically, the firefighters cook dinner each shift, but they aren’t opposed to a break from the hot stove. They did choose the menu, though not without some negotiation and compromise. “You can’t offer too much of a choice, or you’ll get too much arguing,” notes Jeff Piercey, the engineer on Truck 9, who does much of the cooking for that shift. The men forsook roasted turkey for the Cajun-fried turkey breast, and they bypassed the honey-glazed spiral ham for the apricot-studded ham with a peach, apricot and bourbon reduction. They went traditional with the sides: roasted corn pudding; green bean casserole; broccoli, mushroom and rice casserole; sweet potato casserole; scalloped potatoes and traditional cornbread dressing. We didn’t bother with pretty serving dishes, but the heavy-gauge aluminum pans provided by Chef’s Market worked just fine. (At $18, a tin provides about 12 to 16 servings.) While awaiting the call to plate up, the men dug into a bag of the instantly addictive tortilla chips, homemade in several flavors and worth the drive to Goodletsville alone.

Though an acknowledgement of their respective mothers’ superior cooking skills was pretty near unanimous, there were homages all around to the Chef’s Market fare, particularly the ham, which was nearly stripped bare by the time the dishes were washed up. Earning the most trips back for second helpings were the broccoli and mushroom casserole, distinguished by meaty slices of portobello mushrooms; the sweet potato casserole, with mandarin oranges, pecans, pineapple and cinnamon; the moist, herb-flavored cornbread dressing, kicked up with an excellent, thick gravy; and the lusciously creamy and rich scalloped potatoes. (“You can never have too much butter or cream,” Munch says.)

The only complaint was with the green bean casserole, and it was administered sheepishly. “We’re just used to ours,” explained Jeff Warbritton of Engine 5, who planned to eat with his family the next day. Munch admits that some customers, used to canned fare, are taken aback by the fresh, barely blanched green beans he uses.

After dinner, the tins were covered and the leftovers secured with a padlock in Shift A’s avocado-green refrigerator, to be reheated for their next shift two days later. Can’t ever get too much of a good thing.