Sean Brock Prepares to Reopen The Continental — and He's Fired Up About It

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since Sean Brock has actually worked in a restaurant where he was cooking and plating food. But he hasn’t spent that time focusing solely on his ode to fast comfort food at Joyland. Along with his impending massive shrine to Appalachia, Audrey, which is nearing readiness in East Nashville, Brock has been focusing on a fascinating exploration of contemporary American cuisine at The Continental in the new Grand Hyatt at 1000 Broadway. With these two projects, Brock sincerely believes that he has created the two restaurants where he will cook for the rest of his life.

But wait, didn’t The Continental already open back in November? It’s true that the restaurant was ready to go and had already begun accepting reservations — but then COVID cases began to skyrocket in the winter, leading Brock to decide it just wasn’t prudent to open to the public. Quickly pivoting to a carryout-only model in an effort to keep his staff working, Brock did release his initial menu at the time, but the experience was less than optimal for all involved. “We had done all these months of R&D to prepare for the restaurant, and then to have everyone’s first impression to be out of a to-go container was really disappointing,” Brock tells the Scene. He decided to completely shut down for the duration and allow his two incredibly talented pastry chefs, Keaton Vasek and Michael Werrell, to operate their own side venture, Trēt Baking Co., out of the kitchen at The Continental.

Brock and his team never stopped working in the interim, and the menu they will open with at the end of May only includes three items from that original bill of fare: an appetizer of pâté en croûte, potato-crusted Virginia striped bass and a signature prime rib platter that is a throwback to the glory days of hotel dining.

In fact, the entire restaurant venerates the historical era when fine dining in a hotel setting was the epitome of culinary experiences. Brock describes the idea behind his vision. “I’m embracing the idea of contemporary American cuisine," he says. "What is its history, what is it now and what will it be in the future? I’ve spent my career focused on the food of the South, and I was inherently studying American cuisine during my research. I kept encountering all these dishes, and I had so many ideas in my head, like during my obsessive studying before opening Husk. I found myself particularly struck by the creative spirit of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Like, think how radical it was to set ice cream on fire. What if that had never been done, and I just now did that in the dining room? That would be something crazy!”

If you thought Brock was only fixated on Southern cuisine, you’ve never seen his cookbook library, which is also packed with tomes from earlier master chefs like Joël Robuchon, Pierre Gagnaire and Alain Ducasse. “I picked up on their spirit of fun and creativity that links to the entertainment aspect of dining that I really love," says Brock. "They created the most vibrant and beautiful food, and I’ve been really nerding out on French nouvelle cuisine and their plating and style. My guiding star has been Charles Ranhofer [the famous chef at New York City’s iconic Delmonico’s restaurant in the second half of the 19th century]. I flip through books from 1895 and see sauces on dishes that are genius, but have disappeared. I don’t seek to replicate those things, but to focus on them as a craft. I always try to find the hardest thing to do and then try to do that!”

This twin focus on rural food at Audrey and elevated cuisine at The Continental is not exactly new to Brock. Rather it's the culmination of different stops during his career. He earned his reputation as a young chef at Nashville’s Capitol Grille, experimenting with Southern ingredients while dabbling in molecular gastronomy, a wacky new set of culinary techniques at the time. Moving on to Charleston, S.C., Brock had Husk as his Southern yin and McCrady’s as his modernist American yang, and the final iteration of McCrady’s Tavern gave strong hints of the historical approach to American food that fascinated Brock with its Gilded Age inspiration.

“Man, McCrady’s Tavern was a lot of fun,” Brock recalls. “This will be a continuation of the tavern work, but with less tavern feel and more fine dining. But we still always say that we want to turn fine dining into fun dining!”

Another inspiration for Brock and his vision for The Continental comes from the world of modern and contemporary art. “I’ve been finding myself spending more and more time in museums," he says. "Being across the street from the Frist will inspire us. We always ask ourselves about every plate, ‘Could you hang this on the wall?’” Indeed the artful plates are lovely to look at, with an attention to detail that isn’t often seen in this city. Still, Brock doesn’t want the meal to drag out while precious plates come to the table after a half-hour of meticulous tweezer work. “I think the ideal meal should be an hour-and-a-half to an hour-45,” he explains. Also surprisingly, a dinner at The Continental shouldn’t be the most expensive night out in town, with most main dishes in the $30 range. (“I guess we’ll just have to make a little less margin,” jokes Brock.)

The dining room at The Continental also demonstrates Brock’s love of art, with Asian influences like cherry blossoms in the print of the carpet, works of modern art on the walls (which are for sale, by the way, if you want to take one of Jeff Scott’s photography/painting hybrids home with you), dramatic booths, banquettes and decor designed by local architect Nick Dryden and a private dining area that will serve as a gallery for Brock’s own photography works.

A preview of the opening menu and some of the gorgeous planned dishes belies the anticipated price point. A starter of lettuce Vichyssoise is truly a work of art, with a delicate ring of dots of crème fraîche and trout roe circling the bottom of the bowl before being obliterated by the vibrant green soup poured over like artist monks blowing away their sand paintings upon completion. A slot on the menu will always be reserved for a salad of the freshest seasonal vegetables, because Brock believes that food should always start with a collaboration between chefs and farmers.

Both the pâté en croûte and the prime rib will be portioned and served table-side by chefs working from rolling carts to add a little dramatic flair to the experience. In fact, there will be carts rolling all around the dining room including an amuse-bouche cart, a dessert cart and possibly a drink cart. It’s gonna be like Bristol, baby!

Other dishes to get excited about include a king crab parfait, a farro verde with watercress and Walden cheese from Sequatchie Cove Creamery, and a venison dish with deer sourced from the same Broken Arrow Ranch in Texas that was on Brock’s opening menu way back when at the Hermitage. The deer meat is larded with Iberico ham and served with white asparagus and a sauce Roanne, one of Paul Bocuse’s specialties made with butter and foie gras. It should definitely be something delightfully extra.

The cocktail program will be led by longtime Nashville favorite Jonathan Howard, and Claudette Silber will run the wine side of the restaurant. Chef du cuisine Colin Shane will helm the kitchen, and Sarah Hong will be the service director. While the exact opening date is still under wraps, you can check Resy to see when reservations go live or follow along with the restaurant's progress on Instagram.

Brock is more than ready to get started serving people again. “We’ve all been cooped up for a year. I just ate inside at a restaurant for the first time in a long time, and I realized what a chunk was missing from my soul! We all deserve to sit down and be taken care of, to be pampered. We’re opening with the perfect menu to come out of a pandemic. We all need to be taken care of, and it’s an incredible role that a restaurant can take on in a community. It’s a privilege to be able to lessen stress.”