If you’re like me, you’ve been breathlessly anticipating the opening of Yolan in the luxurious new hotel The Joseph (401 Korean Veterans Blvd.) ever since my colleague Margaret Littman spilled the favas on the project earlier this summer. Well, now we can finally take a breath, because the hotel and the restaurant both opened earlier this week, and Yolan is officially taking reservations via its website, although weekend tables are already pretty scarce for the next few weeks.
Margaret became a fan of Mantuano and his wife Cathy from their days helming the food and wine program at Chicago’s legendary Spiaggia, and the power couple have officially brought their talents to Music City, even finding a spot to live within walking distance of the hotel. You have to admire anyone who opens a new restaurant, much less an entire 297-room hotel, in the middle of a global pandemic. But the Mantuanos and the Pizzuti family — who owns the hotel — have plunged into the breach, much to the city’s benefit.
The Joseph is privately owned and operated by the Pizzutis, but it is also part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection portfolio of properties, so you can be sure it meets the highest standards in lodging, amenities and the food program. As soon as you pull up to the front door of the valet-service-only hotel, you realize how important art is to the Pizzutis, who own a major collection housed in the Columbus Museum of Art in their Ohio hometown.
Natural green walls and large video screens greet visitors, and don’t miss out on the blue metal Hank Willis Thomas sculpture that seasoned travelers might recognize from its former home on the plaza at Rockefeller Center. Two portraits by superstar artist Kehinde Wiley hang above the reception desk, which is covered with hand-tooled leather from Lucchese in a little nod to owner Joel Pizzuti’s love of cowboy boots. He’s also a fan of blue jeans, and the walls of the roof-level lounge are accented with stacks of folded denim. Make sure to look closely at many of the custom carpets in the property for subtle details from authentic Nudie rodeo suits.
Yolan can be entered from the lobby or from a separate entrance on Fourth Avenue, and soon it will be joined by another Fourth Avenue option with a cozy bar named Four Walls. In the interim, the public is encouraged to enjoy the rooftop bar, the espresso and spirits bars in the lobby, and Cathy Mantuano's carefully curated wine list.
The decor in the main restaurant dining room is open but intimate, classy but subdued — certainly Italian-inspired with velvet and leather accents. A long wall running the length of the restaurant showcases the bottles from Cathy Mantuano’s selections, and the display is visible from both sides so that guests can preview the offerings from the hallway outside. Another prominent display is a large, temperature-controlled case which can hold nine full wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and the chef promises to make a big show of cracking those 38-kilogram wheels open in the middle of the dining room. You’ll want to be there for those nights so you can sample the umami-bomb fresh out of the rind.
The Pizzutis have spared no expense keeping their talented chef happy, including investing in an Arcobaleno pasta extruder with 27 custom dies to create different shapes, like the ultimate Play-Doh Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop. Mantuano told me that once he started thinking of all the custom shapes and sizes of pasta that he wanted to make, he just couldn’t stop asking for more dies.
The menu at Yolan isn’t the same as Spiaggia, but it is vintage Mantuano, with five- and eight-course tasting menus at dinner featuring seafood, pasta, lamb and desserts from Yolan’s talented pastry team. À la carte options are also plentiful, ranging from seasonal antipasti to pasta-and-risotto dishes as primi and heartier secondi such as fish with cannellini beans, a Milanese breaded veal chop and a massive 36-ounce Bistecca strip steak. It’s a tired cliché to say “save room for dessert,” but seriously, don’t skip the dolci! In addition to creative flavors of gelato and sorbetto, the other sweets I saw and smelled during my visit to the kitchen still haunt my dreams, in a good way.
Like many new restaurants, Yolan is slowly moving toward expanding service to include midday meals, late night hours and weekend brunch, and that’s where the wood-fired oven in the kitchen will really sing. In addition to roasting vegetables and proteins in that infernal chamber, Mantuano intends to offer pizzas for lunch and late night. A pizza from Tony Mantuano? That could be really special!
So raise a glass of Barolo to the Pizzutis and Mantuanos for bravely moving forward to add a wonderful new asset to the Nashville dining scene! With tourism so depressed during the pandemic, they’re definitely ready to roll out the red carpet for the locals, and I encourage you to trod that rug. (Just remember to look for the Nudies!)
