David Breeden Comes to Bad Idea

East Nashville’s Bad Idea is starting the year with a new chef in the kitchen. David Breeden, whose résumé includes two of the country's most-lauded restaurants — California’s The French Laundry and New York’s Per Se — is helping develop the wine bar’s new culinary program.

Colby Rasavong, Bad Idea’s former executive chef, left in November. The restaurant has been serving Rasavong’s Lao menu since, and on Jan. 15 Bad Idea will unveil the new menu. Breeden plans to keep some of Rasavong’s dishes on the menu — including the Royale With Cheese, a take on Rasavong’s cheeseburger pithivier, a Bear Creek Farm burger wrapped in Velveeta, encased in puff pastry.

Breeden is trained in French techniques, but he and the kitchen staff — eminently experienced and familiar with Bad Idea and its guests — will use those techniques in less formal ways, incorporating Southern ingredients and dishes into the menus. Champagne and fried chicken nights will remain, and Bad Idea at its core will still be a wine-forward spot with an emphasis on making wine pairing less intimidating. Owner Alex Burch received a 2025 Michelin Guide American South Sommelier Award, a nod that brought new attention to the 2-year-old Bad Idea.

“Part of my original goal, and why we went down the Lao food avenue, was that I really wanted to leave limits off of the chef so they could showcase what they do,” Burch says in an exclusive interview with the Scene. “I think you’re going to get a better product if you know they’re excited about what they're doing. I really wanted to embrace that vision. Since [Rasavong] is no longer here, it definitely seems inauthentic to stick to that [Lao menu].”

Burch and Breeden met through Strategic Hospitality’s Josh Habiger. Burch worked at Strategic’s Bastion and other restaurants before opening Bad Idea. Breeden calls Habiger one of his closest friends in town. While Breeden has been working with restaurants across the country, he’s originally from East Tennessee and now lives in Franklin.

Breeden has extensive fine-dining experience, but Burch says Bad Idea will remain a neighborhood spot. They won’t be adding a 15-course prix-fixe menu or bow ties, the two promise. “That’s not the East Nashville way,” Breeden says.

Bad Idea will continue to work with local farmers and purveyors, developing menus that will change with the seasons.

Through his company, Guest Driven Hospitality Consulting, Breeden has worked with a number of restaurants. Breeden doesn’t have a specific time frame for how long he’ll be at Bad Idea, but he expects his relationship with Burch to be a long-term one. In addition to developing menus, he’s also looking at the restaurant's culture. In some restaurants, the servers can be ignored by the kitchen staff, but that’s not how Breeden sees it. 

“The dining team is the conduit of all information," he says. "So when I am in the kitchen and something comes back to me from the dining team, it’s not a request — it’s a command. If the guest wants it cooked well-done, I deliver that to the guest. If they want spicy food, I will serve an array of spicy items so that they can make it that way themselves. If they want salt on the table, we’ll present two or three different salts."

Breeden says his philosophy for restaurants is “E.L.F: Energetic, loud and fun.”

“This is a unique place with a lot of character, and it deserves a bespoke cuisine that speaks to not only Alex and his vision, but also the place,” Breeden continues. “It’s a wine bar, so we’re developing a cuisine collaboratively, and it is as much Alex’s as mine. I’m just helping to kind of evolve what's currently here. It’s cuisine designed with the wine in mind.”

Indeed, Burch sees the new culinary focus as an opportunity for new wines. “I think in a lot of ways, [the new menus] allow us to broaden a little bit," Burch says. "When we first opened, our heaviest protein was pork loin. We’d have people ask why we didn’t have much of a selection of big, bold reds. Honestly, the menu didn’t call for it. We had a few, if that’s what you're looking for. So the change in cuisine definitely opens up some avenues to have more diverse wine lists. It was fun having a menu that largely promoted white wine and wines with residual sugar, but that also will probably make it a little easier for guests to find perfect pairings that align with their palates as well.”