The attractive private dining Drawing Room at Evelyn's
Two local restaurants have undergone some recent transformations. The first is the latest iteration of dining options at the Hutton Hotel, named Evelyn’s, and the second is L by Lauter, a reimagining of the service at the popular Southern Grist brewery in the Nations. Let’s check them out, shall we?
The Hutton has gone through several different concepts at the all-day dining restaurant at 1808 West End Ave. Past names for the dining space have included 1808 Grille, WestEnd Kitchen & Bar, and Mane & Rye Dinerant. The Urban Farm Nashville was also announced for the space in 2021 but never came to full fruition.
Perhaps the latest iteration, Evelyn’s, will be the one that sticks. Among the signs that it will be is the fact that the restaurant is named after the grandmother of one the hotel’s owners. Evelyn Sharp was a legendary business owner, art collector, socialite and philanthropist in the middle of the 20th century. As part of a family of hoteliers, Sharp held stakes in some of the most iconic properties in the country, including the Beverly Wilshire, Delmonico's, the Ritz Tower, the Carlyle and the St. Francis in San Francisco.
Another promising omen is the fact that Evelyn’s has hired longtime Nashville hospitality pro Monte Silva as general manager, and he will maintain a laser focus on the food and hospitality programs at the property.
The new menu is deeply rooted (pun intended) in seasonal and locally sourced ingredients used in an internationally inspired list of snacks, small plates and entrées like Nashville hot fish & chips, baby carrot ravioli and a cheese plate from Kenny’s Farmhouse. Of course, a hotel restaurant has to offer a great cheeseburger, and Evelyn’s is a classic double-patty burger with American cheese, dill pickles, lettuce, tomato, red onion, garlic aioli on a brioche bun served with shoestring fries.
The design of the main dining room and two intimate private dining spaces reflects the spirit of the restaurant's namesake, decorated with menus and paraphernalia from iconic restaurants and hotels along with artwork created by and sourced from Evelyn herself. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Evelyn’s should offer a refined dining option in Midtown — and hopefully the restaurant will have the same sort of longevity that Evelyn did. (Ninety-seven years!)
L by Lauter's wedge salad
Across town, the owners of Southern Grist Brewing Company continue to tinker with the food options at their taproom in the Nations at 5012 Centennial Blvd. L by Lauter is a concept from Southern Grist's chef Andrew Coins as he grapples with how to provide food to accompany the vast variety of beers in the taproom despite the lack of a complete kitchen space or staff.
Facing the same staffing shortages as many local hospitality businesses, Coins found it difficult to maintain the service model that I first described earlier this year. “Our bartenders were scrambling to keep up,” he shared during a recent visit. “We wanted to keep the roots of Lauter and fit in with the neighborhood.”
The new service model rolled out in late summer with a limited menu served during the midday on Monday through Wednesday, with an expanded offering after 4 p.m. on Thursday and all day Friday through Sunday. Cards on the tables feature a QR code that allows patrons to place orders directly with the kitchen, and identifies where the staff should deliver the food when an indicator goes off under the bar when food is ready.
A food trailer parked outside the taproom handles the hot side of the menu while a small cold kitchen provides the rest of the dishes. Food comes served on quarter- and half-sheet pans, making plating and cleanup easier and more efficient for the kitchen, and there are as many as a dozen changing options on the full menu.
Among the standouts that I sampled were some decent cheese-curd-and-buttermilk hushpuppies served alongside umami-rich crab butter, and a wedge salad made using iceberg lettuce, candied bacon, tomatoes, pickled red onions, sunflower seeds and a novel ranch/blue cheese dressing. Although it might not remain on the menu after peak tomato season, the BLT featured a bit of brilliance: smoked Duke’s mayonnaise that I would buy by the jug if Coins offered it!
Fried “thousand-layer” potatoes were delightfully crispy and crunchy and held up to a peppery chimichurri topping along with a shower of shredded parm. Finally, the dry-aged burger was a fine example of a barroom burger. One other fun detail that Coins has come up with is a dish called “The Baby Sitter” — basically a Happy Meal with crayons, pages for coloring, apple juice, snack mix and some sort of seasonal frozen treat on a stick to keep the kiddies happy while mommy and daddy enjoy a pint or two.
With such a wide variety of beers rotating on and off of Southern Grist’s beer board, Coins has committed the kitchen to creating dishes with clean, vibrant flavors to pair with the spectrum of beer flavors. Hopefully, he’s hit the mark with this iteration.
If you need an excuse to drop by Southern Grist to see what’s up, head over this Sunday, Oct. 22, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. when they’ll be holding their Fall Fair. The free event will feature new beer releases, an outdoor beer garden and kids’ activities. There will also be a craft market featuring local artisans so you can get a head start on holiday shopping.
