Not that I’m taking full credit for this, but almost exactly three years ago I reported that 21C Museum Hotel was coming to Nashville and opined about how wonderful it would be if we could attract Levon Wallace — then the chef at Proof on Main in the 21C’s flagship Louisville location — to here and cook at the hotel's Nashville outlet. I was already a big fan of Chef Wallace from his work in Louisville, but the idea was little more than a pipe dream of mine at the time.
Well, tonight dreams come true as Gray & Dudley opens its doors to the public for the first time ahead of the hotel’s May 9 opening, and Wallace is indeed manning the pass and running the kitchen. (I should also point out that I adumbrated the future name of the restaurant in my original post. Just sayin’ …) I was able to sneak in a little early to take a peek at the space and speak with Chef Wallace, and I don’t believe I will regret my hopeful request back in 2014.
First of all, the space is a stunner. After valet parking at the Second Avenue entrance that will eventually become the main access to the lobby, walk around the corner down the cozy alley accented with neon sculptures and bamboo. At the entrance to the restaurant, you’ll probably be greeted by one of 21C’s signature penguin statues, this one in the Nashville location’s personalized teal color. (Every 21C has a different color of penguin.)
Working within the armature of the original 19th century Gray & Dudley Hardware Co. building, the restaurant features tall two-story ceilings in the bar and lounge area, and more intimate low ceilings in the main dining room and private dining rooms. Once the outdoor patio is activated, they’ll be able to seat almost 200 people total, but expect the seatings to be smaller as they ramp up service. Opening with dinner only, the staff will add breakfast and then lunch after the hotel opens.
The 21C is indeed a museum hotel, and modern art is its forte. They are not afraid to make bold artistic statements, and your eyes will almost assuredly be immediately drawn upward immediately to six dramatic statues of goats, hares and a wolf hanging and lurking from ropes and shelves around the tall room. Like modern grotesques, these art pieces will certainly stimulate conversation. I loved them! Your mileage may vary.
The U-shaped bar offers three sides for service around a center set of shelving filled with top-shelf spirits. Eric Melvin, formerly of Pinewood Social, is the bar director and has developed a tight list of interesting cocktails. The general color scheme revolves around purples and plums with metallic accents and is quite attractive.
Past two private dining rooms (including one with a view through a glass window into the larder full of fresh ingredients and various pickling projects) is the main dining room. This area will be more host-controlled as opposed to the bar and lounge which will have open seating and its own limited bar food menu. Of course, if you want to order dinner from the main menu and enjoy it at the bar, they’re not gonna stop you from eating.
However bar diners will miss out on the show in the open kitchen where Chef Wallace will conduct the kitchen from between the pass and a rolling marble island where he will assemble final plates for servers to pick up. Like a right reverend preaching from behind his altar of creative comfort food, Wallace will split his attention between the kitchen behind him and the dining room before him.
The kitchen is divided into a cold side and a hot side, with the former handling pastry and garde manger, while the hot half revolves around an infernal gas-powered brick oven capable of blasting food at over 700 degrees. Wallace’s staff will give that oven a workout roasting vegetables, chickens, fish in cast-iron from Lodge and a version of a classic tarte flambée, a cracker-thin Alsatian flatbread topped with onions and bacon. Wallace named that as his favorite dish in the menu, but then again, he told me that several dishes were his favorites. It’s not like I asked him to make a Sophie’s choice between his two kids or anything …
California is a big part of Gray & Dudley’s gestalt, thanks to Wallace’s time spent living and cooking in the Golden State. So you know there’s going to be a good burger on the menu, an absolute must at any hotel restaurant. While it’s not an exact knock-off of the iconic In-N-Out Burger, G&D’s burger does enjoy some wonderful similarities. Made with a single 6-ounce Bear Creek beef patty instead of a dual patty, the juicy well-seasoned burger needs a substantial, yet still slightly squishy, bun to hold up to it. The local bakers at Charpier’s are definitely up to the task. Rather than toasting the bun, the kitchen actually intentionally burns it a little bit, the same way that they char the onions instead of caramelizing them. Wallace wants you to taste the fire in his burger, not sweetness.
A topping of honest-to-goodness bright-yellow American cheese slices and a peppery frisée to add some greens, and the burger is almost complete. All that’s missing is the sauce, and Wallace has been working on his formulation for years and waiting for a chance to roll it out on top of his perfect burger. He shared with me the exact ratio of ketchup to relish to mayo (Duke’s, of course), but I won’t be the one to spill the beans. You can ask him yourself if you really want to know. At $15 with an order of thrice-fried french fries, this burger will definitely be a special-occasion lunch item for me, and I’ll have to start lowering my threshold for what constitutes a special occasion. Like, hey, I’m eating this burger again. That’s a special occasion!
The third dish Wallace said was his absolute favorite was a chicken plate with a confit leg portion and a breast that is seared and roasted. The different cooking techniques raise this dish above the average “Boneless Chicken Marriott” that Lewis Grizzard once bemoaned. Served with croutons made from Dozen bakery’s sourdough and a mix of turnip and mustard greens, this dish is like a California-style version of chicken and dumplings.
The fourth and final absolute favorite dish of Chef Wallace is the pork chop platter. He specifically sources thin-cut chops instead of those huge 14-ounce thick ones that wear out your jaw gnawing through them. Wallace describes these Bear Creek chops as “diner-style,” simply seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked medium-rare in cast iron. “They are juicy, salty and perfect,” he boasts. “The simplest preparations can often be the hardest to execute. These chops require our full attention because they cook so quickly.”
Indeed, the entire menu is an exercise in restraint with dashes of inspiration added to each dish to elevate classic comfort food above the ordinary. Wallace wants the ambiance and the cuisine to feel warm and hospitable, and I’m confident he will achieve that desire.
Gray & Dudley
21C Museum Hotel
221 Second Ave. N.
615-610-6460
Opening hours:
5:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
The lounge is open 5 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday-Saturday (serving the bar menu until midnight).
