Pairing cocktails and food used to be, at best, an afterthought — wine and even beer were the preferred drinks to accompany food. Fortunately that’s changed, as chefs start to think more about the flavors in cocktails and mixologists consider themselves to be more like “bar chefs.” So when a cocktail emporium like The Patterson House chooses to host a pair of talented Nashville chefs to take over its kitchen on Sundays and Mondays, you know it has to be good!
The chosen chefs are Brian Lea and Leina Horii, two extremely accomplished cooking talents who met working in kitchens in L.A. The married couple moved to Nashville when Lea got a job on the opening team at Husk Nashville. After a successful stint there, Lea moved on to roles as the executive chef at Le Sel and alongside Josh Habiger at Bastion. Horii’s first Nashville job was as sous chef at The Catbird Seat on executive chef Ryan Poli’s team. She then moved on to Bastion to work with her husband, and their culinary dance in that small kitchen has been a joy to watch.
Since Le Sel, Bastion and The Catbird are all Strategic Hospitality projects, it was a natural for Horii and Lea to look to The Patterson House as a place to try out and pop up their new venture together, a Japanese barbecue concept they call Kisser. The name is a playful nod to their romantic relationship as well as the polite sports term for getting punched in the mouth (“right in the kisser”). Horii explains jokingly that they tend to get a little competitive in the kitchen, and their seamless dance at the stoves has been described as looking a little bit like a boxing match.
Chefs Brian Lea and Leina Horii
“We’ve been having trouble describing our exact concept,” says Lea. “So if the term ‘Japanese BBQ’ points someone in the right direction, that’s fine with us. It will be primarily smoked and grilled food, because that’s been our favorite way to prepare food.” Lea’s experience working at Husk has certainly trained him in open-fire cooking, and as a first-generation Japanese-American, Horii is already grounded in Japanese ingredients and techniques.
It’s a very small kitchen at The Patterson House, so expanding out to the patio for some cooking on a Big Green Egg will also give them a little elbow room, lest that dancing devolve into boxing again. Much of the menu will be inspired by their own home garden in Donelson, where they have 2,000 square feet of growing space and a new 10-foot-by-26-foot greenhouse to grow herbs and produce. They’ve actually been using products from their garden as ingredients, herbs and garnishes at Bastion, so they’re quite comfortable with homegrown cooking.
The cuisine at Kisser is designed to accompany cocktails with easy-to-combine small plates to make a meal or share the whole menu for a group — it's umami-rich elevated bar food. The menu is still being finalized in advance of the planned July 11 kickoff, but the dishes they’ve settled on sound fantastic!
Kisser's cuke salad
A cucumber salad promises to be a standout, side served with a smoked tofu puree and Thai basil. Lea is especially chuffed about his version of chicken wings, a recipe that he and Horii have labored over for a long time. They’ve finally settled on high-quality chicken wings brined in a mixture of tamari, mirin and scallions and tossed with black garlic tonkatsu sauce before being dusted with a sesame chili seasoning. Finally, the wings are finished on the grill to add a little smoke to the proceedings. “They’re a real umami bomb,” promises Lea.
Kisser's wings
Kisser plans to be open whenever The Patterson House is open on Sunday and Monday, so from 4 p.m. until about midnight. To prepare for the pace of service, Lea and Horii have actually worked a few shifts at the restaurant to get a feel of what to expect. “We want to fit the format that’s already there,” shares Lea. “We know it’s bar food, but we saw a lot of people making plans for more than just a drink before dinner, actually planning their whole meal around a night there.”
Horii has a lot of front-of-house experience working as a bar manager, so she’s been thinking about how their food will work with what the patrons are drinking. “Japan has a strong cocktail culture, so we think it will work well,” she explains. She says that they’ve shied away from calling it an izakaya experience, but that’s probably the closest analog to what they plan: basically serving great food with great drinks, the things they like the best.
Plates will run in the $8-$14 range, and Kisser aims to put out dishes that a customer can combine to create a whole meal for around $25, or less than the price of a couple of cocktails. Current plans are to start up on Sunday, July 11, and keep popping up for at least the next four Sundays and Mondays, after which they’ll figure out what comes next. Lea and Horii definitely hope to open in a future permanent space soon, but in the meantime, you can make reservations for a table at The Patterson House through the Tock system, and open-bar seating is always available on a first-come, first-served basis. Don’t miss out on this opportunity, because who knows when Kisser will land in a long-term space!
