As we celebrate this year’s winners of the big Best of Nashville awards, I urge you Bitesters to read this post carefully, because your vote for Best New Restaurant next year might just be mentioned — and both of them are past BON winners.
I hope the Metro Nashville Police Department doesn’t have noseprint identification technology, because I’ve left a few on the glass windows of Julio Hernandez’s Maiz de la Vida restaurant over the past few months as I spied on the progress inside the dining room and kitchen at 606 Eighth Ave. S. Finally, on Oct. 7, he opened the doors to the public to experience the next iteration of his growth from taco truck and tortilleria operator into full-service restaurateur.
First, the details. Diners can get an hour of free parking in the Paseo South Gulch garage with validation, and I know how much y’all care about free parking, not to mention validation. Maiz de la Vida is tucked into the courtyard of the Paseo complex, but it’s easy to find thanks to the attractive murals painted on the walls on the outside of the restaurant.
Maiz de la Vida
Inside, the dramatic decor continues the Mexican artistry with a centerpiece wall behind the bar featuring rays of sunlight made from heritage corn kernels emanating from a shelving unit shaped like a Mesoamerican pyramid. The shelves are stocked with small succulents and accented by a figurine (called an alebrije, but more on that later) of what appears to be a portly chihuahua with an ear of corn in his mouth.
In addition to the bar, seating options include communal tables, booths and a chef's bar, and you can request specific seating when making reservations. In my excitement, my dining companion and I beat down the door at opening on the restaurant's third day of official operation. When I greeted Chef Julio, he told be to strap in, because he had already changed the entire menu since opening day. Initially serving an expanded version of his taco truck menu, Julio decide to go bigger with the lunch offerings so as to create a completely different dining experience.
Maiz de la Vida
Sitting at the bar, we ordered a delicious cucumber agave soda and a “Dirty Horchata” for two reasons. First of all, it was lunch and we weren’t ready to get our drink on yet. Plus the restaurant was still awaiting its liquor license. (Although beer is available.) Both drinks were thoughtfully made with lots of fresh components. Off to a good start!
Of course we ordered an app of chips and salsas, because the nixtamalized tortillas at Maiz de la Vida are usually the stars of the show. The complex corniness of the crispy chips made them great on their own, but combined with a trio of tamarind, verde and Norteña-style salsas, they were even better.
Maiz de la Vida
As a past Iron Fork judge, I knew Chef Julio won this year’s contest thanks to his incredible complex mole negro, so when I saw it was offered with the enchiladas, my decision was made. My companion went with the tostada, although in hindsight we probably shouldn’t have ordered two dishes that included the pollo asado. The grilled chicken was a little bit underseasoned in both dishes (but it probably came out of the same batch, so that’s understandable). It was the other flavors that were the highlights of the dishes anyway. My enchiladas offered a choice of flavor combinations, depending on which way I wanted to swipe my fork through the almost plummy mole, the delicate crema or the crumbly queso fresco. A sprinkle of onions added a nice touch of acid to cut through the other rich ingredients and give a little needed punch to the chicken.
Maiz de la Vida maestro dominates chef battle with deft use of secret ingredient, cocoa
The tostadas of course highlighted the crispy corn tortilla made from heritage grain corn that MDLV sources from Mexico and nixtamalizes in house. A surprising highlight of that dish was the pickled escabeche carrots that came as a crunchy accompaniment. They were served with essentially the same toppings as my enchiladas, and I again wished I’d reached a little deeper into the menu to explore the sopes, chilaquiles or even the quesadilla. Next time for sure, and it won’t be long until next time!
I don’t know if there have been further tweaks to the menu since opening, but I would say Maiz de la Vida is already well on its way to becoming another favorite Nashville restaurant that confirms Hernandez’s worthiness as a former James Beard nominee.
Getting back to Alebrije, Bites readers probably know that word as the name of Edgar Victoria’s small empire of Mexico City-inspired food trucks and pop-ups. In fact, I gave him a Best of Nashville writer's choice this year for his clever strategy of growing his business without investing in a permanent location of is own.
Well, that changed quickly.
Victoria recently posted a photo on Instagram of him holding a key to a new operation at an undisclosed location. Eagle-eyed viewers could probably recognize the background as the carryout window that was formerly Otaku Ramen at 604 Gallatin Pike. Despite what my ophthalmologist says, I can still spot a familiar place when I see it, so I reached out to Edgar for the skinny.
Indeed, he does have plans to convert the former Otaku space into a new permanent home for Alebrije. He tells me he turned down the offer to move in earlier this year but reconsidered after he visited the Coral Club (another BON 2024 winner) next door and realized how little work would be involved to convert the ramen kitchen into a new concept.
“I walked into Coral Club and said, ‘This place is dope! I can do well next door,’ so I finally said yes about two months ago,” Victoria shares. After touring the potential kitchen with a designer friend, he was very optimistic about the setup that already included walk-in coolers, a vent hood and a grease trap.
“I don’t want to get too ambitious,” he explains. “I don’t think I need investors. I still do my own taxes. I’m involved in the design. I’m even working on the art for the walls. We’ll have a different design aesthetic, but I don’t have a big budget.”
He’s still mulling whether to keep the Octopus mural from the days when the space was Little Octopus, an offshoot of Sarah Gavigan’s POP concept next door. “People call it the octopus building, so I don’t know if we can lose that,” says Victoria.
His plan is for what he calls “high-end casual Mexican.” Victoria points to his successful Sunday residency of pop-ups at Bastion and says he'd like to share his "sunchokes with XO sauce" with customers. "The menu will be heavy on vegetables, because there are so many ways to cook them. It frees up a lot of creativity,” he says.
His service model is still up in the air, with plans to offer coffee and Mexican breakfast items like tacos, tamales and chilaquiles in the morning for carryout and then a dine-in lunch service. His team will prep at night as well as offering a small menu similar to his food trucks that can be ordered and served for pickup for Coral Club patrons.
The space has room to seat about 35 patrons, but with only one bathroom currently, he’ll be limited to 20 until he figures out the baño situation. His former pop-up at the pool at the Drift Hotel is on hiatus for the winter, but he will still operate out of Never Never in Wedgewood-Houston and Bar Sovereign near downtown as he has for quite a while now. The addition of a new larger kitchen in East Nashville should streamline those operations considerably.
Equipment is being delivered, and Edgar figures he’s a month or two from opening. In the meantime, who knows? He might even pop back up at Bastion. “That was the best time I’ve ever had as a chef,” he recalls. “Feeding people who were lining up on the sidewalk to eat what I was cooking? It was awesome!”
