Michelin Awards City’s First Stars to Bastion, Locust and Catbird

Nashville’s elite chefs, cooks and diners expected to tune in Monday evening for the Michelin Guide’s long-awaited verdict on the American South. The dish arrived early with one star apiece for Bastion, The Catbird Seat and Locust, as well as two Michelin Keys — a parallel recognition system for hotels — to the Hermitage Hotel.

Globe Newswire released the list, signed by Michelin's PR manager, Monday at 9:30 a.m. The release uses the past tense to describe awards given at the Michelin's inaugural American South Ceremony, scheduled for Monday at 6:30 p.m. in Greenville, S.C. Michelin's PR contact did not respond to the Scene's request to authenticate the announcement. 

The guide appears to issue additional Bib Gourmand recommendations for Kisser, Peninsula, Redheaded Stranger, Sho Pizza Bar, SS Gai, St. Vito Focacceria and Uzbegim, as well as a special sommelier award to Alex Burch at Bad Idea. January, a high-end restaurant in Southall Farm & Inn outside Franklin, earns a Green Star for sustainability excellence. Arnold’s Country Kitchen, Audrey, Bad Idea, Cafe Roze, Folk, Hattie B’s, iggy’s, International Market, Rolf and Daughters, Shotgun Willie's and Tailor are highlighted as Michelin-recommended eateries, the guide’s good food long list.

Many in the industry have a love-hate relationship with Michelin, which began "starring" European restaurants in 1926 as a way to promote road travel and sell tires. Over a century, the company’s hospitality guide has consolidated so much public authority in top-tier cooking that stars won or lost can make or break kitchens and careers. The company expanded its coverage area to the greater American South in April, bringing Nashville under consideration and setting the city’s top kitchens abuzz with speculation. 

Locust, Bastion and The Catbird Seat were all favorites going into the awards ceremony. All are properties under Strategic Hospitality, a restaurant ownership and management group founded by brothers Benjamin and Max Goldberg in 2006. Diners can expect to spend at least $100 per head at all three; with drinks, prix fixe tasting menus at Bastion and The Catbird Seat push closer to $200 a head.

The Patterson House and The Catbird Seat

Strategic Hospitality’s The Patterson House and The Catbird Seat both had pretty darned successful runs at their original location on Division…

Each kitchen has developed its own identity under star chefs. Initially slinging COVID-era carry-out noodles and dumplings from Locust’s 12South location, chef Trevor Moran built the stout, sleek dining room into a carousel of delights with marked Japanese influence. Awards soon followed, including Food & Wine’s 2022 Restaurant of the Year. Since opening in 2011, The Catbird Seat established Nashville’s tasting menu culture and counts many local and national chefs — including Moran — as alums. Nightly menus draw diners for 15 courses designed by head chefs Andy Doubrava and Tiffani Ortiz. The restaurant recently relocated from Midtown to the Voorhees Building on Eighth Avenue South.

Two different rooms balance Bastion, a hideaway tucked between Houston Street and Fourth Avenue South in Wedgewood-Houston. While sociable and skilled bartenders tend a lively crowd at Bastion’s "big bar," chef Josh Habiger and a small kitchen team host intimate seatings in the restaurant’s back room. Creativity runs the ever-changing menu, served directly to diners by kitchen staff. 

Michelin’s seven Bib Gourmand designations sample from the city’s recent explosion of excellent and diverse cuisine. Six feature different global cuisines: Kisser (Japanese), Peninsula (Iberian), Redheaded Stranger (Tex-Mex), SS Gai (Thai), St. Vito Focacceria (Italian) and Uzbegim (Central Asian). Celebrity chef Sean Brock built Sho on the Japanese wood-fired pizzas he loves in Tokyo.

The snubs include local hotspots like Germantown favorites Henrietta Red, where chef Julia Sullivan draws in diners with Gulf seafood (though Sullivan's Sewanee outpost Judith Tavern did earn a recommendation), and City House, a longtime Southern cooking staple from Chef Tandy Wilson. Vaunted Kurdish-Turkish outpost Edessa also escapes the guide.

The news also comes alongside a looming hunger crisis expected to play out across the U.S. in the opening weeks of November as an estimated 42 million Americans will lose expected SNAP benefits — which average less than $200 per person per month — stemming from the ongoing federal government shutdown.