When you walk into Noko when it opens in early 2023, managing partner Wilson Brannock promises that you won’t pick up the menu and have to ask yourself what any of the ingredients are, or surreptitiously Google terms before your server shows up to take your order. At Noko, an Asian-inspired, wood-fired restaurant opening on Porter Road in East Nashville, the idea is to create a neighborhood spot where folks feel comfortable hanging, eating, drinking and trying new things.
The idea for Noko came out of the comfort food that the team was cooking for themselves and each other during the pandemic. That team, who spoke to the Scene to announce their project, includes Brannock, executive chef/partner Dung “Junior” Vo and owner/founder Jon Murray. In the past, they worked together at various projects for Charleston-based The Indigo Road Hospitality Group. Murray also has worked as an artist manager at OMG/EMI Records in Greenville, S.C., and with Golden Music, a label that was based in Nashville.
The restaurant's name comes from nokoribi, a Japanese word that loosely translated means “embers.” It underscores the restaurant’s emphasis on Japanese farmhouse-style, wood-fire cooking techniques. The menu will include Wagyu brisket with an Asian spice rub and smoked gochujang hot wings. There will be a full bar, plus an in-depth selection of juices and mocktails. Murray stopped drinking alcohol about four years ago and is committed to offering a bar program that appeals to everyone.
“This is not a white-tablecloth place,” Brannock says. “We are keeping the neighborhood feel.”
“We understand that tourism is booming in Nashville," adds Murray, who says such regular loyalty was not uncommon at the team’s Indigo Road spots. "We want it to be a place that locals will come back to two to three times a week. A restaurant is a refuge.”
Noko is opening in the old Pomodoro East spot on Porter Road, a space that the team is completely gutting. The Japanese farmhouse aesthetic includes lots of maple wood and a modern design that doesn’t feel cold. It will have 82 seats inside and in the future the team intends to add patio seating.
In addition to making customers comfortable, the team says they want to create a welcoming spot for employees, too. That includes four-day workweeks, health insurance, access to mental health resources and a communal travel fund. “If we are obsessed about our employees, then our employees will be obsessed with our guests,” Murray says.
Noko plans to open in the first quarter of 2023 at 701 Porter Road.
