When in his native Australia, chef Cameron Payne was known for working at Attica, which is often noted on lists of that country’s best fine-dining restaurants.
In Nashville, Cameron and Nicole Payne are known for something less highbrow, but no less delicious: fish and chips. Yes, they make other dishes (see below), but Nashvillians clamor for the Australian-style beer-battered dish. Since 2018, people have lined up for them at The Arcade, getting them to go last year even when getting lunch downtown wasn’t as common because many people were working from home. Pop-ups at Chopper and elsewhere helped keep folks satiated.
Finally, the Paynes' restaurant, Red Perch, has gotten the home fans have waited for. They opened this week at 4101 Charlotte Ave. in the Sylvan Supply building. The new space is signaled with a sign by Fortify Nashville, a company that makes many of the cool signs we see around town. (They also brought the Weiss Liquors sign back to life.) Red Perch's new dog-friendly patio beats eating takeout fish and chips in your car. The new space is bigger, which means more dishes, longer hours, and more seating — and now the restaurant serves alcohol, too.
Scene contributor Ashley Brantley is one of Red Perch’s most vocal supporters, extolling the virtues of not only Payne’s fish and chips, but other fast-service seafood dishes too, including poke, shrimp and lumpia, which are pork-and-shrimp egg rolls that were included in our top 20 takeout dishes last year. Daily specials change regularly (today they’ve got grilled cobia and calamari on the menu), so it pays to visit regularly. Red Perch is open five days a week (closed Sundays and Mondays), making it easy to do so.
