SuperNormal
Update, May 8: Due to delayed inspections, the opening of SuperNormal has been put off, with the team now hoping to open the week of May 12. Follow SuperNormal on Instagram for further updates.
While I celebrate the many great chefs who have moved to Nashville in the past decade, I do occasionally think about the ones who got away. Kaelin Ulrich Trilling was definitely on the fast track here in Nashville before Thomas Keller snatched him up to open La Calenda in Yountville, Calif. Trilling is the son of the recently departed expert of Oaxacan cuisine Susana Trilling, and has since moved on to new ventures. But we miss him in Nashville.
Another one who got away was chef Erik Anderson, one of the opening chefs at The Catbird Seat along with Josh Habiger. Anderson went on to even greater acclaim after leaving town, serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Bocuse d’Or team and leading a Michelin-starred kitchen at Daniel Patterson’s Coi in San Francisco.
We thought we’d lost chef Robbie Wilson, a former French Laundry chef and culinary director in the early days of M Street when Kayne Prime, Virago, Whiskey Kitchen and Tavern were all groundbreaking restaurants in town. In 2013 Wilson returned to California, where he operated award-winning restaurants in Santa Barbara, Palo Alto and San Francisco. Once the chef was nominated as a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef — California in 2023, I figured we’d lost him forever.
Longtime Sylvan Park restaurant closes, while two new taco outposts prepare for their East Nashville debuts
Fortunately, I was wrong. Wilson and his wife Emily returned to Nashville with two restaurant concepts in mind. Lion’s Share was supposed to open first in the former McCabe’s Pub space in Sylvan Park, but construction delays mean that Wilson’s ode to a Cotswold-style cottage pub will have to wait until the end of the summer to welcome guests.
But right across the street at 105 45th Ave. N., the Wilsons have constructed a modern-looking new building with a bright-red NASA-style font reading “S.” That stands for SuperNormal, Wilson’s fast-food shrine, where he will serve his updated version of a classic burger-joint menu jazzed up with his signature flavors. He opens tomorrow, May 8, at 11 a.m.
As with anything Wilson sets his mind to, he and Emily have put a lot of thought into the concept, and also in deciding it was the right time to bring it (and their family) to Nashville. “We were ready to come back to Nashville,” he tells me in a recent interview. “I’m from Texas and Emily’s from Virginia, so we appreciate how nice people are here. We’ve got two young boys, and we wanted to raise them where people are polite.”
Wilson also undertook his own market analysis before making the move. “We looked at the market as consumers, guests and operators and saw how Nashville had grown since we left," he says. "It’s easy to feed off the creativity of the music industry here, and small business still reigns here. It’s kind of like Brooklyn, where everyone is invited to do their own thing. Otherwise, would places like Iggy’s and Locust be here?” Wilson also mentions Peninsula and Kisser as restaurants that he likes and that emboldened him to get back to Nashville.
It didn’t hurt that the Wilsons were familiar with the neighborhood. Emily shares, “We always loved Sylvan Park. We used to sneak away for date nights here.”
Robbie agrees: “It’s always been a terrific neighborhood, and I’m excited to be able to add value and connect with our neighbors.”
The concept for a high-end modern burger and hot dog joint came first, followed by the search for a location. The chef says the former McCabe’s owners were great to work with, and his local investor partners actually located the space first. His original name for the restaurant was #1 Delicious, a cheeky play on the sort of delivery restaurants you might find in big cities on the coast. After cogitating a little longer, he decided to call the new restaurant SuperNormal and keep #1 Delicious as the name of the flagship burger.
The set menu at SuperNormal is short but sweet. While diners can customize items, the set list basically revolves around a couple burgers, a hot dog, a hot ham and Swiss sandwich, fries and soft-serve ice cream. Wilson is quick to assert that his is not a smashburger, but it’s also not a premade burger. (“Never trust a perfectly round patty,” he jokes.)
He is planning fine-dining attention to detail in a fast-food format, averaging about five minutes from griddle to box for a burger order. Even the boxes that the food will come in were thoughtfully considered. Playing off of a Japanese gestalt for intricate packaging, boxes nest inside larger boxes like fast food origami, and french fries arrive in a container with holes cut in the lid to avoid steaming out during the drive home.
SuperNormal's packaging
All ordering will happen either via phone or touch screen at the walk-up window. Special parking spaces are reserved for drive-up service passed through dedicated windows. For dining in, SuperNormal has a pet-friendly turf lawn and attractive picnic tables as seating. Wilson has created a music playlist revolving around deep cuts from the ’80s to accompany the mod design of the restaurant and packaging.
A full lunch of burger, fries, drink, ice cream, etc., should be in the $15 to $20 range, not too expensive when you consider the burger is made from local all-natural, hormone-free Angus beef, American cheese, smoky pickled shiitake mushrooms and SuperNormal sauce. The #1 Delicious Burger upgrades the whole package with a special 50/50 beef/pork blend, XO mayo, Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, Thai basil and lemongrass pickled veggies.
The all-beef hot dog is topped with bacon marmalade, Sriracha, cream cheese and green onions, and Wilson promises the hot ham and Swiss will be a sleeper favorite. Drinks include iced oolong tea and fresh pink lemonade (promising an extraordinary Arnold Palmer possibility!) and Frozen Original Buttercream Soft Serve in a Mochi-Style Waffle Cone for dessert.
SuperNormal will be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and closing an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights. I’m betting you’ll find it to be super and far from normal!
