Fat Tiger Brings Authentic Korean Food to White Bluff

Roughly 30 miles west of downtown Nashville, on U.S. Highway 70 in the small town of White Bluff, sits one of the best roadside restaurants in the South.

In the three years since it opened, Fat Tiger KBBQ & More, an authentic Korean restaurant that makes all its meals from scratch, has established itself as one of Middle Tennessee’s unique eateries. 

When you arrive at the rustic roadside location — in the former home of a sorghum mill — you may be greeted by a chicken called Ricky Bobby, named for one of Will Ferrell’s most iconic roles.If Ricky’s not around, front-of-house manager Jody Bradley will almost certainly be there with a warm welcome. When I mentioned that I was excited to try the food, Bradley’s response was, “Good, you should be.”

Inside you’ll find walls adorned with cat-related art and thrift-store trinkets. You’ll also find the co-owners, wife-and-husband duo Starrlite DeCook and David Mullins. Mullins lived in Lebanon, Tenn., before moving to Dickson as a teenager, while DeCook spent 20 years in South Korea prior to moving to the United States. In 2017, DeCook began traveling to Dickson County from Chicago for work, which is how the two met.

“Every time I would visit, I would be like, ‘a Korean restaurant would do so well here,’” DeCook tells the Scene on a recent Friday afternoon.  

A Korean restaurant was something that had been brewing in DeCook’s brain for quite some time — she even wrote a business plan for one in college. Mullins had a long history in the restaurant business, working at various establishments in Dickson County and as a grill cook during his stint in the Marines.

It seemed like a perfect combo. But a restaurant serving traditional Korean cuisine isn’t a guaranteed slam-dunk in a rural Tennessee town.  

“One of the ‘benefits’ of a smaller town is that everybody’s curious about what you’re doing, especially new restaurants,” DeCook says. “So the challenge of getting people in the door was not as big of an issue for us because it’s something new.” 

One of the biggest challenges the duo did face was transforming the sorghum mill-turned-antique store into a restaurant space. It took them 10 months.

“We were here every day doing something,” says DeCook, who still has a day job as an IT director for an insurance company. Mullins runs the kitchen, which includes hand-picking fresh produce, while DeCook handles many of the logistical duties, like having specific Korean ingredients shipped to White Bluff.

Another challenge was upscaling the recipes, most of which were passed down from DeCook’s Korean grandmother, from at-home portions to restaurant levels. 

“[Nashville] doesn’t have as much variety [in ingredients] as other metropolitan areas,” says DeCook. “There’s more Asian places and Asian people in the Nashville area now, but still not as much as like Chicago or Washington, D.C.”

DeCook and Mullins also wanted their menu to stand out amid the quality Korean offerings in the area. That’s what the “& More” in the restaurant’s name signifies. (The couple credits the “Fat Tiger” portion to DeCook’s sister.) 

“The ‘& More’ is us not pigeonholing ourselves into just Korean food,” DeCook says. “We serve authentic, traditional food, but we also serve modern Korean food that’s not necessarily traditional, but it’s something that Korean people eat all the time. … We not only wanted to serve the old-school stuff, but also the food that Korean people actually eat every day. It’s modern Korean cuisine. It’s not necessarily fusion, but food evolves over time.

“A lot of people think, when it comes to ethnic cuisine, it’s a very narrow thing,” she continues. “You have to have a certain kind of ambiance and only serve a certain kind of food and have certain types of employees, but that’s really not the case.”

The Fat Tiger menu offers traditional Korean staples like bulgogi (thinly sliced, garlic-marinated beef filet), tonkatsu (a big, panko-crusted pork cutlet) and bibimbap (a hearty rice bowl). But DeCook and Mullins get playful with dishes like the Fat Tiger Loaded Fries, which are topped with mozzarella, provolone, kimchi and pork stew, an egg and aioli sauce. It’s “flavor heaven in a bowl,” according to the menu’s description.

The couple’s hard work and unique vision have paid off, with people making the trip to White Bluff from all over the area. 

“I never thought I would’ve done this,” Mullins says. “Opening a restaurant around here would be really hard in itself. And then to be a cuisine that is not familiar for people around here, it was a little more than a toss-up that the concept would work. 

“When we started the concept, we were here looking for food ourselves,” Mullins continues. “We were wanting something other than burgers and fries. This gives you a whole different palate. Even in the way Koreans eat their food, every bite is a different flavor exposure.”

It’s difficult, of course, for DeCook and Mullins to recommend just one dish. But of the many items I sampled, the Bulgogi Loaded Fries were a standout. 

Says DeCook: “When people come in and they are looking at the menu and they’re like, ‘What do you recommend?’ I’m like, ‘Don’t ask me. I wrote it. It’s all my favorites.’”

“If you don’t know if you want to try it, and if you’re apprehensive because you don’t know it, come here. We’ll teach you.”