, the high-profile redevelopment that's turning the 100-year-old Werthan factory building in Germantown into an “eclectic and vibrant urban community,” is getting an equally ambitious restaurant neighbor. It’s called
Rolf and Daughters, and it’s taking over the Boiler Building that long ago provided power for the factory.
It’s the project of chef Philip Krajeck, who has an impressive resume that includes a few years at Fish Out of Water, the restaurant at the posh WaterColor Inn in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., where he landed on the list of James Beard Foundation nominees for Best Chef in the South.
At a time when many chefs talk of melding Southern foodways and ingredients with Continental-style standards of preparation, Krajeck seems especially suited for that philosophy.
He was an American kid who grew up in Brussels, Belgium, where his father worked for NATO. His education included a high-end hotelier school in Switzerland (where he trained in French culinary methods with a cohort of Italians who whipped up “really pristine classic Italian dishes” for the staff meal) but he also studied at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Later he did educational stints (chefs describe these using the French word stage) at places like Blue Hill Stone Barns and Gramercy Tavern in New York.
Krajeck says he’s been working toward opening his own place in Nashville for three years. The restaurant name was especially tricky to brainstorm, he said. In the end, he chose Rolf and Daughters — his middle name is Rolf, and he has two daughters, ages 12 and 14 — because the generational name invokes an Old World, heritage feel.
