There's an old joke by A. Whitney Brown (an underappreciated master of droll) that goes, "I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants." Sean Brock, the executive chef of Husk Nashville, which opens Thursday, May 23, would definitely disagree. First, Brock is no vegetarian, and is renowned for his skills cooking meat, particularly the pig. He's a member of the all-star Fatback Collective competitive barbecue team, which took third place in the whole-hog division at the Memphis in May World Invitational BBQ Championship in their first-ever competition. And more than one Nashvillian has booked a Southwest flight to his original Husk location in Charleston — named Bon Appétit's best new restaurant of 2011 among heaps of national praise — specifically to order his outrageous crispy deep-fried pig ear lettuce wraps.
Second, Brock — who made a name for himself as executive chef at Nashville's Capitol Grille before heading to Charleston in 2006 — loves vegetables to the point of out-and-out worship. The sign outside Husk's new outpost on Rutledge Hill in SoBro reads "A Celebration of Southern Ingredients." In addition to growing much of Husk's produce in restaurant gardens, Brock and his team research flavorful heirloom varieties of grains, vegetables and proteins and seek to preserve them by introducing new generations of diners to forgotten staples of long-ago Southern kitchens like benne seeds, flint corn and Sea Island red peas.
In fact, he literally wears his love of vegetables on his sleeve: He has a psychedelic tattoo of beets, radishes and potato flowers stretching from shoulder to wrist, and it rated a full-page photo in Vogue. To join him in this exploration of Nashville's flora and fauna, Brock has recruited Morgan McGlone, who was working at the Charleston Husk, to serve as chef de cuisine at the Nashville outpost, and Brock is pretty fired up at the appointment.
"We're very lucky that he's decided to take up this crazy venture because he is incredibly talented and in love with Southern food," Brock says. "He has worked in some of the best kitchens all over the world, where quality becomes a real part of you."
Yes, McGlone is Southern — waaaay Southern, having grown up in New Zealand. But as Brock says, "It doesn't matter where you come from if you care about the cuisine. Morgan was planning to do a two-week volunteer stage at Husk, but he fell in love with the food and stayed. He has definitely caught the fever."
The opening of Husk Nashville represents a homecoming for perhaps the most prominent chef to burst out of Nashville. (Thomas Keller's brief stint at the late Wild Boar was more like a cameo.) Though Brock had an impressive résumé when he first came to town in 2003, Capitol Grille was his first gig as executive chef. His skills there earned him accolades and ignited his reputation as a talent to watch. And it was during his Nashville tenure, in 2005, that he was invited to cook at the James Beard House.
David Howard, president of Neighborhood Dining Group (the management team behind Husk), selected and oversaw the renovation of the Victorian mansion at 37 Rutledge St. that is the home of the Nashville Husk. The house was built by Richard Dudley in 1882. Dudley became the 50th mayor of Nashville in 1897, and his initials can still be seen carved over the door to the carriage house that will soon be the site for Husk patrons seeking a private dining experience. Can anyone say, "Panettiere, table for 15"?
Through the years, the property has served as a boarding house, an advertising agency and the private residence of Bill and April Mullins, urban pioneers who threw great parties that attracted many suburbanites to SoBro for the first time other than to renew their license plates at Howard School. For a year-and-a-half starting in 2004, chef Andrew Chadwick operated his eponymous fine-dining establishment there.
So Howard knew he had a good set of bones with some real stories to tell when he began the renovations. The two levels of the building offer very different dining experiences. A brighter atrium area on the bottom floor overlooks the working garden and accesses what should prove to be a bustling bar with a small patio offering one of the best views of LP Field on this side of the river. The upstairs dining spaces are much more intimate and feature bold wall colors and the same ornate fireplaces that warmed the revelers at Mayor Dudley's inauguration party. The owners of Husk preserved as much of the original building as possible during renovations, and they recycled what they couldn't reuse, chipping wood to line the garden paths, and building plant beds out of limestone blocks and bricks recovered from a small building that was removed to make room for parking.
"We want our neighbors to be thrilled with how the building looks and how it's maintained," Howard says. "It's easy to make it pretty for opening day. We want our buildings to have some character. We want to respect the history and add elements of interest with a contemporary twist that will be fun, energetic, vibrant and cool."
To that end, the new interior of Husk is designed to feature a very visible and interactive open kitchen in the middle of the building. Of course, the kitchen is a bit on the small side, which Howard finds amusing, since McGlone, a friendly but imposing figure, will be chef de cuisine.
"We've built the smallest kitchen for our largest chef," Howard says.
The original Husk is renowned for its wood-burning oven, but here in Nashville a large ember-fired grill will be the star of the show. "I can't wait to start playing with that thing," says Brock. "The first step was deciding on the cooking method and then choosing the best and most interesting ingredients every day. The menu will evolve from that."
Indeed, the lunch and dinner menus will change every day depending on what local growers have to offer. "If it ain't Southern, it ain't comin' through the door" is the unofficial motto at Husk, to the point that Brock eschewed cooking with olive oil until he could find suppliers who grew their plants in Texas and Georgia. He has leveraged his past experience working at the Capitol Grille and his friendships with many local chefs to help him quickly develop a network of relationships with purveyors in Middle Tennessee.
"The growing season is very different in Tennessee," Brock says. "In Charleston you can get a good tomato, I mean a really great one, from June 1 until New Year's Day. But Nashville is such an exciting place to come eat and a perfect place for the concept, thanks to the connection with the farmers and all the insane ingredients — like Scott Witherow's Olive and Sinclair chocolate, the amazing beef from Wedge Oak Farm and everything from the Barefoot Farmer. I've been a fan of Jeff Poppen for a really long time, and it's been really cool to get to know each other."
Still, Brock has no idea what will be on the opening night menu. "Cooking here is a lot like playing in a jazz band. It just happens. We design it that way so that we have to stay true to ourselves." All the logistics of a new restaurant might seem imposing to a lesser chef, but Brock is used to scrambling to take advantage of whatever produce is freshest on any given day.
He points to his new Husk produce delivery vehicle. "I just bought a new ride, a sweet '83 Chevy Scottsdale pickup. I love riding around town and visiting the incredible farms around here. In fact, I just like hanging out here."
Nashville will be glad to have him around again.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
