at Mesa Komal
In the three years since Carlos Davis and business partner B.J. Lofback launched the Riffs Fine Street Food truck, it has spawned a thriving catering business, a bricks-and-mortar restaurant in Donelson, and a lot of lively involvement in the kind of culinary and civic activities people cite when they talk about a Nashville renaissance.
On a recent afternoon, Davis and team are preparing 7,500 box lunches for an event at the new Music City Center downtown. Days after, Riffs will cater its first kosher function, at the Chabad Center in Bellevue. And later this month, Riffs will be one of the caterers for the NCAA women’s Final Four, providing box lunches for athletes.
“Food is meant to bring people together,” Davis says. He’s proud to work at Mesa Komal, the community kitchen inside Casa Azafrán, the Nolensville Road community center that aims to serve Nashville’s diverse immigrant populations and help them integrate into more established communities. (Davis helps mentor other small entrepreneurs who use the commercial kitchen, along with students from Glencliff High School.)
Davis is an immigrant himself, and speaks with a hint of a Caribbean lilt. A native of Barbados, he went to culinary school there before arriving to work in Nashville, where he spent a decade cooking at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.
When Nashville was flooded in 2010, Davis volunteered to help feed recovery crews; that’s where he met Lofback. After the volunteer project ended, the duo decided to channel their creative food ideas into a small business. The first experiment was a street festival in Bowling Green, Ky. Quickly selling out of 400 portions of jerk chicken, plantains, and red beans and rice, they rushed to buy more ingredients, and immediately sold out again.
“We knew we had something,” Davis says. “Later we realized we were giving people too much food,” he adds with a laugh.
After some lean months — they started the catering side with just $38 — Riffs really took off in Nashville. Describing the cuisine, Davis uses the words “eclectic” and “fusion,” citing Asian, Caribbean, North African and Mediterranean influences.
“It’s food from different cultures that have affected us along the way,” he says.
The workload is heavier now that Riffs has grown so much, but it’s no longer just two guys in a truck. Davis and Lofback have a staff, including executive chef Charlie Schiller, who worked at Husk, and pastry chef Audra Dykes. She’s helping launch a second truck, Riffs Fine Sweet Food, offering desserts.
Davis says he owes a lot to his resourceful, encouraging parents in Barbados, especially his dad, an entrepreneur who worked and traveled tirelessly: “He made a lot of sacrifices, and you really realize that when the cycle gets to you.” Davis is referring to his 11-year-old son, Joseph, who is crazy for cooking.
“He loves to come to the kitchen,” Davis says. “I try to help him see the value of eating good food and knowing where it’s sourced.”
