Brian Riggenbach (left) and Mikey Corona
For restaurateurs, business partners and married couple Mikey Corona and Brian Riggenbach, it was love at first bite. The pair met in Chicago in 2004 and bonded quickly over the topics of Houston (where they moved from) and art school (their reason for moving). But it wasn’t until Brian prepared a three-course dinner for Mikey in his “chicken-shit studio” apartment that sparks began to fly.
“I had never had anyone prepare a meal for me, let alone a multi-course meal,” Mikey says.
“I would say after that first sip of soup, I was like, ‘OK, it’s a done deal.’ ” The sip in question was of a carrot-star-anise soup, a recipe that Brian, now head chef at The Mockingbird, still makes from time to time. “When people say you can taste love in food or taste emotion in food, that is what I experienced,” Mikey says. “It was from that moment on that I was hooked for sure.”
Over the next five years, the couple continued to date, and as their love for one another grew, so did their love of food and hospitality.
“I wanted to showcase Brian’s food, so every Sunday we would have these dinner parties,” Mikey says. “It turned into friends of friends that would come to our dinner parties. And then it turned into friends of friends of friends.”
The weekly dinner parties morphed into Yo Soy Underground Supper, a wildly successful supper club in Chicago serving themed multi-course meals in a communal setting. And one item that kept popping up on menus? The carrot-star-anise soup.
“Every year, we would do the ‘best of,’ and that soup would always be on there,” Mikey says. “We would let our diners know that that’s where the soup was inspired [from] and that’s where our relationship was inspired from. And we thought it was a special moment to share it with them.”
Mikey and Brian continued to work in Chicago restaurants and operate Yo Soy on the side, and in 2015, they tied the knot.
With the rise of Yo Soy’s popularity, so grew a desire in Mikey and Brian to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant of their own. They worked tirelessly to secure investors, but it was a fortuitous meeting between Brian and beloved Nashville chef Maneet Chauhan that changed everything. Mikey filled out an application for Brian to compete on Food Network’s Chopped in 2016 — despite the fact that, according to Mikey, “Brian loathes stuff like that.” Brian was chosen for the competition, and Maneet was one of the judges. When Brian won and expressed his desire to someday open a restaurant of his own, Maneet wanted to invest.
After a whirlwind weekend during which the couple says they ate their way through Nashville, they relocated. In 2017, they opened The Mockingbird, a global diner in the Gulch. As executive chef, Brian helms the kitchen, and as the “front-of-house extraordinaire,” Mikey manages the restaurant. And while some couples might bristle at the thought of working side by side all day every day, Brian and Mikey love navigating the ups and downs of this adventure together. “You get to share all the good times together, all the accomplishments and the gratitude,” Brian says. “There is a lot that’s really rewarding about the restaurant industry.”
Fortunately for Nashville, the lovebirds have built a nest and are here to stay, sharing love with this community, one meal at a time.
