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| Chef's Showcase |
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| Eating Globally In Music City
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Executive chef: Theresa Everett
Restaurant group: PanSouth Inc.
Concept: casual fine dining from a "global fusion" menu in a baroque atmosphere
Sister restaurants: South Street Grill, Uptown Mix
Lodging: an exclusive assortment of studios, suites and mountain homes
Bound'ry check averages: $60-$80, dinner only
Number of seats in dining room: 170
Number of bars: two: one upstairs, one downstairs
Popular menu items: double pork chop with applesauce and grilled macaroni and cheese, $19; flash-roasted New Zealand rack of lamb, $25; Tellicherry peppercorn tuna, seared rare and served with black, sticky rice, jumbo lump crab and lobster pepper broth, $25
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| What's the advantage to such a varied menu, and how do you manage it operationally? - Questions & Answers
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What makes Bound'ry a "destination restaurant"?
We rarely advertise or even have our name outside, so you sort of have to know how to find us. We prefer to market ourselves by working with charitable organizations. The restaurant opened about nine years ago with a tapas concept, and it always has been a very popular place - mostly spread by word-of-mouth.
I personally love that style, but when I became executive chef a few years ago, my goal was to take it a step further and expand the menu to include entrées and an extensive offering of daily specials.
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How extensive is the menu?
We still serve small plates, called "Tastings," and that includes pizzas and salads. "Large Plates" are entrées, which we divide into "Global Specialties," "Steaks" and "Vegetarian & Pasta" categories. Each day I develop an entirely separate "Specials Menu" with up to 20 more choices. And there's a whole late-night menu, too.
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Please give us some examples of the diversity.
For the most part, the sauces are based on classic French techniques - demi-glaces, natural reductions, very few "liased" methods. I try to let the market drive the menu and support local purveyors and products, in season, whenever possible. But because we're in Nashville, all the fish is flown in.
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What kind of organizational skills does it take to function with such variety?
Believe it or not, we have a relatively small kitchen for such a large and varied menu. But that just makes us more efficient. I've worked in big places, like hotels, where the walk-ins are half-empty, and no one can keep track of what products are stored where. A lot of food gets wasted that way.
I micro-manage our walk-in. Each product has its own place, and everything must be dated carefully and rotated. I set aside two whole shelves just for my special menus, and my staff knows to put product there when it's ready to use. Everything must be monitored and moved all the time.
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Does that help keep everyone on their toes?
I think the system works because the whole staff always knows what's going on with ingredients and preparations. It also helps us serve the freshest food possible while maintaining good food costs. That's the only way to keep such a large menu functioning.
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Did your background spur your interest in different cuisines?
I grew up traveling with my parents, eating all over the place, so I always was tuned into food. When I decided to be a ski bum for a while, I moved to Aspen and worked for both German and French chefs and learned a lot. That sealed it for me - I became a chef. Over the years I learned about other cuisines and have come to appreciate authentic regional dishes, rather than "Americanized" versions of them.
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What are you like in the kitchen?
I am a kitchen chef, not an office chef. I work the line virtually every night. It gives me more control over the food and also helps my staff have more respect for the work we all do. I think it's important to run a learning kitchen. I don't know everything, so I'm always learning. And what I do know I want to share.
Nashville is starting to be a nationally known food city. And in order to operate at that level, I have to be a hands-on chef.
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How popular is the Tree Room tasting menu?
It's amazing to me sometimes, but usually 50 percent of diners order the entire tasting menu.
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What's your next challenge?
Well, we're right in the middle of it actually. Next door, we're opening a new Asian restaurant called Chu. We're going to cover all the Asian cuisines - Thai, Mandarin, even Filipino. I've been working on developing dishes for a while. The line over there is in, but not inspected, so as soon as that happens, we'll start testing and honing the menu.
I'm really excited about it. We've got four woks and an open kitchen. The dining room is going to look cool, too, with special lighting designed so that the whole restaurant changes color throughout the evening.
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Will you be able to bundle purchasing with Chu, Bound'ry and South Street?
There will be some ingredients that overlap. But the main thing we're doing is adding one person in charge of purchasing for all three restaurants.
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Aren't you worried about losing customers to a restaurant right next door?
They're going to go to a new restaurant at the beginning because it's new. But the menu will be so different and smaller, so I think we'll end up attracting both our regular Bound'ry customers and new people, too.
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