Some friends and I were in Nashville to help mutual friends celebrate a 65th birthday and a 10th anniversary. We decided to sample some of the city’s fare before the celebration commenced.

Audrey in Nashville is Shaun Brock’s new flagship restaurant inspired by his Appalachian roots, rural South and his maternal grandmother, the restaurant’s namesake. He also stirred into the mix his love of Japanese culture.

Not familiar with Appalachian cooking, we opted for the $99 per person “feast” to sample lots. Our waiter asked if there were any allergies or food restrictions they should be aware of. One friend said no red meat, the other no pork or shellfish. No problem, they said.

The open-kitchen served it in three waves. The first included a cast-iron skillet with Anson Mills cornbread, sour corn butter & cracklins; fried apples toasted with yuzu & sorrel; and shaved country ham sprinkled with chopped peanuts and dried berries.

A server hurried over to the table to stop the serving of the cornbread. He told us they used lard in the bread and the butter’s topping was pork cracklins. They brought some sourdough bread.

During the second wave, the manager stopped the server from pouring the hot-country-ham-fat dressing over the lettuce salad; they returned with a ham-free dressing. Our next course was the skewered lamb belly with skewered sweet potatoes, after which we all enjoyed the white grits with a cured egg yolk and the gratis Mr. Stripey heirloom tomato salad that they sent because of all the mistakes.

The third wave contained our favorites with the truffled chicken and dumplings, the grilled catfish and the cornmeal fried okra.

We each had a skillet of warm apple cobbler for the finale with vanilla bean ice cream on the side.

We had a great time together, excited to begin the celebration weekend.

Audrey
809 Meridian St,
Nashville, TN, 37207