Silo, what's to come

Silo

1121 5th Ave N

Nashville, TN

opening this spring 2012

country pate

USN, a private school in Nashville, fund raises for scholarships for underserved students, and the fund raising is so awesome! USN provides adult learning classes of all sorts from arts to zumba classes, and all the profits go to scholarships. I love the cooking and dinner classes. I took sushi, Thai, and Chinese tea to name a few, and this year I took a dinner class to introduce Nashville to Silo, a restaurant due to open in Germantown in late spring 2012.

sweet potato biscuits

Chris and Caroline Farren donated their kitchen and dining room to a bunch of us diners to have the 1st taste of what Silo is going to offer. Business and chef partners Clay and Paul are merging their expertise to bring an upscale but humble Southern food experience to Nashville. There is going to be artisan bakery goods from Paul, who comes from the traditions of his Normandy Farms Bakery in Charleston, SC where Southern Slow Food has been embraced and perfected. Clay, originally came to Nashville seeking country music fame, but luckily quickly understood food and the restaurant business is where he could be appreciated most. Their gig is going to Southern food made in a European old world tradition, served with appropriately humble beverages from lemonade to bourbon.

parsnip soup

The plan is to source some of the ingredients locally, including ground beef, eggs, and veggies. At this dinner, the kale and beets salad was sourced incredibly locally, right from Clay's own garden. I was thrilled for beets because I just did not get enough beets this year from my CSA. I love beets. I hope Silo has this on their menu because it will be a staple for me for years to come.

pork belly

I sat with some friends, and I discovered we all have a love of pork belly. Silo's dish had sliced pork belly served with cornbread croutons and black eye peas, a very nice Southern inspired dish. We enjoyed the fresh pork belly entry from Silo on this evening. We also talked about one of Silo's restaurant neighbors, City House and the belly ham pizza that is made there. It is so good!

kale and beets

I did notice Paul's contribution to the Charleston, SC fresh, seasonal and local cooking ideal. The parsnip soup and the brussels sprouts are seasonally fresh right now. With the mild winter we are having in Nashville, my brussels sprout plant is thriving, as well as my root veggies. I have a bunch of parsnips in my fridge, and I am so inspired by the parsnip soup, that I may try making my own parsnip soup too.

brussels sprouts

When we were in Pommard Burgundy France, we had the best pate de compange , country pate. It is a rustic farm dish that does not seem to be in vogue in the USA, but I think it should be. Silo will be making a country pate similar to the one we had in Pommard. I hope Silo has a nice red wine to go along with the country pate. Clay said they are not really focusing on wine at Silo, but I think they should grow the wine list as Silo grows. It seems as though the food preparation at Silo will be of a similar tradition as Burgundy farm food, and in Burgundy, it is all about the local wine to have with every meal.

dessert balls

As we finished our meal, we tasted some bourbons that Silo will have for sipping on the bar patio. What fun. I have never done a bourbon tasting, so it was actually a good learning experience for me. Not all bourbons taste alike!