Save
Sean Brock’s much-anticipated flagship restaurant Audrey opens in East Nashville on 15 October, with a menu and interiors inspired by his Appalachian upbringing, and a new restaurant model which puts staff wellbeing at its heart. "I wanted to create a place where I’d want to work for the rest of my life. A place where we all leave happier,” he said.
Inside the restaurant, which is named after his grandmother and biggest inspiration, guests will be greeted among warm, rustic interiors, showcasing art and patchwork quilts. "My idea in designing Audrey was blending the scenes of where I grew up in Appalachia with my passion for modern Japanese architecture — to make it feel like an Appalachian tobacco barn, but also to be contemporary” said the chef.
A daily-changing 5-course menu will be served downstairs, with dishes reflecting Brock's rural Southern heritage, and Appalachian cuisine drawing on organic, biodynamic, and sustainable producers. The upstairs restaurant, opening sometime later next year, will serve a broader tasting-menu format.
Special care will also be given to employee wellbeing - mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially - with the restaurant ensuring good employee benefits, staff programmes and living wages. There will also be plenty going on alongside the restaurant and bar, including Brock's first development lab, as well as a dedicated classroom and research spaces for his staff, a podcast recording studio and an on-site wellness room.
Take a look at some of the dishes and see inside:
Images Credit: Emily Dorio
