Food

If you’re looking for a place to bring your friends for a unique dinner experience without leaving East Nashville, consider an evening at The Good Wife Supper Club.

The neighborhood’s first supper club is the brainchild of Avon Lyons, a native Nashvillian who has logged a lot of miles pursuing her love of food since graduating from Harpeth Hall and the University of Mississippi. Her travels have taken her to Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery School on the southern coast of Ireland, where she learned the importance of fresh ingredients, and to the Rose Bakery in Paris, France, where she was given the freedom to create daily menus filled with fresh fruits, vegetables and grains. She inaugurated her return to Music City with a two-year stint in the kitchen at East Nashville’s celebrated Margot, and now she’s bringing the joy of home cooking to our part of town.

Lyons had her first experience with a supper club while living in Paris in 2007. “There was an American couple cooking dinners on the weekends out of their small apartment – nine courses and wine was about 70 Euros, which at the time was close to $110 US,” she says. “My friend and I saved our money for a few weeks and went. We both loved the setting – intimate, casual and relaxed – but we both felt like they tried to do too much. Nine courses from a home kitchen is a lot. I wanted the meal to be more homestyle but it’s hard to be homespun in Paris.”

So what can diners expect when they arrive at the GWSC? For starters, this isn’t a restaurant: though both Lyons and her partner in the kitchen, Olive & Sinclair chocolatier Casey Dailey, have restaurant work experience and training, they are both passionate about home cooking and the meals they will be serving will reflect that. All reservations and payments are handled online so the entire night’s experience is about the food. The menu is set in advance and there are no substitutions, so visitors should be prepared to eat what the cooks are serving. Seating is family-style with two tables seating 10 people each. (“But if someone walked up or called us and we had space, it would be no problem for them to eat,” says Lyons. “And if the tables are full and they don’t mind sitting at the coffee table, we’d do our best to feed them too.”) Guests will also be able to come into the kitchen, ask questions, give suggestions, look into the pots and easily see into the kitchen throughout the meal, since the dining room is only one room away.

You’ll be treated to five courses on Saturdays and four courses on Sundays with a focus on local and seasonal produce and meats, with the occasional addition of more exotic things like Italian salamis, French cheeses or Maldon Sea Salt. What’s being served changes weekly, but with winter coming up Lyons and Dailey say to expect a lot of soups, braises, roasts and stews. They plan to work in some wild game like pheasant, quail, deer, rabbit and dove during the appropriate hunting seasons, though the focus won’t necessarily be on game every week. Throw in some hearty kale and collard greens, salads and simple desserts, and the occasional nice shellfish dish, and it’s safe to say that variety won’t be an issue at the Good Wife Supper Club. With a BYOB policy and wine recommendations from nearby Woodland Wine Merchant, you can round out your meal like a Parisian while keeping things homespun.

“I hope people take away the sensual experience of what it feels like, tastes like and looks like to be well-fed. It can be very moving,” Lyons says. “Our dining room is inviting and relaxing and it will be a fine place for people to unwind. I also hope that the GWSC becomes a resource for curious cooks and food-minded people. We are all for building a strong community of people who care about where their food comes from, and equally as important, want to know how to make delicious meals with whats available.”

The Good Wife Supper Club is located at a historic home here in East Nashville. You can see the menu for upcoming weeks here. Reservations can be made here – price is $40 for Saturdays and $35 for Sundays. And you can follow the GWSC on Facebook.