Chef Gracie Nguyen and her husband Chad Newton are buzzing around a small kitchen space on Gallatin Avenue on a recent weekday. The owners of East Side Banh Mi have just gotten the green light to open their newest concept — East Side Pho — and they’re starting in just a few hours.
East Side Pho occupies Bay 5 of The Wash, a new food hall retrofitted from an old car wash. It’s pretty unusual. There’s next to no parking. The restaurants have walk-up counters and a large communal patio, with a cocktail bar in the last bay.
Nguyen says the unique setup of The Wash presented a special opportunity.
“To be honest, I don’t think we would launch an East Side Pho if we didn’t have a space like this because I just didn’t want more stress.”
Chef Gracie Nguyen taste tests the garlic chili crisp at East Side Pho ahead of the team’s first dinner service at The Wash.
An ‘affordability crisis’ for small businesses
Nguyen and Newton already own and operate another restaurant just down the street. “Trying to add another one and paying a higher rent than this, I don’t know if I’d really want it, you know?” Nguyen says.
The cost and responsibility of creating a restaurant from scratch can be a barrier, says Tyler Cauble, the developer for The Wash. He worries that can keep small local businesses from succeeding, and ultimately damage the character of the city’s food scene.
“Everybody talks about the affordability crisis for residential housing in Nashville,” Cauble said, “but nobody really talks about the affordability crisis for small businesses and entrepreneurs. And that’s exactly what this type of site is designed to to solve.”
Increasing access
Javier Salado is the owner of Soy Cubano. That’s the restaurant that lives in Bay 2. Up to this point, he’s been doing pop-up events and operating out of Citizen Kitchens, an incubator space.
“I grew up from a working class family. So, you know, asking for money, borrowing money, it’s really tough for me,” Salado said. “The Wash gave us an opportunity where it was very little upfront to test out our concept and see if there’s a market for that.”
He says instead of spending more than half a million dollars building out his own restaurant, he was able to set up at The Wash for about $30,000.
Newton of East Side Pho agrees. “It’s a great deal for all these operators because there’s so low cash in compared to a regular restaurant.”
That type of setup makes the development more accessible to historically marginalized business owners who’ve typically had less access to capital. At The Wash, every one of the five spaces leased out by the developer has owners who are women or people of color.
That doesn’t include the sixth bay, which is still associated with the developer, who is white.
Menu recommendations
Many of the restaurants have already soft-launched, but a grand opening is scheduled at the end of April. Check out each place’s Instagram page for an updated schedule.
Bay 1: Two Peruvian Chefs
Chef and owner Roberto Bernabe came to the U.S. from Peru as a teen and grew up in the restaurant business. He invites customers to try classic Peruvian meals like ceviche, a dish typically made from raw fresh fish or shrimp, marinated in lime juice, spices and chili peppers, served with thinly sliced onions and sweet potato. If you’re looking for a heartier option, he recommends going for the lomo saltado, a traditional stir-fry of juicy steak, onions tomatoes and french fries. His team tells WPLN News the lomo saltado can stand up against anybody’s favorite dish.
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Bay 2: Soy Cubano
Salado says, ironically, his favorite menu item at Soy Cubano is “one of the few things that’s not Cuban.” It’s called a bikini sandwich. “It comes from Barcelona in a nightclub called Bikini … Typically, it’s bread, manchego cheese, serrano ham and like truffle butter [or] truffle oil.” Salado’s spin is a vegetarian-friendly option. “I use a Cuban roll with manchego cheese, portobello mushrooms and truffle butter, and I just press it like a Cuban sandwich. And oh my goodness, it is so good.”
Still, Salado admits, “Obviously, the Cuban sandwich is my most popular item by far.” He also raves about his cafecitos, cuban coffee with a sweet crema made by mixing the espresso with sugar.
Bay 3: The Poki
Viviann Quach is an assistant Manager for The Poki, which also has a Brentwood location. She recommends new customers go with a signature bowl if they aren’t ready to get adventurous yet. She says she’s also excited for people to build their own custom poke bowls. “It’s my favorite because it’s a chance for me to recommend great and fresh ingredients,” Quach says. “It’s also a way for me to communicate with customers and get an idea of what they like and don’t. I love talking to customers and meeting new people!”
Bay 4: Tootsie Lou’s Tacos
Drew Dunston, Megan Valigura and Jeremy Young make up the Tootsie Lou’s Tacos team — and of course, Tootsie Lou herself, a mutt who’s known to “do literally anything for good food.” They recommend guests start with the chicken adobo taco. “It is one of our favorite and a flagship for Tootsie Lou’s. That is served with a peanut and arbol chile salsa, onions, cilantro, lime and our crispy chicken skin crumble.” For vegetarians, they recommend trying out the carrot or sweet potato tacos. Those are part of the team’s ever-changing seasonal vegetable options.
Bay 5: East Side Pho
Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton are pumped to bring a Vietnamese soup stall to East Nashville. Nguyen says, “My favorite thing is actually the beef pho. That’s what I grew up eating. And that’s one of the ones that I made the most, and I focused because I want to make sure it’s perfect.” She says the pho she grew up on was a style more popular in the northern part of Vietnam. Her pho broth is less sweet and clearer than the southern style, which she says is more popular in Nashville. Nguyen has also created a vegetarian-friendly version of the soup, which is typically made from animal bones. “I can’t wait for people to try my vegetarian version of this Vietnamese soup.”
Beau Gaultier is the beverage director at Bay 6. When WPLN News stopped in, he was fermenting a batch of Thai tea-infused kombucha for a non-alcoholic beverage option. Gaultier says one cocktail he’s passionate about is the Kindly Use. “It’s a zero-waste riff on an espresso martini.” He says it’s made by using cachaça (like a Brazilian rum) that’s been infused with Cafe du Monde coffee. That’s combined with an acidified pineapple cordial that’s made using every part of the fruit.
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