Here's why Ford Fry keeps opening restaurants, including new Mexican concept, in Nashville
For restaurateurs like Ford Fry, Nashville is very much an "It city."
The Atlanta-based chef has opened multiple restaurants in the city, including The Optimist and Star Rover. Now, he's bringing the forthcoming new casual Mexican concept, Little Rey.
Little Rey will open this spring at 2019 West End Avenue after a series of events to introduce the concept to the Nashville community, including a March 29 party with free food and drinks in the restaurant's parking lot (more details below).
The restaurant's menu is in part built around pollo al carbon, or coal-roasted chicken.
"It's based around northern Mexico chicken al carbon restaurants," he said. "We're selling chicken cooked over live coals, breakfast tacos, adding wood-cooked meat over salads and queso."
The northern Mexico-Texas concept is a hit in Atlanta, where it has grown to two locations. The restaurant sells weekend breakfast tacos, a variety of traditional tacos and queso drenched fries. It's also beloved by local families for its take-home meals of whole roasted chickens, tortillas and salsa.
Fry thinks the restaurant's location near Vanderbilt University will boost its popularity, and his broker has told him as much. But he's not taking anything for granted.
"When we opened Little Rey in Atlanta, there were lines around the block," he said. "But when we go out of town, people don't know us like they do in Atlanta, so we do what we can to get the word out."
Live-fire cooking, which will take place at the March 29 event, is a good way to send up a literal smoke signal, he said.
This is, after all, the first expansion into Tennessee for the small fast-casual chain, which also has a store in Texas and another in North Carolina.
But it's not likely to be the last restaurant in the Nashville community for Fry, a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Outstanding Restaurateur who also now has around a dozen unique concepts under his belt.
"I think we definitely want to come to cities that feel like 'our people' and I want any reason to come to Nashville," Fry said. "I've even thought about moving there."
Fry was headed to Nashville as he spoke, where he was looking to potentially to open a steakhouse at a spot in the under-renovation Arcade.
More: Nashville's historic Arcade mall to debut new look, shops in 2025: What we know
"Nashville is just the place everyone wants to move to for some reason," he said.
That includes tourists and, increasingly, restaurant owners. And that's created tough competition. But one that seems by and large a friendly one.
More: 'How much I believe in Nashville': Why Music City draws in businesses like Craig's, Hermès
Rather than being suspicious of outsiders, locals seem to welcome transplants such as chef Mason Hereford, who recently opened his first Turkey and the Wolf outside of New Orleans in an East Nashville neighborhood.
"More than anything, we're super excited to be joining the Nashville community," Hereford told The Tennessean weeks before the restaurant opened. "Food and beverage people from around the city have been over the top welcoming, and we're loving making new friends and having a new city to call home."
That welcoming attitude has also made for a rich city with ever-more diverse restaurants. Fry's Mexican restaurant is part of a wave to hit the city in recent months, and there are more on the way.
More: Upscale Mexican food, restaurants take off in Nashville thanks to bold chefs
Little Rey is on the casual end of that Mexican restaurant boom, and Fry thinks that's a good thing.
"I think people in Nashville like food that tastes good don't care about pretentious stuff, and they'll line out the door if it's good," he said.
There's no set opening date for Little Rey yet, but you can try some of the food on March 29 with a parking lot party featuring free food including quesadillas, elotes, a salsa bar, margaritas and limeade. The Little Rey Park-in Lot Party will take over 2019 West End Avenue from 2-9 p.m.
Mackensy Lunsford is the senior dining reporter for The Tennessean. You can reach her at mlunsford@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville food: Chef Ford Fry to open Mexican restaurant Little Rey
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