Prime + Proper is now open at the Grand Hyatt at Nashville Yards
Prime + Proper is now open at the Grand Hyatt at Nashville Yards
Indigo Road Hospitality Group is set to open a new Italian restaurant, Indaco, in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood on March 6.Indaco will feature seasonal Italian cuisine, including wood-fired pizza and house-made pasta, with a focus on local sourcing.The new restaurant will be located across the street from O-ku, another Indigo Road establishment in the growing area.
When Steve Palmer first came to Nashville about nine years ago and saw where his restaurant O-ku would break ground in Germantown, he was skeptical.
There was no Neuhoff District, no Optimist, no shiny new apartment buildings.
“There’s no data,” Palmer said, adding that, still, he had a good feeling. “I just go to neighborhoods, and I can just tell.”
Palmer, founder of Charleston, South Carolina-based Indigo Road Hospitality Group, never forgot that visit. Nearly a decade later, he’s investing in Germantown with Indaco, a seasonal Italian restaurant set to open March 6 across the street from O-ku on the ground floor of Modera Riverview near Germantown’s Neuhoff District.
Nashvillians were originally going to be able to book a table at Indaco a year ago, but there have been delays.
Work was held up on the final piece of infrastructure to be in place before the city can hand over the certificate of occupancy. The latest delay was a cable tied to the fire alarm system.
“You laugh so you don’t cry,” he said. “I used to get really worked up about dates, and honestly, post-COVID, every single project is over budget, not on time.”
Germantown is like a microcosm of Nashville’s growth, with new apartments stacking up next to bustling streets that used to go quiet at night.
“Germantown’s probably my favorite neighborhood in Nashville,” Palmer said. “I couldn’t even tell you why. I just like the vibe.”
Why Indaco restaurant is not a ‘chain,’ despite multiple locations
When the first Indaco opened in Charleston in 2013, it was built around a then-emerging idea that Italian could be more seasonal and local, more “this is our interpretation.”
“When you would say Italian, you’d say, ‘Is it northern? Is it southern? Is it red sauce? Is it osso buco?'” Palmer said. “This was kind of a new generation of chef that was just like, ‘It’s just Italian.'”
The Nashville Indaco will follow that philosophy and refuse to operate like a chain, even though Indaco is a multi-location brand within the Indigo Road portfolio.
Palmer knows the skepticism that can follow big restaurant groups in a town known to side-eye out-of-town bravado.
“Nashville doesn’t need The Indigo Road,” he said. “They’re doing just fine without us.”
Nashville rewards involvement rather than name recognition, he said. Be an active community member and you’ll be welcomed. Slap your name on a building and operate from afar, and the story is different.
That philosophy extends to the kitchen, where each culinary team is given autonomy.
“If we took a menu and said, ‘OK, this is the menu at every location,’ well, now we’re a chain,” he said.
What to expect on Indaco’s menu in Nashville
Indaco will be an everyday Italian restaurant, designed to work as a quick stop for pizza and a beer or three courses and a serious bottle of wine. The expected check average should be around $55 per person.
For Nashville, the group hired local chef Chris Ayala, who was given only a loose framework: There must be pizza and pasta and a cluster of seasonal dishes leaning on regional sourcing.
“Other than that, Chris can really do what he wants,” Palmer said.
Expect wood-fired, thin, Neapolitan-style pizza cooked at high heat and house-made pasta that changes with the seasons. The pizza is the most obsessive thing about the menu, Palmer said.
“We have a starter going all the way back 13 years,” he said. “We’ve perfected our pizza, we think, but even those flavors are going to change all the time.”
The restaurant will seat about 120 inside, with patio seating and a big bar. Dinner will be served daily, with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays and a happy hour to come, though details for that are still getting ironed out.
He described the space as warm and intentionally not precious.
“You’re in a six-story building. It’s got tall ceilings,” Palmer said, “but very, very warm vibe. Amber light. Tin. Rusted steel. A little bit industrial to reflect the neighborhood.”
Palmer referred to the East Bank development wave and a new pedestrian bridge that will soon connect that side of the Cumberland River to the neighborhood where he’s now a double stakeholder.
“I feel like that neighborhood’s going to continue to evolve,” he said.
In Germantown, that feels likely.
Mackensy Lunsford is the senior dining reporter for The Tennessean. Reach her at mlunsford@tennessean.com.
Dining and Cooking