Nathan Zucker
Internationally renowned chef Tony Mantuano and his wife, wine and hospitality expert Cathy Mantuano, have elevated the experience of Italian cuisine in America. It’s an achievement rooted at Chicago’s Michelin-starred restaurant Spiaggia, and now realized at Yolan in Nashville.
After 35 years of helming Spiaggia to great acclaim, the couple left to live in Italy, and consider their next steps. Enter Joel Pizzuti. He presented them an enticement to return to the States: a rare opportunity to create a fine Italian restaurant inside The Joseph, a luxury hotel he was building in Nashville. The hotelier’s vision meshed beautifully with theirs, prompting the Mantuanos to move to Music City to undertake this ambitious project. While the couple oversees all three dining concepts inside The Joseph, Yolan is the purest expression of their art.
Dining at Yolan is an experience at once serene and exhilarating. It starts with the space itself. Open and airy, its modern design in muted tones incorporates an array of woods and metals: birds-eye maple cabinets, dark walnut tables with mother-of-pearl inlay, a copper and blown glass chandelier over the bar.
Nathan Zucker
It showcases contemporary art pieces from Pizzuti’s extensive collection; a wall of world-class wines curated by Ms. Mantuano and her team of sommeliers; a display case of great wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It’s a grand vision that translates down to the fine details you’ll note when sipping from a handblown Veronese wine glass, twirling your pasta cradled in a sculptural ceramic bowl, cutting steak with a handcrafted knife, its horn handle made out of shed antlers sourced from a Tennessee elk preserve.
Chef Mantuano’s approach balances his reverence of classic Italian cuisine and the inspiration he derives from it. He has designed the menus in a format similar to Spiaggia’s, although the offerings are singular to Yolan. There’s a Tasting Menu, available in five or eight courses, and A La Carte, set up in familiar ristorante sections of Antipasti, Primi, and Secondi. You cannot go wrong either way, but for a first experience, opt for the Tasting Menu, along with Cathy’s wine pairings. Surrender, and let them take you on this marvelous gastronomic ride.
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Nathan Zucker
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Nathan Zucker
Dinner service begins with a presentation of breads—sliced focaccia, sesame grissini and rosemary popovers, all the handiwork of pastry chef Noelle Gogg Marchetti. Accompanying is butter topped with chippy sea salt and a small bowl of Yolan olive oil, specially pressed in Tuscany for Mantuano. This oil tastes floral on the front with an astonishing peppery finish.
Salads are inventive. Savor market greens on a bed of burrata, layered with watermelon radishes, crisp slivered mushrooms, honeycomb, and hazelnuts. Panzanella, or bread salad, is brightened with heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese, red onion, and folded with petite focaccia croutons, a lush green basil oil puddle on the side.
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Nathan Zucker
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Nathan Zucker
The Roman pastas are prime examples of Mantuano’s honor of the classics. Whether it’s Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, or Bucatini all’Amatriciana, each adheres to tradition, using the finest ingredients and a practiced, finessed technique. The pleasure of eating handmade bucatini, each strand coated in its sauce of tomato, pecorino-romano, guanciale, and basil, is matchless. Arguably, so is the Risotto. Stirred with saffron, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and butter-poached lobster, its broth and meat is imbued in silken rice and plated with a succulent piece of clawmeat. Swoon.
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Nathan Zucker
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Nathan Zucker
Salmoriglio is an herbed lemon-olive oil condiment common in Sicily and Calabria used as both marinade and sauce on fish. Mantuano uses this to great success on his fresh catch. Ours was grouper, served with garlicky cannellini bean puree, nestled with blistered grape tomatoes.The lamb dish is exceptional: a loin cut, wrapped in lamb bacon and roasted to rosy tenderness. In this seasonal preparation, the meat is set in a chunky puree of fava beans, accompanied by sliced plums and a dab of preserved mustard seed. Visually, it is stunning. But it is the harmony of sweet fruit, savory legumes, and salty bacon, punctuated by that pungent mustard note that makes the dish sing.
What to order:
Panzanella, $18
Bucatini all’Amatriciana, $28
Risotto, $32
Agnello, $50
Chef Marchetti’s dessert constructions are marvelous works of art. They are also delicious. Arancia Rossa is custard surrounded by bites of puff pastry, semolina spongecake, blood orange supremes, and salted meringue. It is served with a pipette of blood orange sauce: Chef likes to include your interaction with the dish. Squeeze it into the custard or over—whatever you like. Delightful!
Nathan Zucker
The ambiance, food, and beverage are intrinsic components, uplifted by the art of fine service. The Mantuanos are masters of hospitality: when you experience it, you get the difference. To be welcomed with warmth and attended to with informed guidance, to have your needs anticipated, to see a team bring out your courses and serve them with aplomb—these actions all combine to heighten your time spent under their care. It makes a meal at Yolan unforgettable.
“We love challenges, and were ready for a new one,” says Mantuano. “Cathy and I love Nashville and the opportunity to share our brand of hospitality. It’s why we live.”
Yolan, Inside The Joseph Hotel, 403 4th Ave. S., 615-248-1990; yolannashville.com