Jen McDonald
Walk into Josephine in 12 South, and you’ll instantly pick up on its homey, welcoming energy. It radiates from the tufted banquettes, well-loved red rugs, and delicate chandeliers, and out from the bustling bar and kitchen just beyond. Culinary power couple chef Andy Little and his wife, Karen Van Guilder Little, infuse the space with comforting hospitality and thoughtful details. A meal here might start with a sturdy drink at the bar, followed by a menu that marries Pennsylvania Dutch with Southern cuisine, and closes with one of the restaurant’s show-stopping desserts.
Jen McDonald
Karen and Andy Little
It’s no surprise that the Littles like to gather friends and family on their rare nights off, too. Usually their family get-togethers take place inside their cozy two-bedroom condo. When we asked the couple to put together their dream holiday dinner party, they opted to host it at their home-away-from-home, Josephine.
No matter who they’re hosting, Andy and Karen enjoy sharing a piece of their own personal histories on the menu, often serving up the dishes they grew up eating. For this dinner, the menu was a very personal combination of Andy’s Pennsylvania Dutch heritage alongside Karen’s Southern roots.
They set a long communal table inside the restaurant’s enclosed patio, where stacks of firewood and jars of preserved Cope’s corn make it feel like you’re sitting within a hearth-driven home kitchen. Karen decorated the table with autumnal flowers and candles, and on another table set up the bar and an appetizer station.
As their friends arrived, Karen poured glasses of Müller-Catoir Riesling and directed them to help themselves to platters of deviled eggs and rectangular bites of duckfat hash browns.
“This menu is basically half of my upbringing and half of Karen’s upbringing,” Andy announced to the hungry crowd.
Jen McDonald
For dinner, there would be Cope’s dried sweet corn in the cornbread and corn pudding, a ham from Kentucky’s Broadbent Foods, and slow-cooked collard greens that Andy insisted, “should be cooked up the night before so they can soak up all of the sauce.”
After a drink and a snack, the crowd sat down to dinner. Andy and Karen had invited a mix of old and new friends, like poet and teacher Caroline Randall Williams, who once lived in an apartment above the restaurant and spent some nights grading papers at the bar, and her mother, author Alice Randall. There were also longtime regulars Diane and Mike, who met the Littles during a farm dinner, along with their neighbor Kimberly Lewis, who owns Emerson Grace a few doors down.
Platters were passed as the guests loaded up their plates with the fragrant slivers of three-day soaked ham, and heaping spoonfuls of collard greens studded with ham hocks.
“The smell of those bring me back to my grandma’s cooking,” Caroline declared before telling Steve, one of the restaurant’s line cooks, “you’ve got to get a big piece of the ham hock on your plate there, too.”
Jen McDonald
Talk turned to the food and Andy’s recipes, nearly all of which were family favorites and not usually found at the restaurant (save for the brown butter cornbread, which is on regular rotation). The corn pudding, made with sweet corn that had been soaked for two days beforehand, was a pillow of sweet custard laced with corn kernels, sweet onion, and thyme.
As the restaurant’s wine director, Karen puts an emphasis on Old World wines and chose a 2017 Morgon Cote du Py, an earthy, fruit-forward Beaujolais, to pair with dinner. When the time finally came for desserts, Andy loaded up the dessert table: A Shoo Fly pie, made with a mix of blackstrap molasses and sorghum molasses; a pineapple upside-down cake; caramel corn; and a pile of Aunt Deedy’s chocolate chewy candies pulled from his great grandmother’s recipe—just like a molasses-based Tootsie Roll. To cap off the table, he added a big bowl of fluffy cream. “It’s not a dessert table without a big bowl of whipped cream,” he said.
The cake and pie were quickly passed around the table and the plates and guests groaned in fulfillment. It was a meal that captured the couple’s spirit, while celebrating the home they’ve made here in Nashville.