Sitting inside their newly launched wood-fire restaurant, Pelican & Pig on Gallatin Avenue, Nick and Audra Guidry marvel at the path that brought them to this juncture.
Jen McDonald
Audra and Nick Guidry
When the couple met six years ago, Nick had just started his Slow Hand Coffee truck. Audra had been baking for a small café and supplied pastries for his mobile venture. Their mutual love of fine coffee and baked goods, their aligned philosophy on service, and a similar entrepreneurial spirit fueled a relationship. First, it was a business partnership: Audra recalls them drawing up a business plan over coffees at Dose in summer of 2013. Later, it was a life partnership: They married in May 2017.
In a brief span, the Guidrys grew their brand from coffee truck to wholesaling to bricks-and-mortar coffee shop across from Cummins Station. When they learned the building was being sold, they began a fervid search for a new location. Excitement grew when they found a former auto upholstery shop in East Nashville, with two adjoining spaces, which could house an expanded coffee and bakeshop (complete with hot breakfast) as well as a complementary concept: a full-service restaurant and bar to showcase Nick’s grilling prowess, inspired by the open wood fire techniques of Argentine chef Francis Mallmann. Right before leaving on their honeymoon, they got word their lease was accepted.
“At every step, every year, something has fallen into our laps,” notes Nick.
Audra nods. “Although the biggest hardships came with that space.”
Jen McDonald
Unethical contractors forced the Guidrys to do 90 percent of the restaurant and café build-out themselves. Nick built the bars, the café tables, the raised wood floor, and the wood-fired grill.
“I designed it to be modular. Instead of a menu revolving around the grill, the grill revolves around the menu. It gives us a lot of freedom,” Nick says. “Pelican & Pig is the anti-pigeonhole,” he adds.
That modular grill and open kitchen format commands the dining room. For more personal engagement, sit at the counter and watch the chef and team work their magic on sustainably raised meats, fish, and locally sourced vegetables. The menu will shift with the seasons, although a few dishes have become signatures to remain in the rotation.
1 of 3
Jen McDonald
2 of 3
Jen McDonald
3 of 3
Jen McDonald
The Sugar-Salt Ribs is one. The 24-hour cured pork gets beautifully smoked, then brushed in root beer-lime glaze. And there’s the Brussels Caesar: shaved sprouts, sunchoke, hazelnut, and parmesan in tangy dressing. Props go to Nick’s version of Shrimp-n-Grits, with its saucy Creole barbecue shrimp surrounding smoked tomato grit balls, which highlights both his creativity and New Orleans heritage. Look, too, for specials. A recent offering of crispy skinned snapper over smoked corn tiger de leche and puffed rice was exceptional.
“We’ll always have bread service,” Audra notes. Since opening, it’s been a yeasty 6-day sourdough. She is currently working on what she promises will be “a badass cornbread.”
Delectable desserts abound, but what has emerged most popular is Audra’s “Separation Anxiety,” fitting, if you’re too full. Take home a sack of her chocolate chip cookies and a crock of caramelized milk jam folded with crème fraiche. “Think liquid cheesecake,” says Audra.
That treat, enjoyed later, will bring you back to the pleasures of Pelican & Pig.
Pelican & Pig, 1010 Gallatin Ave., 615-730-6887; pelicanandpig.com