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Just a staircase above Ford Fry’s acclaimed Germantown restaurant The Optimist sits Le Loup.
This cocktail bar on high feels every bit of a hidden gem. The space is awash in rich colors, with deep green marble splashed throughout. Seating spans the peninsula bar—a work of art in itself—and vignettes that serve French salon vibes. A vintage stone mantel centerpiece sets the mood with warm, comfortable fireside seating. Chic sofas surround antique-style coffee tables for larger parties, while coordinating sets of chairs dot the room for more intimate dates. A custom underwater mural by artist Rebecca Green Illustration highlights the bar’s seafood centric menu of light bites and oysters.
But it’s the cocktail program that shines brightest throughout the dimly lit space. Masterminding that impeccably curated cocktail menu is Nashville-native Kenneth Vanhooser who returns to his hometown by way of New York, where he spent a decade mastering his craft alongside some
of the industry’s biggest names. But when restaurateur Ford Fry and his team at Rocket Farm Restaurants came calling with an invitation to return to Music City, they did so with an offer Vanhooser couldn’t refuse.
“When they decided to open a cocktail bar [here] they asked if I’d be interested and I was like, ‘My wife will never move to Nashville!’ She’s a native New Yorker, so I didn’t think I’d be able to convince her,” Vanhooser laughs. “But she said I needed to call them and feel it out. Turns out they always had me in mind for Le Loup, so we bought a house almost sight-unseen and moved down and a few months later the pandemic started. But in the meantime, I got myself back into the scene here and that was the best thing I could have done, so it was a nice welcome home. Then The Optimist was able to open and now we’re excited that Le Loup is finally open.”
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A menu of 50-plus cocktails spanning multiple categories means that there’s a libation for every discerning palette at Le Loup. And to make navigating the lists easy, Vanhooser and his team stuck to the same easy-to-follow format for each category.
“The menu is laid out in drinkability. At the top of the list is the light and most refreshing, the middle is a mix, and at the end are drinks that are going to be more boozy and moody and a little esoteric,” Vanhooser says. “If you’re looking for something light and refreshing, no matter what menu category you’re in, you’re going to stay around the first three or four cocktails. If you want to be a little more adventurous, you’ll work your way down the menu. That’s how we were able to create a menu with so many cocktails without overwhelming the guests.”
The Originals menu includes creative cocktails from the mind of Vanhooser himself, including Murmur of the Heart, a highball glass of hopped vodka, grapefruit, aperol, lime, club soda and citrus salt. The Martini menu offers a range of the beloved cocktail through the years, starting with Martinez from 1880 and culminating in the Lychee Martini, circa 1993. On the Classics and Forgotten Classics menus, old-school favorites tempt the taste buds with familiar flavors. Try the Highball which gets a modern twist by way of Japanese whisky mixed with scotch, seltzer, and lemon essence or the Fix, a delightful mix of two gins, lemon, and cane sugar served over crushed ice. The ice is key to the cocktails at Le Loup and learning how to work with it is no small feat.
“This is Japanese bartending, which is a completely different style than any of these bartenders have ever worked in.” Vanhooser says. “It’s a little daunting to learn 50-plus new cocktails and ten different new techniques that you’ve never done. I couldn’t be prouder of the team—their flexibility and their agility.”
More than half of the drinks on Le Loup’s menu utilize hand-cut ice cubes and cutting that ice can be extremely dangerous to the untrained bartender.
“We have two stations hand carving ice all night,” he says. “We’ve gone through numerous trainings because there’s a lot of health and safety that go into that and it’s a fast-paced environment. The team trained with me for upwards of a hundred hours before opening. To see the training wheels fall off and everybody start running with it, that’s been really fun to watch.”
And while the flavors of each cocktail are profiled on the menu, the specific liquor brands used in them are not. That is by design, says Vanhooser, who wants patrons to focus on the cocktail itself and not rely on brand loyalty to place their order.
“We decided not to put brand names on most of the spirits because we don’t want to overwhelm people with vocabulary they may not know, so we started doing it more like vintage cocktail clubs and saying, ‘French vermouth’ or ‘Italian vermouth,’” he says. “That organization helps us behind the bar and sets us up for success.”
As for the bites, there’s no shortage of delicious options there, either. Of course, a space adjacent to The Optimist has incredible seafood, from freshwater oysters to razor clams and spot prawns. At Le Loup, there are also signature snacks like classic smoked fish dip, scallop crudo, and foie gras and duck liver parfait. But do yourself a favor and place an immediate order for the indulgent, must- try tots—house-made and drenched in the dreamiest, meltiest raclette. Each dish serves the cocktail program proudly, once again calling attention to Le Loup’s mission to welcome customers in for a pre-meal drink or an after-dinner nightcap. (1400 Adams St.; leloupnashville.com)