Boka Restaurant Group Sets Nashville openings
Chicago-based Boka Restaurant Group will make its Nashville debut June 5 with the opening of Momotaro and Middleman in Wedgewood Houston, the first phase of a three-concept project that will eventually include Italian restaurant Alla Vita.
The openings add another nationally recognized restaurant group to a Nashville dining scene that has spent the last decade evolving from a regional food city into a destination that increasingly attracts outside operators.
"Nashville absolutely is a national restaurant city now," Boka Restaurant Group co-founder Kevin Boehm told The Tennessean. Boka's portfolio includes some of Chicago's best-known restaurants, including Girl + the Goat and Boka. The Nashville locations mark the first expansion of both Momotaro and Alla Vita outside Chicago.
Boehm, who lived in Nashville in the late 1990s and operated the now-closed Six Degrees, said the company spent years looking for the right opportunity to enter the market. "For years, we've hoped to bring restaurants to Nashville, but we were committed to finding the right neighborhood for the right concepts,"Boehm and co-founder Rob Katz said in a statement. "Wedgewood Houston checks every box."
The project occupies a corner space within AJ Capital Partners' Wedgewood Village development and is designed to encourage diners to move between multiple concepts over the course of an evening.
At the center is Middleman, a whiskey-focused cocktail bar inspired by Tennessee's whiskey heritage. The beverage program includes classic and contemporary cocktails, Tennessee whiskey, agave spirits and vintage liqueurs.
On one side of the bar sits Momotaro by chef Gene Kato, the Japanese concept that first opened in Chicago's Fulton Market district in 2014. The Nashville restaurant introduces several features not found in Chicago, including the brand's first dedicated temaki hand-roll program and a dry-aging program for bluefin tuna and kampachi.
Still to come is Alla Vita, an Italian concept led by Michelin-starred chef Lee Wolen and built around handmade pastas, pizza and Italian comfort food. Boehm called Wolen "one of the great pasta chefs in the world." The menu will feature dishes such as ricotta dumplings, rigatoni alla vodka and wood-fired pizzas.
"It's supposed to feel loud and fun and easy and warm," Boehm said. "People don't understand how much seriousness is behind the food. But that's kind of the point."