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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
Cook and owner Josh Wright opens his very first restaurant in his very own neighborhood tomorrow morning.
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
Baker Kyle Poston's using a built-to-order deck oven to bring a variety of breads and pastries to Grace Street.
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
"Solid Comfort"
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
Josh Wright takes a lot of pride in his food. You'll be able to taste why, and his nearly 15 years of kitchen experience, when Pop's Market on Grace opens tomorrow at 417 E. Grace St. In a gleaming, bright and airy 72-seat space, you'll find the cook and owner's house-made pastas — such as spinach, shrimp and artichoke ravioli, or fresh garganelli with sirloin meatballs — in addition to seared fajitas, gourmet sandwiches, European-inspired salads, polenta, pâté, and family-style hanger steak with large sides, all made from scratch. Just don't call him "chef."
“I don’t like ‘chef.’ I didn’t go to school [for it], not that you need to, but I didn’t earn that piece of paper," Wright says from behind the counter of his new restaurant and market. "It sounds pretentious to me. I just like to cook, and I’m the main one doin’ it.”
But even if Wright never earned his stripes in culinary school, he trained under an incredibly skilled chef, working with Philip Denny first at Six Burner, then again at Aziza's on Main. But it was Wright's trip to Europe that truly inspired him to launch his own concept, and upon his return, he set about to open a restaurant and market that would offer the flavors and products from his travels.
"I stayed in little places near big markets all through Italy," he says. "I went to Barcelona and Paris as well, and just got inspired by what was there. [Cooking] is what I love to do, so I was doing it all day even if I wasn’t getting paid for it. I was entertaining friends and eating and drinking and reading as much about it as I could.”
The result is a beautiful renovation in the Cokesbury Building, housing not only Wright's dishes, but also a small market offering every ingredient used in the kitchen, sold by the ounce.
There will be a selection of oils, beans, high-quality canned tomatoes; everything Wright believes one needs to build a Mediterranean pantry. Everything else will be fresh — herbs, dairy, produce and the meat he’s cooking. If he has more than enough for dinner service, he’ll cut you a slice of whatever he has in the back. Wright will also make three types of uncased, loose sausage in-house, also sold by the ounce. To start, he'll offer a sage breakfast sausage, a fresh chorizo sausage, and a spicy Italian sausage. To the left of the counter where he stands is a cold case, where future salads will sit — it's not, he says, going to be your typical deli fare. Expect pasta salads, grain salads, meat salads. On the dinner menu, you can find these and family-style platter meals for two or three; think paella, steak, and whole or half chickens.
During the day, the food is made to travel, whether it's a pastrami and Swiss sandwich with shaved mushrooms and onions, or a pan-seared, house-made English muffin holding a runny egg, bacon and cheese. The baked goods, all made by Kyle Poston (also formerly of Aziza's), will feature a lineup of four to six varieties of bread each day; bagels; croissants; English muffins; and biscuits, and will be available a la carte or used throughout the day for sandwiches.
“I want to do a lot of pan loaves, so anything from sandwich breads — like softer, more enriched doughs with sugars and fats — to a lean loaf bread," Poston says. "I’m definitely gonna do some naturally fermented stuff, in the pans and also more free-form loaves, like rounds and baguettes.”
The grab-and-go-concept should be convenient, but the space itself is worth taking a seat and taking a minute, whether it's at a reclaimed-wood table or in the corner near the fake fireplace, where a painting of a man relaxing by a fire hangs above the mantel. That picture, titled Solid Comfort, hanged in every house Wright ever inhabited, and when his father passed away, he inherited it, eventually placing it in his restaurant for a touch of home. Wright's mother will also be joining the workforce, greeting customers from behind the large wooden counter, bringing a touch of family, too.
"I live in Miller & Rhoads," Wright says. "This is my neighborhood. I’ve been here since ’09 and this place has needed this since day one. It’s going to be what the area needs."
Pop's Market on Grace opens tomorrow, Nov. 6, at 417 E. Grace St., and is open from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday; and 9 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m. on Sunday.
