I suspect it was the red wine braised beef short ribs that sealed the deal for Chef Brian Hainley to create his Belle restaurant at the Belle Meade Plantation last year. After all, he’s not from here, as his predecessor Martha Stamps assuredly is, able to trace her Middle Tennessee ancestry back to the late 1700s. That’s nearly three decades before John Harding purchased 250 acres of land near Richland Creek with the intent of breeding thoroughbred horses. Over the next century, many more acres were acquired; a home was constructed in 1820 and expanded several times as the property remained in the Harding-Jackson family. In 1906, the Belle Meade Plantation passed out of their hands and went through a series of owners also with locally recognized names like Overton, McGavock and Dickinson. In 1953, the State of Tennessee purchased the home and deeded it in trust to the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities. In 1986, Irene Wills, a descendant of the Jackson family, developed a committee to raise funds to restore the Belle Meade house to its late 19th century appearance.
On a property where history, bloodlines and connections carry so much weight, 30-year-old Hainley came calling on the Belle Meade Plantation Board with none of the above. Though he went to high school a few years in Nashville, his father’s work kept the family on the move around the country, and he had little opportunity to put down roots.
Hainley did have hands-on kitchen experience that began when he was a teen, a diploma from the CIA in Hyde Park, N.Y., stints in top-shelf restaurants under nationally recognized chefs such as Tim Goodell at Aubergine Restaurant in Newport Beach, Calif., and three years running his own restaurant—Café Sonoma, in Pinehurst, N.C. Though it was successful, and he met his wife there, Hainley harbored fond memories of Tennessee and came back seeking opportunity.
It was businessman and former boss Sandy Ligon who told him that Stamps was closing her nine-year-old Martha’s at the Plantation and suggested he make an inquiry. Hainley knew of Stamps, but was unaware of her iconic reputation in Belle Meade. He was also naïve to the fact that far more tenured restaurateurs were vying for the space.
Perhaps ignorance is bliss. Hainley came before the board with a menu, a commitment to overhaul the kitchen and re-do the dining rooms, and the bold statement that he wasn’t so much interested in creating a Belle Meade restaurant as he was a restaurant for all of Nashville. But ultimately, it might have been the short ribs.
“I interviewed with them, but they didn’t really know me, or know what kind of food I do, so I offered to cook a multi-course meal for them. They must have liked it and liked the concept because it was about a week later when they told me I had the place.”
The braised short ribs would have won me over as well if I had been at that audition. So confident is Hainley in their allure that they make four appearances on the lunch and dinner menus. The braised short rib melt teams the pulled meat with melted cheddar; the braised short rib pappardelle tosses the meat with the pasta, toasted pine nuts, tomatoes and arugula. The braised shirt rib entrée positions a pile of beef and bone next to creamy celeriac puree drizzled with braising jus and al dente haricots vert, a most comforting culinary port in the chill of winter. But perhaps the gaudiest—albeit insanely tasty—use of his signature short ribs is The 205 Burger. As rich as the zip code for which it’s named, this burger wraps about a quarter-pound of juicy ground meat around a ball of shredded short rib, plops tangy-sweet red onion jam on top, inserts it between two fat bun halves slathered with butter and grainy Dijon mustard, and delivers it like a trophy to diners with a generous side of crispy shoestring fries spilling out of a silver mint julep cup. Perhaps nothing else illustrates so vividly Hainley’s friendly takeover of this genteel Southern tea room than the sight of garden club ladies who pledged allegiance to Martha’s pimento cheese approach the four-inch-tall 205 Burger, armed with knife and fork, in wild abandon of their daily calorie count. Though the $16 beef bomb carries what is likely the heftiest price for a burger in town, it should deter few from what is inarguably the best burger in town,
with all due respect to Fat Mo’s.
Well before one opens the menu, the transformation is apparent: An antique sideboard that would look right at home in the Belle Meade Mansion serves as hostess stand, broad enough for large vases of fresh flowers and leather-encased reservation ledger. Here diners will be greeted by gracious dining room manager Korrie Traugott, who worked with Hainley in North Carolina and came to Nashville to help implement this venture....
Belle Restaurant, 5025 Harding Pike, (615) 356-0096