2 weeks Ago By Kelsey Beyeler
Mole negro The long-awaited brick-and-mortar iteration of Maiz de la Vida is finally here, standing as yet another testament to chef Julio Hernandez’s talent, creativity and ambition . Located in the Antiques Building at the border of the Gulch and Pie Town, the new restaurant pays homage to both Mexico and Tennessee — and celebrates what can happen when the two cultures converge. “I don’t think it would be fair to just do everything Mexico,” Hernandez tells the Scene .
“As I don’t think it will strike as good if we do everything Nashville. So we’re trying to balance that act, and I think it’s showing.” It is.
Take the beautiful pots that decorate the building. Though they look like they could have been imported from Mexico (as is the case for the restaurant’s stone plates, which are sourced from Oaxaca), the pots are made by local artist Cesar Pita — and they’re available for purchase. And while Maiz de la Vida’s heirloom corn, which is the very soul of Hernandez’s food, is imported from Mexico, the chef has been collaborating with Caney Fork Farms to grow similar varieties here in Middle Tennessee.
Though the partnership is compelling, the farm is not yet able to match the demand. Hernandez says that between the new restaurant, the East Nashville food truck, the Bordeaux-area commissary kitchen that sells tortillas and to-go lunches and catering services, Maiz de la Vida goes through a thousand pounds of corn each week. Maiz de la Vida 606 Eighth Ave.
S., Suite 100 maizdelavida.com Another unexpectedly high-demand ingredient is duck.
Though duck is served only in the new restaurant’s mole negro , Maiz de la Vida’s demand outgrew the supply of their purveyor just two weeks after opening. If you taste the dish, you’ll understand why. Preparing it is a four-day process including more than 30 ingredients that require different stages of their own prep, from toasting to frying to burning.
The ingredients are then passed through the molino — or mill — which makes for a deeply concentrated paste. The rich, velvety mole negro accompanies duck breast, sweet potatoes and a cracker made from sesame seeds and egg whites. Yet another reflection of Maiz de la Vida’s Tennessee-Mexico union is a grits dish that features a “three sisters” vegetable medley of corn, beans and squash.
Though Hernandez had cooked grits in previous jobs, making them from scratch presented a learning curve. From left, Chepe Laredo, Julio Hernández and Obed Vallejo “We had to teach ourselves how to make grits,” says Hernandez. “In the process, we discovered polenta and cornmeal, and we decided to leave it in the grits to add more body — because normally those are three byproducts.
” Hernandez has also been teaching a new generation of local chefs to perfect their tortilla-making skills — aside from his employees from Guatemala and Mexico, who already knew how to prepare them and have taught Hernandez a few things. The process presents an entire universe of skill and technique, from achieving the right level of hydration to cooking the tortillas just long enough on each side. Alongside the dinner service — which provides a more elevated dining experience with dishes like mole, salmon, chicken milanesa and shrimp aguachile (and tacos, of course) — you can also swing by the restaurant for quick, casual lunch options like burritos.
Hernandez tells the Scene his team is planning to launch brunch service on Nov. 9. Margarita Hernandez’s path to opening the restaurant has been a long one — from growing up in Tlaxcala, Mexico, where his family harvested maize, to cooking in country clubs and deciding to make and sell tortillas during the pandemic.
In the earliest days of Maiz de la Vida, you would have to message Hernandez on social media for a batch of his homemade tortillas, which he would deliver to anyone within a 30-mile radius. From there he started selling tortillas at farmers markets, which turned into a few pop-up collaborations, and then the permanently parked food truck that still sits outside East Nashville’s Chopper Tiki . Before he even opened the new restaurant, Hernandez’s cooking garnered national attention: He appeared on Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil and was a 2023 semifinalist in the James Beard Awards’ Emerging Chef category.
Hernandez also won the Scene ’s Iron Fork contest earlier this year, the trophy for which is displayed in his restaurant. But Hernandez has by no means done this all alone. Along with Hernandez’s business partner Andy Mumma and general manager Nick Dolan, Chepe Laredo works as the chef de cocina , and Obed Vallejo is the executive sous chef.
David Broomhead runs the bar, which includes a bevy of cocktails and a curated selection of mezcal and tequila. Though the opening of the Maiz de la Vida restaurant is exciting in its own right, it’s just the beginning of a whole era. It’s just a matter of time before we’ll start seeing even more intriguing moves coming from Hernandez and company, from weekly specials to possible collaborations, or perhaps future tasting menus.
Regardless of what lies ahead, Hernandez assures us of one thing we can count on. “Salsas will be spicy, I promise.”.
