The Food Biz: Barlow gets a Tayst for catering

Also: The cupcake craze reaches Bread & Company and Bongo Java offers Beans for Clunkers [From our print edition featured in Monday's City Paper]

Email | Print By Dana Kopp Franklin

Jeremy Barlow

Jeremy Barlow, chef and owner of tayst, the Hillsboro Village-area restaurant and wine bar, has expanded into a new venture — catering. And Local Kitchen Catering launches today.

Barlow is a Culinary Institute of America graduate who has carved a niche for tayst as an eco-friendly “green restaurant,” as certified by the Boston-based Green Restaurant Association.

Catering fare primarily will be prepared in the kitchen at tayst, 2100 21st Ave. S., which means it will benefit from Barlow’s green efforts, including an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients and biodegradable containers. He says he’ll purchase carbon-offsets to match each catered event.

Local Kitchen Catering will handle cocktail gatherings, dinner parties (plated or buffet) and business lunches. The owner also promises an intriguing option he calls an “Iron Chef” party.

“You’ll invite, say 10 people, each guest will source a different local ingredient, bring it along, then I show up and cook dinner with what they bring me,” he says.

Bread & Company lets ‘em eat cupcakes

Franklin baker Ivey Childers has teamed up with local chain Bread & Company to sell Childers’ line of gourmet cupcakes at all four Bread & Company locations.

Childers was a first-time business owner when she opened IveyCake bakery last year in historic downtown Franklin. She specializes in novel and familiar flavors with whimsical names.

The cupcakes Bread & Company carries are: The Breakup (red velvet with cream cheese icing), Goodie Two Shoes (vanilla with buttercream icing), Bad Kisser (chocolate with chocolate icing), Big Dreams (strawberry with cream cheese icing), Total Flake (vanilla with coconut), Two Faced (chocolate with cream cheese icing) and The Apology (vanilla with chocolate icing). The current seasonal cupcake is Charmed (pumpkin with cream cheese icing).

Cupcakes are $3 a piece or $30 a dozen.

Brewing up Beans for Clunkers idea

Bongo Java owner Bob Bernstein has come up with a unique promotion at his coffeehouse locations: Beans for Clunkers. Customers are welcome to bring in any bag of unopened coffee and they’ll receive a fresh pound of Bongo Java coffee in return.

Inspired by the Cash for Clunkers program, it’s a limited-time offer with one transaction per customer. (Unlike the real Cash for Clunkers, the non-Bongo coffee won’t be sent to an auto graveyard. It will be donated to a charity or food bank.) The deal is available at Fido, Bongo Java and Bongo Java East.

Bobby, what a big surprise!

Meanwhile, as work continues on Fido’s expansion into the former sushi house space next door, Bernstein made a discovery. While removing plaster in the empty space, Bernstein says his crew got a surprise: vintage milk and produce ads painted on the walls, possibly dating back as far as 1919.

The crew will try to preserve as much of the paintings as possible while knocking a door into the wall. Bernstein expects the work to be done in 6-8 weeks.

— For more on Nashville’s restaurant scene, visit blogs.nashvillescene.com/bites.