Inside Iggy’s, Nashville’s Hottest Opening of the Summer
If you go to Iggy’s, you’re getting the pasta. Not only because it’s the most raved-about dish on the menu, but because it’s the only dish on the menu.
“Our stance is, this is what we do,” owner and executive chef Ryan Poli said. “We really take our time to make sure it’s right and the textures are proper and the flavors are interesting. We’re having a lot of fun.”
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Iggy’s, which opened last week in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, is the first solo venture between Ryan and his brother, Matthew, who serves as beverage director and GM. The duo previously teamed up at Nashville’s celebrated tasting menu spot the Catbird Seat from 2016 to 2018.
At Iggy’s, they celebrate their favorite things, craft cocktails, good music, and, of course, making and eating fresh pasta.
“There’s a bunch of restaurants I go to and they have other things on the menu, but I always am like, ‘Oh, I’ll just take these four or five pastas for the table.’ They’re like, ‘Don’t you want the steak for two?’ ‘No, no, I don’t want any of that. Just gimme the pasta,’” Ryan said. “Anytime that I think something is good or cool, there’s got to be other people thinking the same thing. I can’t be the only one who loves pasta in America.”
While the pasta traditional Italian in style, the flavors are not. Ruffled Creste di Gallo pasta is paired with shrimp, a butter sauce made from cold-infused lemon dashi, preserved lemons, and fresh lemon juice, and is topped with spicy Togarashi powder. It’s sour, smoky, and creamy all at once. Another dish, the Maine crab tortellini is made with yuzu kosho (citrus-chili paste), sea urchin butter, and toasted seaweed.
There are a few other types of dishes on the menu like steak tartare, and Stracciatella (mozzarella soaked in cream) served with onion jam, basil, arugula, and sourdough, but for the most part, it’s pasta, prepared with Italian technique and given bold, worldly flavors.
Before his stint at the Catbird Seat, Ryan spent decades working in other peoples’ kitchens, including The French Laundry, Spain’s La Broche and Martín Berasategui, Noma Japan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. After leaving the renowned Nashville spot, Ryan needed a break. He vacationed in Southeast Asia for six months, doing yoga and jiu jitsu in the jungle.
“I just never wanted to work for anybody anymore,” Ryan said. “Simple as that. I’m tired of working for dickheads.”
He got hooked up with a resort in Bali that hired him to do some consulting work. He settled in Bali in early 2020, but then, of course, the pandemic happened, so he moved back to Nashville, where he owned an Airbnb property that was lying dormant, to ride it out. He had every intention of returning to Bali, but the pandemic’s uncertainly stretched on and he never did.
“I was living in paradise, just hanging out,” Ryan said. “It’s funny how life works out. If there was no pandemic, I’d probably still be living in Bali. I guess everything happens for a reason.”
With nothing better to do, Ryan picked back up a pipe dream he had to start his own restaurant with Matthew, who had gone on to work at Blackberry Mountain. Ryan wanted to do things his way, and investors, including regulars from the Catbird Seat, bought in. The Chicago natives named it Iggy’s after one of their favorite Windy City late-night hangouts that no longer exists.
At the 70-seat restaurant, the goal is to feed and entertain.
“We have an hour and a half to grab these people and show them a great dinner party,” Ryan said. “Lighting and music and food and drinks and warm hospitality and friendly service, that’s all part of it.”
He’s been working on the playlist for years, relying on the Talking Heads and Digible Planets to help build the vibe. And Matthew’s beverage menu, featuring modern Italian spritzes and emerging wine producers, rounds it all out.
In the future, they would like to open a market side to Iggy’s, where they can sell their fresh pasta raw, by the pound, and sauces by the quart. They’d also stock unique cheeses and merch, and offer a monthly pasta subscription so people can experience all of the shapes, sizes, and flavors they offer, at home.
In addition to being a reliable neighborhood hangout, Ryan wants his restaurant to be “an engine of change,” providing his staff with good wages and reasonable hours, and prioritizing their mental and physical well-being.
“We have to be kind and everything has to be met with empathy,” he said. “Is [running a restaurant] frustrating? Yeah, it’s going to be frustrating, but we’re not going to scream and yell or throw knives or kick people like in some of the places that I came up and in some of the stories that you hear. Those days are gone. If you’re still operating like that, good luck.”
Click here to see more images of Iggy’s in Nashville.
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