The dining room is lovely and luminous, but Henrietta Red’s marble bar can make a stool sitter out of the most table-driven diner—especially for the close access to bartenders that can spirit guide you through general manager-sommelier Allie Poindexter’s eclectic natural wine menu.
Growing up in a family of talented chefs and eaters, Allie Poindexter has had a lifelong love affair with food and drink. Throughout her career, she’s worked in food advocacy to provide students across the country with free, healthy lunches; spent time in the food publishing industry; and received her masters in World History with a focus in food studies. Before opening Henrietta Red in 2017, she completed her Level Two sommelier certification, bringing a new level of expertise to the wine list there.
Nashville native Julia Sullivan and business partner Allie Poindexter ended the city’s oyster drought when they opened this critically lauded spot in Germantown in 2017. Sullivan’s seasonal seafood is artfully paired with wine chosen by sommelier Poindexter.
When sommelier Allie Poindexter and her business partner, Julia Sullivan, opened their Germantown restaurant, Henrietta Red, in early 2017, all eyes were on Nashville…Bon Appetit named it one of the country’s best new restaurants of the year. Poindexter’s exceptional service and creative list has kept the restaurant steadily booked since it opened.
…the duo has been racking up accolades, including being named to Southern Living’s list of 30 Women Moving Southern Food Forward. Today, Poindexter’s wine program at the Nashville restaurant is carefully curated to provide perfect pairings with oysters and seafood, while also working hard to turn guests on to something new—like pinot blanc from Pfalz.
Overseen by co-owner Allie Poindexter, the natural-leaning wine list of more than 50 bottles is eclectic, focusing on lesser-known regions in France and Italy, as well as picks from the U.S., Germany and Austria.
Chef Julia Sullivan and sommelier Allie Poindexter appointed the big boxy space with clean lines, white brick walls, splashes of slate and midnight blue, gray-veined marble countertops and a sliding wooden farmhouse door. It’s a dining room you’d take a photo of and keep as inspiration for your own dream remodel, or at least I did.
We come to Henrietta Red as much for the surroundings as the food. It’s an immensely pretty dining room, spacious, flooded with natural light, and accented with tons of natural wood and beautifully designed contemporary furniture. But it’s also casual—a neighborhood spot in the middle of historic Germantown, with a homey, welcoming feel.
The Germantown neighborhood just north of downtown is packed with dining options, and one getting buzz lately is Henrietta Red, which made the James Beard list of best new restaurants this year…
Julia Sullivan and Allie Poindexter | Created by business partners, chef Julia Sullivan and manager Allie Poindexter, Henrietta Red’s refreshing, polished vibe complimented by vegetable-and-seafood-centric dishes is a departure from the established Nashville dining scene—and it’s not just the noticeable absence of a hot chicken variation.
Everything you need to know about the growing meaninglessness of traditional dining categories is that $220-per-diner Dialogue is described on Google Maps as a “New American Bistro.” If that descriptor applies anywhere, it's Julia Sullivan's Henrietta Red, in Nashville, where simple dishes are made dazzling by tiny details: littleneck clams dabbed with a bright escabeche of Calabrian chile and pineapple vinegar and roofed with a single nasturtium leaf; salty cured egg yolk in a beef tartare; the touch of smoked olive in a nourishing lamb sausage with lentils or the bite of whole-grain-mustard emulsion on a simple but shining fillet of wild striped bass.
At Henrietta Red in Nashville, Tenn., opposites not only attract, they often make the best pairings. Julia Sullivan and Allie Poindexter’s seasonal seafood restaurant and oyster bar is situated in a landlocked city that’s long been a steakhouse stronghold and has been earning rave reviews since it opened last February.
Henrietta Red, a restaurant in the Germantown neighborhood of Nashville that opened last February, has many of the telltale trappings of Instagram clickbait. While there’s no millennial pink, the black sandwich board and expanse of marble at the bar, coupled with the wishbone chairs and tile-framed wood-burning oven in the dining room, fit a certain envy-inducing aesthetic. But unlike other places that hit those idealized notes, Henrietta Red lives up to its image as a place you actually want to be.
Part of separating themselves from the pack had to do with their relationships. Lager came on board because her younger sister, Allie Poindexter, is Henrietta Red’s general manager and sommelier. And Poindexter’s business partner is chef Julia Sullivan, who is also a friend of Lager’s. As a trio, Lager says that they worked together to create a space that's based on "bold simplicity, craftsmanship, lightness, and warmth."
There's a variety of affordable wine by the bottle (in the $50 range), as well as craft beers from notable Tennessee breweries like Blackberry Farm. Cocktails are a nod to the now-defunct Nashville theme park Opryland USA with fun names like Tin Lizzy and Flume Zoom. For a college throwback, come on Thursdays when they serve different flavors of Jell-O shots.
There was a time when visitors who wanted a taste of Nashville could get it in three stops: biscuits at the Loveless Cafe, a meat-and-three lunch at Arnold’s Country Kitchen, and a fiery drumstick at that pioneer of the now-nationwide trend, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack—and maybe a Goo Goo Cluster for dessert. Then outsiders, from tech companies to restaurateurs, started discovering what musicians have long known: Nashville as the “third coast” to New York and Los Angeles…
Video: Allie’s Wine Pairings
"When putting together a wine list for Thanksgiving, most people rarely include vermouth as an option. Matthiasson winery in Napa Valley makes a delicious sweet vermouth flavored with homegrown blood oranges and sour cherries…”
Zagat has released its first-ever 30 under 30 list of “culinary industry superstars.” For six years, Zagat has run a 30 under 30 program, honoring industry leaders, from chefs to sommeliers and restaurant owners, in city-specific lists, from Dallas to Boston to Seattle. This is the first time that the restaurant guide has picked the top 30 honorees that make up a comprehensive national list.
THE VIBE IS: one of the most beautiful dining rooms we came across all year: marble-topped oyster bar, whitewashed exposed brick walls, leather chairs, and so on. Expect to see at least one bachelorette party (they love Nashville).
