Local on Main Street celebrated its grand reopening Saturday, October 12th. The restaurant at 95 South Main Street closed late September, but it’s back with a new look and new furnishings, says Tim Quinn, who, along with his wife Tarrah own the restaurant as well as Madison Tavern, formerly Local on the Square, in Overton Square.
And, on October 19th, the Quinns will open a new business in the basement of Local on Main Street, The Other Side, which will carry cannabis-based products.
Quinn, who bought Local on Main Street on January 15, 2021, just felt it was time to overhaul the restaurant, which originally opened about 12 years before they bought it. “I just figured it could use some freshening up. We closed it down and gave it a new paint job, some new furniture, and a new menu. And that’s, hopefully, something that will get the attention of the neighborhood.”
Describing the decor, he says, “We painted some of the wood a whiter color. We brightened it some. It’s been a stained wood for a long time.”
The new butcher block tabletops “are a lighter color.”
And, he says, “It just always had a dimmer atmosphere, so I figured a few bright colors would brighten it up a little bit. And we put up some new pictures. A small change for the clientele, but nothing too crazy. Nothing too drastic.”
The artwork includes pieces by Ron Wood, a photographer who lives Downtown. Wood and his wife Jackie have been regulars since the Quinns took over both places.
The restaurant still seems intimate even though it seats 45 upstairs, 15 at the bar, and 15 outdoors.
As for the food, the new menu has “maybe a New Orleans feel to it. A Jackson Square feel.”
They feature jambalaya, gumbo, and traditional po’ boys on the menu. “A boiled-shrimp-served-cold po’ boy.”
The menu is “mostly Creole New Orleans-type dishes,” but, Quinn says, “We’re keeping our egg rolls on the menu because people are knocking on the door daily — even while we were painting — asking if I have any egg rolls I can fry up.”
They will continue to feature hot wings the menu, but they’ve changed the wing sauce that they’ve “used for 15 years. It was time to get rid of it.”
And, Quinn adds, “If anybody wants the recipe, I’ll give it to them. But they’ve got to come buy a beer.”
Customers can order coffee and tea upstairs and then go downstairs to add a “cannabis accoutrement” to it at The Other Side, but they can’t sit down and order from the Local on Main Street menu. The basement space is where they can buy cannabis-related products. “All legal Tennessee THCA Delta-9, Delta-8, things of that nature. Some edibles, pre-rolls.”
Downstairs will “be strictly a dispensary or an apothecary deal. It’s not going to be a smoking lounge or anything of that nature.”
“We don’t have a cannabis menu at all,” Quinn says, but he plans to offer THCA-infused desserts at the restaurant. “There will be toppings and cannabis desserts and some other things we will be incorporating into the restaurant.
“You can do cheesecake with an infused-caramel topping or brownies added with THCA.”
Local on Main Street will eventually get a new name, but Quinn says, “We’re not really branding it as of right now. Downtown has just seemed, in general, to be in a slump for a lot of people.”
And naming a restaurant isn’t the easiest thing in the world. He thought about naming it after his family. “At first I called it Quinn’s, but I hate to put my name on it. It gives it a different feel when it’s got someone’s name on it. I don’t know if it makes it more approachable or less approachable.”
Plus, Quinn says, “I’m not going to have Irish food.”