Ryan Poli of Iggy’s in Nashville gets ready to open a steakhouse
Ryan Poli opened the first restaurant where he was the boss just three years ago. Before that he’d spent decades running other people’s restaurants in Chicago — Butter, Perennial, Tavernita — as well as Catbird Seat in Nashville, but Iggy’s, an Italian restaurant in the Nashville neighborhood of Wedgewood-Houston, is the first one that he fully owns, with his brother Matthew Poli. Ryan’s the chef, and Matthew, a certified sommelier and cicerone, runs the front of the house.
Ryan Poli is highly credentialed, having trained at The French Laundry in the Napa Valley under Thomas Keller as well as at Le Français in the Chicago suburbs under Jean Banchet. He also worked overseas in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and gained further acclaim at Catbird Seat in Nashville.
Next came a somewhat tumultuous period in his life when he traveled the world to recenter himself. He staged with other chefs, including Dan Barber and Marc Vetri, worked overseas, and spent several months working with Will Goldfarb on the Indonesian island of Bali before returning home at the onset of the pandemic.
He and his brother opened in Iggy’s in 2023 under a business model that allowed everyone to get paid well while also turning a profit, and he has similar plans for Claymore, which the Polis plan to open a few blocks away in the first half of next year.
Listen as Poli discusses his journey, his management philosophy, and his plans for Claymore.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
