JAMES GRADY
David Andrews, owner of one of Nashville’s newest high-end bakeries, is a Nashville boy, I found out when we chatted this fall. His love of cooking inspired him to seek his passion in one of the world’s culinary capitals, New York City. There he studied Pastry Arts at ICE. “The good one,” he was quick to point out— The Institute of Culinary Education. There he learned the skills that would take him to some of New York’s best kitchens, where he honed the craft that he has brought home to Nashville. If you haven’t had a chance to eat at D’Andrews, his bakery, or to at least grab a pastry to go, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. With fall upon us, and in the month of the “trick or treat,” D’Andrews is truly an invitation to treat yourself.
An Interview with Baker-In-Chief David Andrews
So you are a local. What took you out of Nashville? My family owned a clothing store in Belle Meade, and that closed. I needed something to do, and I always loved cooking and desserts, so I took that as an opportunity to go to New York and go to culinary school! While you were in New York, did you work in any well-known bakeries? The dirty little secret is I’ve never worked in a bakery before! This is my first bakery! So, out of culinary school, I worked at Gotham Bar & Grill Martin, which is a really prestigious restaurant in Greenwich Village. And then, after that, I did a couple of forgettable things, as we all do. Then I became the pastry chef at the Kimberly Hotel, which is on 50th between Third and Madison. Within six months, I was elevated, and I was named the executive chef of the hotel, which was an amazing, cool, fantastic job. It’s really a fun environment to work in, but you definitely have to look the other way a lot, just let it go over your head, which I’m good at. You had to put your ego aside.
PHOTOS: MAYTER SCOTT
So what point did you meet your husband, Matt? Matt and I met New Year’s Day 2006... Within three years of moving to New York, I found Matt and it’s pretty amazing. We met at Hero, which was a nightclub in the Meatpacking District. We just ... on the dance floor, we just kind of saw each other. He said, “Hi.” I said, “Hi.” Then he bought me a drink. And here we are, 12 years later! At what point did the idea that you would start your own business come into play? Before I left for New York, that was the end goal, to open my own place. So I was
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D’Andrews Serves
working on it, and it took me 12 years to get to the point where I gathered all my thoughts, and I knew what I wanted to do and I knew that I was gonna be successful. I just wanted to put myself in a position to succeed. And I think my education in New York did that, and I didn’t want to pull the trigger too fast. It just had to feel right. And it took that long. How did you guys decide on Nashville? Well, we’d been coming back here, and we actually, in 2015, got married in Nashville. So he was very familiar with the city. And just went to him one day and said, “Sweetie...” 13 years in New York is a long time. New York definitely has an expiration, usually around 10 years for people. I stuck it out those extra three years, and started to get the shakes... It was just time to come home. And I think, ultimately, Matt saw that and felt
OCTOBER 2019
that way and he was very grateful that we came home. I always say the best decision I ever made was to move to New York. And the second best decision I’ve made was to move home.
How did you find your niche here in the Nashville market? Looking back at Nashville from New York, I just saw a lot of cupcakes, a lot of donuts, a lot of cookies. And, in New York, right now, there’s a renaissance of bakeries by people who are educated in the restaurant world. So they’re more patisseries with an eye toward three- and four-start restaurant quality. And that’s what I envisioned for my bakery in Nashville. It was something that I think is unique, and I think appreciated. Everything is fresh here. We do everything here. And I think that
