An Italian Restaurant Power Couple Brings Their Michelin-Starred Magic to Nashville

For over 35 years, the names Tony and Cathy Mantuano have been synonymous with the best of Italian cuisine in the US. In 1984, the couple helped open Chicago’s Spiaggia—he as chef, she in the front-of-house and wine departments—then went on to helm the restaurant as it garnered Michelin stars, James Beard awards and famous fans like Barack Obama. Cookbooks (like this one), dozens of “Best Of” awards, and appearances on “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Masters” followed, but in 2019, the couple decided they “were ready for a new challenge,” says Tony. So they moved to Nashville, where they developed the food and beverage program for the new The Joseph, A Luxury Collection Hotel and, this past August, launched the hotel’s signature Yolan Italian restaurant.

But first, they went to Italy. When the couple met decades ago, they had bonded over their shared passion for Italian food and culture, and soon after, had honed their skills by working in restaurants throughout Italy, at a time when few Americans were doing so. Now holding dual citizenship, the couple spent their first post-Spiaggia months in Milan, where they enjoyed living like locals (as well as filming the finale of “Top Chef” Season 17, which was the first time the show had shot in Italy.)

“Our time in Italy was inspiring,” says Cathy—so much so, it helped form the direction for the food and wine at Yolan. We chatted with the Italian restaurant power duo about bringing their “luxury Italian” vision to Nashville, the importance of honoring the classics, and some of their favorite unexpected wine pairings.

What inspired you to go from Spiaggia to overseeing multiple dining venues for a hotel? And what’s it been like to open this project during the pandemic?

Tony Mantuano: We were enjoying living in Italy, but we had a relationship with The Pizzuti Companies, the owner of The Joseph, and this project was really exciting—exciting enough to get us to move to Nashville in January 2020. While we had consulted on some hotel restaurants before, including one in Miami, this is our first big hotel project, so that’s been a different experience. For example, the hotel was open throughout the holidays, so that was new for us!

In terms of opening during the pandemic, we’ve had to make some changes; we’ve taken out half the seating in the restaurant, for example, so are serving at a 50-to-60-percent capacity, and we have to take the last orders by a certain time. But the rooftop and in-room dining are operating, and the restaurant has been doing well and getting popular with locals. Plus, being in a hotel brings in other opportunities—like, the Tennessee Titans stay at The Joseph the night before a home game, and we do their dinner that night and breakfast the day of the game, so that’s been fun.

Cathy Mantuano: It’s also been really rewarding to open a restaurant during the pandemic because we’ve been able to hire people who were looking for jobs because their previous restaurants have closed, or who have moved to Nashville looking for a change. A couple of chefs from Spiaggia have moved to Nashville during Covid, and they have come on, and our lead sommelier came from Ai Fiori in New York. We were really lucky to get our pastry chef, too.

What style of Italian cuisine are you doing at Yolan?

TM: It’s based on the classics. We felt like Italian food was not always treated with respect, or it gets bastardized, so we wanted to present the classics in an authentic way and introduce that to Nashville. So in terms of pasta, you’ll find a classic Roman cacio e pepe, vongole, and carbonara done the original way, without cream or peas. Our pastry chef also makes focaccia, grissini, and puffs with parmigiano and prosciutto, which get brought around to the tables on trays after you order. She and I bonded because we both had grandparents who made this Calabrian dessert called scalille.

We want to honor the cuisine and the culture, and we also felt that these classics would be easy for people to understand, and be a gateway to maybe trying other things. The menu has already evolved and will continue to evolve, and we have added some modern dishes—but the classic bucatini all' amatriciana is still the most popular.

CM: We do “luxury Italian”—that’s our brand. In terms of the service, that means the atmosphere is warm and generous, casual and friendly, with a bit of southern hospitality. But it’s still spot-on—we still have a captain and a front waiter, and there are always two or three sommeliers on the floor.

How has it been bringing your style to Nashville?

TM: We had been to the city a couple of times before, for food festivals and other events, but didn’t really know it, so it was a leap of faith to move here. But it’s been great opening this here and getting to know the city. I really think, post-pandemic, Nashville is a city that is going to recover quickly; it’s also within a few hours’ drive of so many other major cities, so you don’t always have to fly to get here.

There are also a lot of great local farms and producers here that are very close to the city, which is different from Chicago. All of our pork, beef, and chicken is grown locally, and we source regional produce that has influenced our antipasti and main courses. We found a North Georgia squash that we use in a pasta dish that we used to cook in Italy, and we found a great North Carolina fish provider that catches and ships on the same day. But some thing you can only get in the motherland, of course—so we get things from Italy like our parmesan, and our Yolan Tuscan olive oil.

CM: The city has embraced the restaurant, too, and people seem to appreciate the change. They tell us that they used to have to fly to New York City to get their white truffle pasta, and now they don’t have to!

You are offering experiences that draw in guests, too, right?

CM: At the moment we are doing a demo on Saturday afternoons when we split open our big wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano. People can watch as we open the wheel, and then we pass around a taste, maybe paired with some Franciacorta sparkling wine. That’s one of our favorite combos, and a great way to start the night.

In November we hosted a truffle dinner with all courses paired with Piemonte wine, and in the future, we want to do collaborative dinners with other chefs and host things like Italian regional food-and-wine dinners, maybe focusing on areas like the Adriatic coast. We will also start doing some regular wine tastings, maybe one day a week, using the Cora Vin so people can try some unique bottles. The tastings will highlight Italy, of course, but we’ll also have reds and whites from France and America. We want to bring in people who might love a good California Cabernet, for example, and have them try that with our food.

Tell us more about the wine program. Is the selection also mainly on the classic side?

CM: Wine sales have been big for us—Nashville seems to be a wine-drinking town! At first, we found the selection offered by the wine distributors for Tennessee a bit limited; they had thought there wasn’t a market for here for certain things, so weren’t offering them. But they have been willing to bring in some wines we wanted, so we’ve been able to offer some new things to the area.

The menu is a mix of classics, as well as selections from younger winemakers, newer labels, and biodynamic options. We figure if we can draw people in with something they are familiar with, then it’s easier to get them to try a wine they might not know, or try a favorite one with a new dish.