Coming across Chef Levon Wallace selling pretzels from his driveway is akin to seeing Jimmy Fallon at Zanies, but such was life during the pandemic.
Finding himself at home with time on his hands for the first time in years, the veteran chef (Cochon Butcher, Gray & Dudley, Strategic Hospitality) started making soap, and with the lye hanging around he decided to make his kids pretzels. They scarfed them down. Wife Kim suggested having a neighborhood bake sale in their driveway. Watching neighbors and strangers open the bags of warm pretzels was amazing to Levon, who had been operating as a big-picture restaurant consultant.
It was this “instant hand-to-hand interaction” that Levon missed and wanted back. In an an act of “obnoxiously wide-eyed optimism,” the couple started “poppin’ up” together at farmers markets and events. They quickly outgrew their capabilities. “For the first year it was just Kim and I, and there’s a certain amount of grit to making it work by yourself. But when we started outgrowing our original space, we began tapping out and knew we couldn’t grow the business without taking a leap,” says Levon.
They opened FatBelly Deli at 921 Gallatin Ave in East Nashville in late 2022 and still operate it themselves (with the help of eight employees). Core menu options are always available, and they offer specials to keep the sense of urgency and flexibility. “Originally, when we were making menus for the pop-ups, it was ‘What do I want to do this week?’ Now, we have to be mindful of what we can execute.”
