Subculture Café, Bringing Street Foods of the World to Nolensville
Subculture Urban Cuisine and Cafe might be located inside a nondescript shopping center, but that’s part of the charm for a place that serves a diverse array of world street foods along Nashville’s increasingly vibrant Nolensville Pike, home to wonderfully diverse immigrant communities. Subculture’s menu is almost as diverse as Nolensville Pike itself, featuring such items as Chilean sandwiches, authentic Japanese ramen, and an award-winning hot chicken waffle cone that you really have to see–and taste!–for yourself!
Pablo and Christina Bonacic, along with Pablo’s brothers, Javier and Felipe, are Subculture’s owners. The three brothers moved to Nashville from Chile while still in their teens, bringing with them a heritage of Chilean cuisine learned from their grandmother. As for the name “Subculture,” a culture within a culture, it describes the daily reality of many new Nashvillians. This is certainly reflected in Subculture’s menu which offers the family’s favorite street food dishes from around the globe. “We want to serve food that we like to eat,” say Pablo and Christina. “That’s what makes for good hospitality.”
Subculture is a perfect fit in its diverse neighborhood, taking on the flavors of the surrounding influences. As Pablo tells it, Subculture once entered a contest to make cochinita pibil, a traditional Mexican dish of braised pork. “Mexican customers were lining up after that,” Pablo recalls, “saying they couldn’t get it anywhere else.”
To succeed, the Bonacics keep their food simple, focusing on the flavors and the traditional methods of preparation for every dish. The Bonacics try never to have more than five different flavors mingle in any dish, and they emphatically steer away from the word “fusion” as a descriptor of their food. The goal is to maintain the authenticity of the flavors and the traditions represented. This means that a request for a slice of cheese on that Chilean sandwich may very well be rejected.
Another Subculture goal is to source as locally as possible. Much of their produce comes from Cul2Vate, a nonprofit farm at Ellington Agricultural Center, and much of their meat – the quality of which the Bonacics praise – comes from Southern Natural Farms. But, along with the highest quality sourcing, there is another essential ingredient that makes Subculture’s food stand out: passion. They are passing on the love of food to the next generation. Christina and Pablo’s son is now learning Chilean cuisine at his great-grandmother’s side, great news for Nashville as the Bonacics’ cooking keeps the family tradition going.
