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Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/70972
[ Dining Out>>Review ] Putting Its Mark on Market >>By Stephen Hacker Photos by Jolea Brown "P leasant" describes so many things: the silkiness of a smooth terrine; silverware cutting into a softly braised beef cheek; the just-full- enough feeling one gets after a good meal. It's also a word I'd use for Decca, one of the newest additions to Market Street's NuLu restaurant row. Not overwhelming, not amazing, but quite good. Chad Sheffield says the idea for the restau- rant can be traced directly to San Francisco, where he and his Decca partners, Kelsey Norris and his sister Amy, were servers in the fiercely competitive Bay City scene. When family responsibilities demanded a return to the Louisville area, they left their jobs — but not before Sheffield enlisted his former boss, Loretta Keller, as a consultant for reinventing the 1870s-era building formerly occupied by [86] LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 7.12 Decca, the latest addition to NuLu's fast- growing restaurant scene, offers Bay City- influenced "California-Mediterranean" cuisine and an upper deck that's a downtown treat. Wayside Christian Mission. Preservation is- sues and the unfortunate passing of Jasper, Ind., designer/architect Charles Gabhart caused Decca to be delayed. But, Sheffield says, "Two years later (Keller) stuck to her word, stuck her neck out, packed her bags and came out here to open it." After menu design, another Keller deci- sion was to install Annie Pettry, who had been her sous chef at San Francisco's Moss Room, as Decca's executive chef. Pettry told me Keller designed a menu that is kind of "California-Mediterranean," and part of that philosophy includes modifying the menu in a gradual way. "I try to find things that go well with ingredients that may only be around for a few weeks," she told me. "I'm constantly changing….I like to be in- spired by the season and the things around me, so my dishes evolve." Tis seasonal inspiration didn't intersect that well with my shaved market-vegetable salad ($13). Te kale used as the primary green was a little tough and fibrous for my taste and the creamy Niçoise vinaigrette an unappetizing purplish-gray color. Fortu- nately, Keller left Decca a year-round sig- nature dish (thanks to Creation Gardens hydroponics): slow-braised beef cheeks ($21). A cool, snowy-white dollop of tangy horseradish crème fraîche melted over a soft-yet-crusty grainy mustard crépinette of marinated beef cheek, with vinaigrette-driz- zled green watercress adding a bit of cleans- ing tartness. Pettry also brought a wonder- ful duck-liver terrine ($10) along from San Francisco, a dish, she says, "I played around with a lot when I worked with Loretta." My