Michael Donahue
Zach Nicholson of Lucky Cat and Fortunato Oliva will be cooking at the second City Block Salumeria Butcher’s Dinner.
Zach Nicholson, owner of Lucky Cat, will team with Memphis chef Fortunato Oliva for the monthly City Block Butcher’s Dinner March 8 at Alchemy Memphis.
“The idea is going to be five to six courses of Japanese-inspired Lucky Cat-influenced food that is going to be utilizing meat products from City Block Salumeria,” Nicholson said. “We’ve got some real interesting things. We’re going to use some nice ingredients like California sea urchin, Wagyu beef and some house made sausages and salami from City Block. It’s going to be a very nice dinner.”
Phillip Ashley of Phillip Ashley Chocolates will assist with the desserts, Nicholson said.
Former Hog & Hominy bartender Aaron Hanna and Jon Neizer of Hog and Hominy will create saki cocktails that will be available for pairings with each course.
The monthly dinners were begun by City Block owners Nick Scott and Brad McCarley to “raise awareness” for City Block Salumeria, Nicholson said.
Each month, a guest chef will prepare a five-to-seven course dinner that will highlight charcuterie from City Block Salumeria. Scott kicked off the series with a dinner in February at Porcellino’s.
Nicholson is happy to be working with Oliva, who was “one of the main inspirations for me. I cooked under him when I was at Erling’s (Erling Jensen: The Restaurant).”
Oliva encouraged Nicholson to “move to Austin and challenge myself.” Nicholson worked at Olive & June, The Carillon and Vespaio restaurants in Austin.
Oliva also worked at the James Beard-award winning Uchi in Austin.
The dinner will be a “great stage” for both City Block and Lucky Cat, NIcholson said.
The dinner will be $75 and $25 for cocktail pairings.
