Yazoo Brewing is cooking up something new, on the heels of turning 20.
The Nashville-based brewing company, founded in 2003, has partnered with Grillshack Fries and Burgers for the latter to open its third location at Yazoo’s taproom.
“Grillshack is really known for their fries, great burgers and wings, and they are just as passionate about french fries as I am about beer,” Linus Hall, owner of Yazoo, told the Business Journal. “We don’t want to try to be all things to all people, just wanting to have a nice food option. And then another thing is, they’ve been around East Nashville as long as I have and it just felt like a good pairing of two old-school Nashville concepts.”
Grillshack, founded by Steve and Susan Richter, is leasing the kitchen at Yazoo and will start serving its signature burgers and fries from a walk-up counter by the end of the year.
Grillshack will serve the same menu that has become popular at its Germantown and East Nashville location — wings, chicken tenders, burgers and salads.
Hall and Steve Richter have also been playing around with the idea of doing a fry sampler with different sauces paired with beers.
Yazoo originally opened in the Gulch and was surrounded by dining options that its customers could bring to the taproom while they enjoyed its beer.
“I was always real hesitant to have much of a restaurant side to our taproom because we’d be competing against our original customers, the bars and restaurants that carry our beer,” Hall said.
Looking for a place that would be easier to grow than the rapidly changing Gulch, Yazoo relocated to 900 River Bluff Dr. in Madison in 2019, doubling the brand’s space with a 5,000-square-foot taproom and 24,000-square-foot brewery.
Because there are not as many restaurants within walking distance to Yazoo’s Madison home, customers began to ask for more food options.
Hall was introduced to the Richters, who were already looking for a third location, and it was the perfect fit.
“I think that’ll make us a destination for not only beer, but for great food,” Hall said.
Beyond getting Grillshack up and running, Hall plans to work on integrating the markets Yazoo launched in over the last couple of years like Georgia and Alabama.
Yazoo focuses on making a diverse portfolio of beers, likely to hit 16,000 barrels this year, from lagers to amber ales to IPA’s to sours. You can find Hall typically enjoying a pale ale, but at the moment it will likely be a smoked beer—a polarizing choice, he admits.
“We have a diverse enough portfolio that we can always find a fit in most distributors, or if you’re going into a bar, you have some things that fit their draft list,” Hall said.
Hall’s favorite part of operating Yazoo for the past 20 years have been watching its employees and their families grow, as many team members have been with the company from the beginning.
“Nashville was such an awesome place to start the brewery back in 2003. It’s just really amazing to see the support we’ve had and we try to give back as much as we can and be a member of this community,” Hall said.
