Chef David Krog to open restaurant
On Friday, David and Amanda Krog signed the lease for their new restaurant, Dory. Dory will be located at 716 W. Brookhaven Circle, a two-story building that once housed a medical office. Construction should begin in the next couple weeks.
Set to open in the fall, this will be the first restaurant for the couple.
It’s an endeavor that they have dreamed of for almost six years. A veteran of the Memphis restaurant community, David has worked at both Interim, where he was executive chef until January 2018, and Erling Jensen.
The new restaurant will boast an open kitchen concept, similar to the kitchen at Interim.
“I will also have four counter seats at the kitchen pass for a special tasting menu on Thursday nights,” David said. “With multiple courses, it will be ‘the’ reservation to get.”
Amanda described the restaurant concept as “an upscale neighborhood restaurant.” David said it is definitely not “white table cloth” and he hopes it’s an everyday restaurant for his guests.
“Service will be polished, but the interaction between the servers and the guests will be more casual,” Amanda said of their vision.
Following the style of cooking for which David has become known, the menu is described as “contemporary Southern using French technique.”
“The menu will be intentionally sourced,” David said. “Over the past years, we have met some great first- and second-generation farmers, and we have built relationships with them. My goal is to serve the best produce and meat we can find.”
For the past year, the Krogs have hosted a pop-up dinner series titled “Taste of Gallery.” The idea of the series began when David left his position of executive chef of Interim at the beginning of the 2018 to work on their new restaurant concept.
During a Taste of Gallery event, guests enjoy a sixcourse tasting dinner that is paired with wines. The pop-up dinner series allowed David to experiment with dishes he was not able to do at his past restaurants. Both David and Amanda said they expect some of the dishes from the series will find their place on Dory's menu.
In keeping with the “gallery” theme, each course at a Taste of Gallery dinner is artfully prepared and plated. That is a key detail David plans to keep in his dishes at Dory.
The restaurant will also feature local art on the walls, highlighting a different artist each season. “Having food and art together is definitely something we would like to continue,” Amanda said.
Adding to the aesthetic, local custom woodwork company Citywood is working with the couple to design table tops and Memphis-based Iron & Design will design the table bases and a partition between the bar and the dining room.
The restaurant will be approximately 3,700 square feet, seating between 70 and 80 guests. The restaurant will also have a private dining room upstairs that will hold an additional 25 guests for special events or overflow seating. Both lunch and dinner will be served.
The new restaurant will be a family affair, with David in the kitchen and Amanda running the dining room.
The restaurant is named after David’s grandmother and the couple’s daughter.
“Even before our daughter was born, I knew I wanted to name the restaurant after my grandmother Dory," David said. "When I was living with her is when cooking started for me. I have been in the restaurant business since I was 16 years old. I knew at that age this is what I would do.”
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.