Perenn Grocery, the latest venture from Aubrey and Tyler O’Laskey, will open on Friday, October 30, in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood. Bringing together a bakery, café, specialty market and listening room, the new space applies the couple’s considered approach to food and hospitality to an everyday ritual: grocery shopping.
Founded in Reno, Nevada, Perenn is an entirely self-funded hospitality business that has evolved to include bakeries, cafés and restaurants across Nevada and Tennessee. The O’Laskeys shape each new venture around its neighborhood, guided by a shared commitment to ingredients, craftsmanship and the experience of eating and gathering. With Perenn Grocery, that philosophy is extended beyond the restaurant and bakery, bringing the same intention to the products on the shelves, the people who make them and the space in which customers shop, eat and spend time.
“We’ve always believed that hospitality should extend beyond the walls of a restaurant,” says Aubrey O’Laskey, co-founder of Perenn. “With Grocery, we wanted to challenge what an everyday experience like grocery shopping could feel like. Why shouldn’t picking up something for dinner be just as thoughtful, inspiring and enjoyable as going out to eat? We’ve brought together the things we love most: beautiful food, extraordinary producers, music, design and genuine hospitality.”
The Grocery
Perenn Grocery takes a selective approach to what goes on its shelves, with each product chosen for a reason. Local eggs, meat, milk and seasonal produce sit alongside Perenn-made pantry staples, house-milled wheat, home goods and products sourced from producers the O’Laskeys know and admire. That includes products developed specifically for Grocery, such as bespoke ice cream from Normal Ice Cream, beverages from Comeback Coffee and kombucha from Walker Brothers.
Many of the ingredients sold at Grocery are also used throughout Perenn’s kitchens, making the shelves an extension of the food program. The clearest example is Perenn’s exclusive U.S. relationship with The Estate Dairy, a family-run dairy in Cheshire, England. Perenn is the sole U.S. importer of the dairy’s cultured butter, shipped directly from the UK for use throughout its food program, from croissants and other pastries to cooking. At Grocery, customers can buy that same butter to use at home, bringing a key ingredient from Perenn’s kitchens into their own.
The café serves breakfast and lunch, beginning with brûléed apple butter porridge with brown-butter roasted apples, pecans and vanilla mascarpone; Turkish eggs with garlic-tahini yogurt, Aleppo pepper butter and grilled bread; and Perenn’s Ploughman with aged English cheddar, prosciutto cotto, piccalilli and a soft-boiled egg.
Lunch moves into sandwiches, salads and grain bowls, including a Garden Club with rotisserie Joyce Farms chicken, crispy bacon and tarragon green goddess dressing, and the Perenn Kale Salad with tahini-lemon vinaigrette, za’atar chickpeas, avocado, marinated feta and cranberries.
For taking home, Perenn Everyday brings together a selection of ready-made proteins, vegetables, sides and sauces that can be mixed and matched into different meals.
