Chef & Co-Owner Jessica Rice Splits From Avo; Planning New Project

There's yet another owner/chef shake-up at a popular Nashville eatery, as Jessica Rice, executive chef and co-owner of Avo, the city's first raw plant-based restaurant, has announced that she has left the project. Rice tells Eater that while she no longer has any association with the brand, she is technically still an owner and is currently finalizing the sale of her share of the business to Susannah Herring, her former partner in the restaurant.

Rice doesn't plan on being out of the restaurant game for long though, as she is already looking at real estate options for her next project, which she promises will be another one hundred percent, gluten-free and plant based eatery. But in the meantime, she is planning a series of pop-ups, with the first happening on Monday, Feb. 29 at Treehouse. Called 'CADO, in a bit of a wink to finishing what she started at Avo, the dinner will feature five plant-based courses with two seatings between 6 and 10 p.m. at $40 a pop.

So what does the future hold for Avo? Owner Susannah Herring tells Eater that they plan to keep it as a plant-based vegan restaurant, with menu expansion on the horizon. She's brought in Shawn Danko, owner of Memphis restaurant the Kooky Canuck, to consult "purely on Avo's operations, not on the concept itself." So don't expect to see any four-pound burgers anytime soon.