Meet Carter Hach | Executive Chef & Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carter Hach and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carter, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
Not going at it alone! I had that gumption, not one of arrogance but conviction, in the Spring/early Summer of 2022 while shopping a concept for a gastropub through our city’s hospitality channels. Opportunities resulted from this shameless pimping of myself, including several businesses with tried and true track records that were finally ready to hand the reigns off to the right person, but those were outside of what I envisioned for my future. I’ve been fortunate over the years to gain some great mentors, one above all, who helped me navigate this journey and brought opportunities like those to light… And I’m so proud to know they have faith in where I landed and what I’m building with my partners at Streetcar.

I wanted to open my own restaurant in the city to establish an identity outside of being the grandson of Phila Hach at her flagship, though I embrace her legacy and the foundation that it gave me to build my own career on solid ground. I was basically a one man show at Hachland Hill for six years. I wore too many hats to the point of probably batting 80% instead of 100 in each department. As the new face of a storied business in Nashville’s hospitality industry, while there was no change in surname at its helm, I had lot to live up to in the shadow of my legendary grandmother the late Chef Phila Hach. Proprietor, executive chef, director of catering, event coordinator, head of sales and marketing, groundskeeper… all hats that I wore while I wore myself out trying bat 100 at each position, but not short of circumstantial success in my own humble opinion. I tripled the our sales within two years of attacking the local market for every type of booking. I built lasting relationships with oh so many couples who wed and clients who hosted retreats in my company from their contracts to shared happy goodbyes with promises of future bookings at Hachland Hill. I built a name for myself in the culinary industry… Like my grandmother I built a resume and reputation on smoke as much as hard work, equally heavy amounts of each in effect, until a fire was there to stoke with no plan of burning to embers. There were some 120 hour work weeks on my feet when we had overnight weeklong retreats into weekends filled with rehearsal dinners, weddings and farewell brunches.

I’m glad I didn’t go it alone though. Instead I accepted the opportunity to build what we call Streetcar Taps & Garden as an equal owner with the most amazing partnership. I’m relieved to have those people in my corner so that I’m not wearing too many hats today… Having support from every corner with great minds from different fields of business makes all the difference in the world. One of my partners has been a best friends for over 10 years. Teamwork is a blessing. It really does make the dream work.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Carter Hach grew up cooking with his grandmother, the legendary Chef Phila Hach. He wrote his first recipe for chocolate nut drop cookies before he could actually spell the word, “recipe”.

After graduating from Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, he went on to study journalism and public relations at the University of Mississippi, which is nationally recognized in those departments with notable alumnae like Larry Speakes, Shepard Smith and Harold Burson. He also minored in English and Spanish as he always had a love of creative writing and the art of story-telling that transcends cultures and language barriers. In 2015, through the University of Virginia, he studied creative writing and traveling-writing while on a Semester at Sea. He visited over 15 countries throughout Asia, South Asia and Africa.

Both this trip of a lifetime and his four years at Ole Miss played significant roles in developing his worldly pallet. The Southern Foodways Alliance is headquartered on campus in Oxford, which inspired Hach to research the history of food and its deeper works more than he had in the past. Throughout his writing career during college, he had articles published in the Daily Mississippian, the Oxford Eagle, SFA’s Magazine Gravy, the Jackson Sun, Take Em’ Magazine and many more related to food and land conservation.

He was introduced to many different dishes during his time abroad, more often than not taking notes so that he could develop his own recipes back home marrying southern comfort food with other cultural influences. Now as the executive chef at Hachland Hill, he brings that same approach to his farm-to-table dining experience.

Hach completed his intensive studies of bread and pastry under Chef Christopher Ciresi at the French Culinary Institute or ICC in New York City, where he also worked on cakes under the tutorage of chefs Jürgen David and Kierin Baldwin. Ciresi had been the executive pastry chef at Manhattan’s legendary Plaza Hotel before joining the faculty at the ICC. This caliber of instructor shines through in Hach’s innovative breakfast pastries and desserts.

He continued to learn the staples of southern cooking from longtime employee at Hachland Hill, Ruth Williams. She started cooking with Phila Hach at the age of sixteen years old and retired in March of 2017 at 80. She amazingly continues to pop in for the occasional prep as she likes to stay busy and check in on things at the iconic dining inn that she helped to build.

In Nashville, he has staged at several restaurants in his nonexistent free time. He admired the philosophy of those chefs and their cooking, and he was eager to learn from them so that he could continue to grow his own techniques and unique dining experience at Hachland Hill. All of Hach’s food is made from scratch and he uses only the best local ingredients from nearby farms, all within 30 miles.

Carter appeared on Chopped in Spring 2022. He released his debut book in October 2022. His journalism background is present in the literature with a number of wonderful interviews including the last recorded testament to food and her career from Phila Hach. The novel is dedicated to his baby girl, Lane Olivia Hach.

Carter has an allegiance to Hachland Hill’s past with a respect for the land and food that will continue to be a backbone of the business as its dining experience matures in this new exciting time for the hospitality industry. He oversees its culinary direction, but has shifted his main focus to his new restaurant that opened in West Nashville in February 2023. Streetcar Taps & Garden is a gastropub inside and beer garden out big perfectly fit for larger group dining with a seasonally driven menu inspired by Hach’s German and southern cooking lineage. He continues to write and is working on his second book with no date or further info to be disclosed to the public at this time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My itinerary for a friend visiting from out of town would be built on the comfort of locality and nostalgia that can be rooted in a business’ atmosphere, product, proprietor or any beautiful combination of them. Those are the things that hit home for me as a born and raised Nashvillian, or unicorn as the transplants and Uber drivers ooh and awe to an “I’m from here” uttered respectively from the barstool beside them or their backseat as they navigate their way to THE next best spot inevitably in some area you’d never fathom would one day be fraught with trendy bars and eateries when you jumped exits for a shortcut against traffic 15 years ago through those off the beaten path neighborhoods then desolate, industrial or sometimes unfortunately dicey given the hour. Now it’s a tiki bar crushing sale from viral popularity kudos to a menu of Instagram-able drinks on every influencer’’s feed, an inconspicuous lounge with dimly visible mixologists behind the bar vested in attire from their profession’s past with smoke wafting from highballs and pickled ramps dirtying martinis at a prices assuring their guests leave with bragging rights that they went to the best bar in town dragged on to friends and work colleagues in every conversation until they find validity in their bill from the bar that was the hottest place in the city until the next revolution of a piano bar with higher prices justified by a restroom attendant and lychee mai thais. All jokes aside, I love the growth because it’s good for our industry as a whole, but my favor is in the spots and people who’ paved the way for such things to have a place and success in our city today. I now live in Franklin just down 65 away from the hustle and bustle but with just as much authenticity and history for a similar comfort. My itinerary is.a combination of 27 years in Nashville with a dash from more south that I call home with a town square no family should skip over for 12th South.

Coffee: Frothy Monkey (Nations)

Tea; Headquarts (our neighbors at Streetcar)

Breakfast: Midtown Cafe

Brunch: Urban Grub

Lunch: Barebones Butcher

Brewery; Tailgate or Bearded Iris

Comfort Food: Elliston Place Soda Shop

Truly Special: International Market (Chef & Owner Arnold Myint’s mom and my grandmother were dear friends bonded by food. Patty Myint pioneered the way for cuisines outside of our region to find their place in Nashville).

Dinner: Lockeland Table

Ice Cream: Bobbie’s Dairy Dip (kids will love it – easy stop across the way after dinner at Streetcar)

Late-night Drinks: Patterson House

Celebratory Meal (hands down my favorites as I am a sucker for tasting menus): Bastion or Catbird Seat

Family Outing or Day Date: Stroll about Franklin Square with lunch at 55 South and.a drink at O’ Be Joyful. Stop in White’s Mercantile and so many other picturebook worthy shops that line Main Street. Cruise over to Leiper’s Fork before heading back to the city.

Outside: Percy Warner Park for an easy hikes and picnic by the Steps with some sandwiches from Barebones.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d dedicate this interview to all of the moms and grandmothers passing wisdom onto younger minds. Phifee was amazing and the fuel for any success I find in the kitchen or hospitality industry, or “HACH-spitality” as I coined it in honor of her mark on all things grace and food put on the table for guests. My mom taught me to be a gentleman. My wife, Amber, is a rock and is raising our 1 1/2-year-old daughter and newborn son with such love and strength that I know would make Phifee proud if she were here to watch our family grow.

Website: https://streetcartaps.com/

Instagram: @streetcar_nashville