BL_JUNE_natprov1-199x300.jpg
BL_JUNE_natprov1
Andrea Sims and Krim Boughalem, the owners of Table Three Ten and National Boulangerie, have expanded their National Provisions operation yet again with its fourth phase: the opening of a grocery in the adjoining space on the corner of Walton and National avenues.
Customers of Sims’ and Boughalem’s former shop, Wine + Market on Jeff erson Street, will feel right at home at the much larger National Provisions. The new shop has embraced many of the same quality staples of their European-inspired corner market concept, including fresh-baked sourdough bread loaves, imported and domestic cheese selections and a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
But now, with a full kitchen, bakery, restaurant and beer garden to supplement it, Sims and Boughalem have created a complex of fine food that, in essence, can feed itself. The products stocked in the grocery and made in the bakery are the same items that they use in their restaurant, Sims said, which enables them to keep their inventory fresh and inspired.
BL_JUNE_natprov3-199x300.jpg
BL_JUNE_natprov3
Marble countertops and chalkboard signage lend a clean charm to the bright and open space, which includes an extensive cheesemonger section; a charcuterie off ering a variety of cold cuts and paté; a butcher shop; and coming in September, a fishmonger and oyster bar. A bakery display case presents a wide variety of cookies, tarts, pies, eclairs and other sweet delicacies.
In addition, the store’s traiteur section offers customers both hot and cold, ready-to-go prepared food options, such as smoked onionpotato salad, quiche lorraine and roasted chicken, and it will soon provide a counter-service menu for those who prefer to pull up a chair and dine in.
Sims and Boughalem decided to sell Wine + Market and scale up their operation in 2013, when they launched their bakery, National Boulangerie, in the growing business corridor surrounding National Avenue. A grocery was part the couple’s vision for their sizable new space from the beginning, but they started with the bakery, Sims said, because having access to quality bread, made from scratch with wholesome ingredients, was a central inspiration for their entire operation.
“A lot of the reason we did all this was because we couldn’t find a really good sourdough or a baguette,” Sims said. “This is the core of the entire market. Bread is life, and even though people have been moving away from it lately, I think they will come right back.”
BL_JUNE_natprov2-300x199.jpg
BL_JUNE_natprov2
Many of the items to be found on the shelves at National Provisions aren’t the usual grocery-store fare. The charcuterie features products such as smoked elk terrine and lamb bacon. Wild boar bratwurst, whole duck and rabbit can be purchased from the butcher’s counter, and the produce section includes such offerings as Kentucky gold oyster mushrooms and sea beans and fiddlehead ferns. At the same time, the shop also stocks pantry staples such as coffee, teas and preserves, as well as an assortment of pastas, imported mustards, vinegars, oils and spreads.
New foods can be intimidating for some, Sims said, but National customers who are looking to try something new can sample it in the restaurant first, grab a pre-made entree to go or take home the ingredients to cook in their own kitchen. Either way, she said, it makes for a more interesting and adventurous local food culture.
“There are so many more cookbooks that have these interesting ingredients, and
it’s hard to find them sometimes,” Sims said.
“Even though our palates are changing and what we see on Food Network is changing, grocery stores aren’t always changing with them.”
National Provisions offers many Kentucky-proud choices, but it also works with
specialty farms and producers across the region and the world to stock many selections that can’t be sourced locally. By introducing consumers to new items, Sims also hopes to build the interest and demand that will make such items more commercially viable for producers within the state.
“We are trying to find the small producers and the farms that really care about quality,” Sims said. “To get variety, I think it’s important not to just go with one producer. But the closer you can be, the better, and the selections that are produced close to us are growing by the day.”