Southall Farm & Inn recently earned one of the culinary world’s most distinctive honors: a Michelin Green Star, the Michelin Guide’s designation for restaurants demonstrating exceptional environmental practices.
The philosophy behind that recognition became clear over lunch in Brooklyn with Andrew Klamar, Southall’s VP of Culinary, and Executive Chef Nate Leonard. Sitting with the two longtime friends felt less like a formal press event and more like pulling up a chair at a family dinner table. Their stories often ended with one finishing the other’s sentence, the way longtime friends tend to do. It was the same dynamic they brought to the kitchen. For a moment, the noise of New York disappeared, and the conversation drifted to Franklin, Tennessee, where Southall’s kitchens operate as an extension of the farm that surrounds them.
Leonard joked that the ingredients had arrived in the city by horseback, traveling straight from Southall’s fields. The remark captured the spirit of the meal. Nothing about the food felt staged. Each course arrived with the humble confidence of the chefs cooking the way they always do, guided by the farm’s seasonal offerings and the people who work there.
As the afternoon unfolded, the conversation kept returning to the team behind the restaurant. From honey sommeliers to the self-proclaimed experts running Southall’s “Jammery,” where surplus produce is given a second chance at life by way of a tasty spread.
Southall’s commitment to sustainability earned the property a Michelin Green Star, an honor recognizing restaurants that demonstrate exceptional environmental and ethical practices. At Southall, that commitment extends far beyond eliminating waste or sourcing ingredients locally.
At Southall, the kitchen begins with the farm. Most of what appears on the plate is grown directly on the property, so the menu follows the lead of the land rather than the other way around.
Seasonality determines the menu. Chefs build dishes around whatever the farm produces that week. During our lunch in Brooklyn, citrus took center stage, reflecting what was thriving in the fields at that moment.
A Farm First
The property spans across 500+ acres in Franklin, Tennessee, where orchards, fields, and kitchens function as part of the same system.
Before a meal begins, guests are often offered a sweet palette cleanser, which is a glass of honey-infused apple juice made from fruit grown on the property. The juice comes from an orchard of nearly 1,800 apple trees representing about 40 varieties.
What appeared on the table was an array of colors spanning from bright orange citrus to deep greens of lettuce grown right on Southall’s farm within the walls of a 5,000-square-foot propagation greenhouse and other components from their 10,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse.
Maintaining a farm of this scale requires more than chefs and servers. Southall relies on a team of agricultural specialists whose work shapes the food long before it reaches the kitchen. Farm Manager Alec Higgins oversees crop systems and regenerative growing practices across the property. At the same time, Director of Agriculture and Land Brock Hughey manages the broader landscape, from irrigation to trail systems. The farm’s pollination program, led by Jay Williams, supports orchards and crops through a carefully managed network of honeybees and native pollinators. Their work sustains the orchards, greenhouses, gardens, and livestock that form the foundation of Southall’s ‘seed-to-table’ philosophy.
January
Southall’s farm-driven philosophy appears at its flagship restaurant, January. Led by VP of Culinary Andrew Klamar and Executive Chef Nate Leonard, the restaurant is a direct result of the work happening across the property’s fields, orchards, and greenhouses.
At January, the kitchen does not begin with a fixed concept or signature dish. Instead, the chefs look first to the farm. What is harvested that week determines what appears on the plate. Produce grown on the property forms the foundation of each dish, supplemented by ingredients from nearby farmers and producers who share the same agricultural values.
Harvests change week to week, and the menu changes with them.
Why It Earned a Green Star
Southall’s Michelin Green Star recognition reflects more than a commitment to seasonal cooking. The award acknowledges a broader system where agriculture, conservation, and hospitality operate together.
Much of the restaurant’s ingredients begin on the property itself. Orchards, greenhouses, and hydroponic growing systems provide a steady supply of produce, while preservation kitchens extend the life of harvests through fermentation, pickling, and other techniques that minimize waste.
Biodiversity plays an equally important role. The farm supports millions of bees across multiple apiaries. They pollinate the orchards, support surrounding crops, and produce honey used throughout the kitchen. The strength of those apiaries is evident in the longevity of their queen bees, the biggest badass of them all according to chef Leonard. While a queen typically lives about 18 months, those raised in Southall’s carefully managed hives often survive closer to two years, and their success has even drawn inquiries from beekeepers interested in purchasing queens directly from the farm.
Beyond the Restaurant
Southall Farm & Inn extends far beyond the restaurant itself. The 500+ -acre property includes 62 guest rooms and suites, 16 private cottages, and a 15,000-square-foot spa, creating a destination where agriculture and hospitality operate side by side.
Guests are encouraged to move beyond the dining room and experience the farm firsthand. Apiary tours offer a close look at the hives that support the property’s pollination program, while honey tastings highlight the role those bees play across Southall’s kitchens. Cooking demonstrations and culinary workshops show how ingredients move from the fields to the plate, and guided farm walks and forest bathing invite visitors to spend time within the landscape itself.
Looking back on the lunch in Brooklyn, what appeared to be a simple series of thoughtfully prepared dishes was actually the product of something much larger taking shape hundreds of miles away in Franklin, Tennessee.
Every ingredient on the table traced back to the systems that sustain Southall’s farm, from orchards and greenhouses to the apiaries that keep them alive. At Southall, everything begins with the land. The kitchen follows its lead, and the meal is simply the final step before it reaches the guest.
