Chrysalis Modern Italian — Restaurant in Franklin

We went last week for my birthday. My husband made a reservation and explained it was for a birthday. I also wore a very obvious birthday sash—all this to say it was a little (surprising?) to not be offered a traditional complimentary birthday dessert. :) Maybe they don’t do that here. Maybe none of the desserts could accommodate my food allergy, that’s very likely. Not terribly important, just mentioning it for those who might be thinking of going for a celebration.

What is important—

The service was a little uneven but adequate. The server had kind of a hard time explaining which foods I should not eat due to a food allergy of mine. She had to keep asking the chefs, and that is always a little unnerving. I was told not to eat any of the olive oil, for example (due to possible cross contamination) but then my entree arrived swimming in olive oil…

It’s a nicely curated space—very visually appealing. It’s also very noisy. Extremely noisy. I’m autistic, so it was painfully loud for me while just being uncomfortably loud for the rest of my party. The floor (finished concrete) was slippery so I made it a point to be extremely careful walking inside, as I didn’t really want to slip. It was also surprisingly warm inside—it was a hot day and we thought the AC would be on, but as with many restaurants here, it was too warm for us to really enjoy ourselves. It seems to be a matter of local preference. Personally, I don’t like to be sweaty while I’m eating. :))

We didn’t eat anything I’d feel compelled to have again. I’m sorry to write that. The entire group felt the same way. We tried the mussels appetizer, focaccia, the build-your-own charcuterie, the short ribs, two pasta dishes (Alfredo and bolognese) and I had a cocktail.

The cocktail was fine.

The charcuterie was fine. Building your own charcuterie is expensive and ultimately we felt it was not quite enough bang for our buck.

The focaccia was, I believe, not made with any potato in addition to bread flour (don’t quote me, please—I didn’t verify this), but either way lacked some of the chewiness and crispness that comes from making it very traditionally (I make a lot of focaccia at home). I also would have appreciated tasting some flaky salt and rosemary on the focaccia—again, perhaps more of a personal preference. The focaccia are individually sized and that seems to result in some loss of moisture.

The mussels were reasonably good but the broth was a tad dull and under-seasoned. My first mussel was very bad, but the rest were tender and sweet. I did not get sick from the bad mussel, so all good.

The short rib was the biggest let-down, as it had clearly been slightly undercooked, and was then reheated and deboned and pre-sliced before serving. I’ve never seen that before. Short rib on the bone is a great pleasure and is traditionally served that way, usually on a bed of polenta. This was served on lemon and snap pea risotto. The risotto was over cooked and tasted only of onion, so I’m not sure what happened there. No lemon—just very strong, slightly raw onion flavor. The olive oil around the outside of my plate was an unnecessary addition and made the risotto seem greasy.

My partner was satisfied with his Alfredo but didn’t think it was something he’d come back for. Our daughter was very confused by her pasta, which was homemade but was very dry and overly chewy when it was served. Best guess is it might have been sitting for a bit too long. She loves pasta but she ate a few bites and then set it aside for the bread. Partner tasted it and agreed it was oddly dry.

I’m Italian and I do often cook my own Italian dishes—having grown up with classic East coast Italian American cuisine, I’m quite picky, for sure. :)) I don’t think I’d come back to Chrysalis for more of their food, but I might come back sometime for happy hour and their cocktails. The bar definitely had a lot of energy and a lot of patrons. Most people enjoy that level of noise and energy—if that’s you, I’d recommend...

Executive summary: Excellent focaccia, beautiful space, incredibly slow service, good pasta, mediocre short ribs.

The rest of the story: We arrived around 12:10 for our work lunch, which generally takes 40 or so minutes at other restaurants (esp when there are only 3 of us). We were seated almost immediately and menus provided: 3 of them with no real explanation. We received our waters and advised the server we'd never been there before. Thankfully, she explained some things about the three different menus and told us that everything is made fresh in house. She specifically told us that the focaccia had been made this morning when we ordered our focaccia and our main dishes at the same time around 12:15. It seemed like we have been waiting a really long time, and we were actually talking about how we thought the bread should have been out almost immediately. Our focaccia appetizer with three butters did not come out until about 12:45 or so. At this point, I was so hungry that I risked the consumption of barley (which is a sensitivity of mine) to get some food in my stomach. What I can tell you is that the focaccia and those butters were absolutely delicious. The bread was moist without being greasy, it was soft while also crisp on the outside, and the butters were absolutely delicious. The only improvement I would have made about that appetizer (other than it coming out more quickly) would be to warm the butters just a little bit to closer to room temperature. They were almost too cold to spread on the bread. Our mains didn't come out until sometime after 1pm. Two of us ordered pasta and the other ordered the short rib platter. I ordered the gluten-free diavolo pasta. It was good, but there was this weird almost nacho cheese flavor to it. Honestly, I was happy with my dish. My only complaint was that the sauce was a little bit thinner than I would expect. My other companion, who ordered Bolognese, was less happy with her dish. Her sauce was also thinner than it should have been, and she said that there was some flavor missing from it. My companion that ordered short ribs was the least happy of all of us. She said that none of the items on the plate justified the length of time that we had waited for our main dishes. She judges restaurants based on their short ribs, so she's not a stranger to them. The short ribs appeared to have been pre-cooked, which is not uncommon, but not precooked well. They were a little dry and kind of chewy with the strangest level of sweetness to them. She shared her short ribs with us just so we could try what she was explaining to us. I don't think she ate the rest of it, though she did eat quite a few of the vegetables that came with it. She did not take her leftovers home, though the pasta eaters did. And we definitely took that focaccia home. Our total lunch bill was almost $90 for three people who drank water. We did not get back to the office until about 1:45.

My recommendation for this place is to call someone you have not spoken to in quite some time and meet them at this joint around 4:30. Then you two should order drinks and appetizers and make sure you have the rest of your night free to nibble and chat. Maybe order an Uber. I'm not sure how fast or strong the drinks are. I have no doubt that this could be a wonderful spot for dinner or appetizers and drinks, but it is definitely not a spot for lunch. The only downside of this being a spot for drinks and appetizers is that there do not appear to be a lot of gluten-free appetizers on the menu. Your old friends will need to have very few dietary...

My wife & I had dinner reservations for my birthday the other night. Very odd walking into no hostess stand(there was a wait to be seated sign), so we stood for a few minutes confused on where our greeter would come from. Then the manager/owner came from out of the back & greeted us & told us our table wasn't ready, they had some guests they were still waiting on to leave. No problem, we went to the bar for a drink while we waited. Ordered our cocktails, wife had one of the signature drinks, I had a vodka martini w/ blue cheese stuffed olives. My one complaint is the bartender failed to mention the blue cheese was smoked. While not terrible, it's just a super unexpected flavor for a martini & quite frankly overpowered my taste buds right before dinner. Anyway, manager came back over & said table was still not ready and because of the delay they would comp us any app of our choice & dessert. Wow, we weren't really upset or being fussy, but what a very nice gesture! So we finally get seated, and order the mussels app. Pretty good, although no bread to dip into the broth which you normally get with a mussels dish, this is an Italian concept right?? Next we ordered our entrees, wife got the Poached Branzini, I ordered a chefs special pasta dish(forgot the name). Unfortunately, both of our entrees were inedible. Mine was so salty, as well as, full of black pepper that after a few bites I had to push it away. My wife's was exactly as salty & her fish was too rubbery to have been poached. Our server (who was really great btw) asked if everything was ok & we just said yeah, that we had eaten some snacks before dinner & we would just take it to go. He reminded us that we had a complimentary dessert coming & after perusing the menu we decided on the lemon cake w/ blueberry. Again, we were completely bewildered by the quality. It had a stale refrigerator taste, like it was uncovered for a while & besides that, it wasn't really that special of a dessert. A basic lemon sheet cake w/ blueberry glaze. No other garnish. We were so excited to try this "modern Italian" cuisine, but nothing about it spoke Italian to us(we've been to Italy) & the seasonings were so off the mark I'm shocked that it left the kitchen that way. The decor also lacks any elements of Italy, the Mediterranean, or anything other than a typical restaurant w/ booths, tables & the usual chic fixtures & neon signage. Kudos to the manager & our server for being gracious & attentive & making our overall dud less of one. I'm not sure if this was an off night, the chef was on vacation, or whatever reason for our bad meal. I hope they get it fixed so that others won't have the...