Feature article
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Danielle’s draws on new, old traditions
By Fred Sauceman
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John Wayne Carter headed north from Greeneville, Tennessee, and Danielle Ferraro traveled south from Greenville, Ohio. What brought them together was the National Center for Hospitality Studies at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky, where they both earned associate of science degrees in culinary arts.
John had been steeped in soup bean cuisine from the DeBusk community in southern Greene County. Danielle was shaped by Sicilian seafood feasts and the Old World cooking at her parents’ Italian restaurant.
Now this hard-working husband and wife run their own place, Danielle’s, on Greeneville’s Depot Street. Danielle minds the front while John juggles sauté pans in the compact kitchen.
Danielle’s reopened in October of this year. John and Danielle toted their cooking gear across Depot Street when the building that formerly housed Danielle’s was donated to the city school board by owner Terry Leonard, in memory of his late wife Kay, who had chaired the board.
“Greeneville has really embraced us since we moved,” says John, pointing to the buffet in the front window loaned to the couple by local antique dealer Pat Bradford.
John stitched his full first name on his white jacket because he says Greeneville’s full of John Carters, “about 10 of us,” he laughs.
“We cook everything from scratch here,” says John. “Our dressings, desserts, steaks, sauces, all are housemade. We don’t use any prepared bases for our sauces, and you won’t find any pre-packaged, gassed lettuce. Seafood is brought in twice weekly by the Poseidon company.”
Danielle’s signature dish is Pan-Roasted Shrimp and Sea Scallops, the seafood stacked atop cakes of rosemary-seasoned grits. John’s ubiquitous butter sauce surrounds crab cakes constructed of Dungeness crabs, which, he says, make for more meaty cakes.
John salutes his Southern heritage with an appetizer of fried chicken livers served with skillet fried potatoes and caramelized onions. From Danielle’s side of the family comes lasagna packed with ground sirloin and Italian sausage.
The Carters’ 2-year-old son John Jr. is partial to the cucumber-garlic house dressing, and we cleaned out a whole ramekin by itself, choosing to dress our salad with the house balsamic vinaigrette, mocha brown and thick.
“We celebrate fresh food, in a world of chains that serve food prepared in places like Atlanta and ship it all over to be heated up,” says John. “At Danielle’s, your food’s cooked fresh when you order it.”
John’s a disciple of Executive Chef Joe Castro, of Louisville’s Brown Hotel. He says he learned French and Asian cooking styles from Castro, labeling Danielle’s “continental.”
Entrées run the gustatory gamut from grilled chicken and penne pasta to grouper roasted in a cast-iron skillet and sided with a mound of Moroccan couscous.
Always on the menu is Tomato Basil Soup, garnished with a chiffonade of fresh basil and sour cream. Soups of the day may include Cheddar-Chive Potato with Bacon, a Corn Chowder with Crawfish, and Egg-Drop Asparagus with White Truffle Croutons.
John’s homemade cream puffs sport a sheen of chocolate ganache. He describes his Chocolate Cream as “a French-type dessert like flan but creamier.” Streams of raspberry coulis stripe the plate.
John and Danielle are in constant motion all day and evening, from quiche and cheeseburger lunches to evening-ending bread pudding. They’ve invested heart, soul and sweat in the business, and a recent lively Friday night crowd is a good sign that the citizens of the Jewel Town of the Mountains appreciate their art and their labors.
Depot Street in Greeneville, in my youth, meant shoes from Droke’s, frozen Pepsis from Rose’s and metallic spades planted in mounds of homemade pimento cheese at Service Grocery. Today, alongside a former paint store, we join a new generation of Greeneville diners in savoring herbed goat cheese in phyllo dough at Danielle’s.
DANIELLE’S
LOCATION: 138 West Depot Street, Greeneville, Tennessee
PHONE: 423-638-9474
HOURS: Open for lunch Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Open for dinner Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10. Closed Sunday and Monday
MISCELLANY: All major credit cards accepted
SAMPLE PRICES: Cheeseburger at lunch, $6.90. Dinner: Chicken liver appetizer, $8.90; Tilapia and Fruit Salad, $9.90; Pan-Roasted Grouper, $19.90; Pan-Roasted Shrimp and Sea Scallops, $18.90.
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Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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