by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

This fall, Sewanee’s first French restaurant opened its doors. The seductive ambiance and eclectic menu promises to please. But owner David Boyd Williams never imagined himself in the restaurant business. Fittingly named Lumière, light, Williams envisions the restaurant as “the threshold” to his social enterprise mission.

Just over two years ago, when Williams bought the Ballpark Road restaurant Octo π from Keri Downing, William’s ethos embodied sustainable jobs, food access, and socially conscious enterprise. Living in New Orleans at the time, his background hailed from an urban environment dealing with poverty, food access, food insecurity, job creation, and mentoring leadership coupled with an awareness rural people were asking, “What about us?” Raised in Nashville, Williams wanted to live closer to his family and take what he learned in an urban environment to rural communities. He had his eye on property on Snake Pond Road when his realtor brought Octo π to his attention. Williams moved into the adjacent living quarters, deciding to learn the community before he opened the restaurant. He founded the social enterprise 921 (the building’s address) with a mission to “inspire, imagine, and innovate” around sustainable job and food access. Advised by South Cumberland Farmers Market manager Emily Heid, 921 hosted several events with local farmers and nonprofits.

Then coincidence jumped in the game. A letter from the state informed Williams the restaurant would lose its liquor license if he did not open in six weeks. A few days later, Downing contacted him, curious about his plans, but unaware of the license issue. With New Orleans French cooking still lively in his memory, Williams proffered the idea of a French restaurant, which turned into the conversation, “Do you want to do this together?”

Sewanee grad Downing returned to Sewanee in 1997 with her then husband and opened the Goat Track Gourmet restaurant in Cowan, followed by Ivy Wild, then Octo π on Ballpark Road. She describes her first restaurant experience, a college summer job, as “horrific.” Putting her English degree to use, Downing took a position book editing, but soon learned, “I can’t sit behind a desk.” Working in a kitchen in Charlottsville, Va., Downing experienced an epiphany: “cooking is an art form.” She learned the art of cooking “by sheer force of will.”

“French cooking is the foundation of so much of what we cook,” Downing insisted. “You can’t help but brush into the baseline techniques.” She draws a comparison between southern France and the southern United States with its warm climate and ambiance and “rich, pervasive food culture” with food markedly different from anywhere else in the country. Downing’s favorite dish offered by Lumière is a roast chicken served whole. “It’s designed to be shared,” she said, stressing the experience of “navigating a whole bird.”

Chef Downing calls all three Lumière employees cooks. “Everybody is involved in everything,” she stressed. “I’m trying to disrupt the systems in the restaurant business where things tend to be hierarchical and compartmentalized.”

“It’s us, not them,” chimed in Williams who works the front and takes a rotation in the kitchen. In his fulltime day job, Williams serves as the vice president for diversity and belonging at a healthcare nonprofit.

Williams and Downing hope to source local food with Heid’s help. The menu changes weekly except for the main dishes: roast chicken, gumbo, ratatouille, and daube (beef stew with orange zest). Lumière serves dinner from 4–10 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and brunch Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit the website at www.lumieresewanee.com or better still, walk in the door, and be prepared to be delighted, the while knowing your participating in a dream to change the world.