Noah Goodfriend started bussing tables at O’ Charley’s in high school. He waited at TGI Friday’s and Mellow Mushroom, then applied at the Pizza Kitchen on Northshore. “They didn’t need a waiter, so they put me in the kitchen,” he remembers. “About a week in, I realized I liked it a lot more than being in front.” Goodfriend’s dad, Morty, was a district manager for Goody’s, then owned by Morty’s cousin Bobby before it went public. “My dad spent a lot of time on the road,” says Noah. “That wasn’t the life for me.”
Noah cooked for Dan Goss at Downtown Grill & Brewery in 2007, then moved to the kitchen at Earthfare. “I learned my ‘weird ingredient skills’ in my 12 years at Earthfare,” says Goodfriend, who rejoined Goss for the opening of Point B on April 15, 2022.
As a child, Chris Cummins was always trying to cook his mom dishes, like scrambled eggs, making her think he was always meant to be a chef. “There were multiple times she brought that up,” says Cummins, chuckling. “It took me 30 years to figure that out.”
He went to Pellissippi State for math and physics, worked at the Cigar Shop, then at the Grill at Highlands Row, moving from dishwasher to line cook. He line-cooked at the Orangery, Balter Beerworks, K Town Tavern, and the Wicked Chicken before hearing about Point B. “I like the creativity we do, trying out some weird stuff,” says Cummins. “It’s a lot cooler and more laid back in a positive way than a lot of restaurants I’ve worked at.”
Appetizer: Baked brie drizzled with black garlic caramel sauce, topped with crushed pistachios and bourbon “caviar”, paired with Sonoma Cutrer Russian River Chardonnay
Entrée: Pan-seared sea bass on coconut rice, with roasted peanut rainbow chard, red curry honey sauce, and kiwi-rum foam, paired with Patient Cottat Le Grand Caillou Pinot Noir
Dessert: Espresso-dusted dark chocolate flourless tort with orange-zested white chocolate mousse, and Grand Marnier orange coulis, paired with a Génépy Suisse Miss cocktail