By MARK MCGEE
Jeb House
Jeb House sits at a long, wooden work table designed for construction instead of a kitchen area.
Electric tools of all sorts buzz and whine in the background as House, co-owner of The Glass Hollow Table and Tavern, along with his mother Chavigny Beasley, pours overs details, large and small of their dream – a prime steakhouse, tavern and retail space.
“It is 100 percent more than I expected,” House said. “It is one of those things where we didn’t know what we were going to do to start with and it kind of came together.
“The culmination of everything is going to be fantastic. But it has gotten to be a bit more than we all expected in the beginning. Everything is coming along real well. I think we are all pretty happy.”
The Shelbyville square is full of history and the site of the Glass Hollow Table and Tavern has a deep and rich heritage. Adhering to the historical aspects of the buildings architecture inside and out have been the greatest challenge.
“The greatest problem is how much we have tried to keep the historical aspects of the building,” House said. “We have six different buildings all squished together over the years. There have been different ways folks patched it. We have had to go in and see how we are going to do this, that or the other in order to keep the historical aspects.
“This building has been a ton of different things. That is one of the things I am doing research on. I want to know about over the years the lives of people who were in this building.
“That is something that has been a pet project of mine.”
No matter what House knows, many people are always going to refer to the building as Knox Pitts Hardware, a staple of the square for many years.
“Somewhere on this property I want to build a timeline of what has been here over the years,” House said. “I would like to get information from families who had relatives involved in the buildings and pictures of what has been here.
“I don’t think we will ever get away from the Knox Pitts stuff. The building is known by so many as that. We are mighty proud of that aspect.”
When the construction is completed there will be a premium steakhouse, two bards, one upstairs and one down, two large meeting rooms capable of seating 50-to-60 people and mercantile space.
“One of my big things in the operation of the business is the food has to be right,” House said. “We want to make the ambiance right. We have to make sure we get the right chef and get everyone trained. A pretty top notch product is what we are shooting for.”
Family business
House has a bachelor’s degrees in finance and accounting from UT-Martin. He has worked for the Tennessee State Comptroller’s office as an auditor and has spent the last four years as sales manager at Select Trailer.
He has gained a strong reputation for the quality of food produced at his M*A*C Daddy’s food truck as well catering many events.
Restaurants are a family business. His great-grandfather, James Beasley, started a restaurant that evolved into food manufacturing with Sweet Sue Chicken and Dumplings.
House’s mother, Chavigny Beasley, operated restaurants at two locations in Shelbyville.
“As a family we all like good food,” House said. “I learned to cook at a pretty young age. My younger brother, Jasper, has always been a great cook. One of things we enjoy is cooking for people and making them happy.”
He considers that food truck and catering as dress rehearsals for this big restaurant event.
“We have been dipping our toe in the water,” House said. “We want to be prepared for the things to come.”
Positively unique
“As big as it is and unique as it is, it is hard to put it on paper and know what is going to be or what’s going to happen,” House said. “We are trying to get wrapped up in construction middle of March. We are going to be close to that.
“Once we get construction done we will have some soft openings. One of those things we want is to do everything right. A first impression is very important to me. I am throwing a lot of weight to that making sure we are ready.”
