Decca partner Chad Sheffield: NuLu’s most ambitious restaurant ‘will be worth the wait’

Chad Sheffield at what will be Decca's courtyard.

Though it’s hardly uncommon for a restaurant project to go off schedule, Decca in Nulu has had an usually difficult birth.

But then it’s an uncommonly complicated and ambitious project, said Decca partners Chad Sheffield and Robin Norris.

By the time the new restaurant opens at 812 E. E. Market Street, the renovation of Decca’s historic building and follow-on construction will have taken more than a year.

Exactly when it will open is an open question, so to speak.

Decca investor Norris said there is no deadline: We feel like this is a special piece of real estate. We’re not going to rush it. We’re going to do it right, so it’ll open when it’s ready.

Part of the delay has to do with design terms of the federal historic preservation tax credit system, Sheffield said. Part of it has to do with construction issues at the 136-year-old building that had been part of the neglected Wayside Christian Mission complex.

But Decca’s sheer size and scope present their own challenges.

For one, the building totals about 15,000 square feet on four floors including a cellar that will be a wine cellar/lounge. To that, Sheffield and company are adding another entire structure that will function as the entrance, topped by a dining deck. (Louisville based firms Booker Tucker Donhoff + Partners and Shine Contracting are respectively the architects and general contractors.)

Decca has more than 4,000 square feet on an adjoining lot that will become an expansive courtyard, Norris and Sheffield said.

Then there are the intricacies of the tax credit requirements.

“I can’t stress too much how difficult it was to design this space within the parameters set by the (federal historic preservation tax credits),” Sheffield said.

Those credits are based on fidelity to the building’s original interior and exterior. Oddly, the addition the partners are adding must be distinctly different from the original historic building so as not to be a faux facsimile tacked on he said, adding the addition will be modern but “sympathetic” to the overall feel of NuLu.

Though Insider Louisville first posted  about Decca in November 2010, the basic plan remains intact.

Sheffield and his girlfriend Kelsey Norris, her brother Reid Norris and their mother Robin Norris formed Decca LLC in October 2010 when the partnership bought the NuLu property.

Core management remains the same – Chad Sheffield and his sister Amy Sheffield,  and Kelsey Norris. They’re also still bringing in consultants from San Francisco, where they all worked in the restaurant business.

Decca’s menu will include San Francisco-inspired American cuisine.

Last November, Chad Sheffield prophetically called the NuLu building “a complete shell. A complete shell. It’s a ground-up project.”

Eight months later, Decca is moving more quickly toward opening, with concrete poured in the first-floor kitchen on Thursday, he said.

Wall studs are in place, and details such as stained glass doors and other touches are acquired and ready to go into place in the main first-floor dining area.

The second floor will be a reserved dining space as well as an area for art and music, with offices on the third floor.

The feature that will differentiate Decca from Nulu’s other 10 restaurants (at last count) is the full 80-foot-by-50-foot lot on the east side where a building once stood, a lot that will become a courtyard with potentially the most outdoor seating in the arts and retail district.

The plan is to create an organic design for the courtyard, with three zones broken up with water features, a fire pit and foliage, Sheffield said. Huge limestone foundation blocks from the long-gone building may be incorporated.

“Instead of it being geometric, we want it to be more intimate … rather than packing people in like sardines,” he said.

The front of the courtyard will be an entry area with a maitre d’ and seats for diners waiting for tables. The center will be table tops and the rear “a loungy party area” with live music, Sheffield said.

Sheffield added the delay has been frustrating and expensive. Asked how much the group has invested, he just smiled.

“But you know, this is a dream come true. Sometimes, it’s a blessing when things work out differently. I think we’re going to really be ready when we do open.

“It’ll be worth the wait.”