Looming Large
Tasting TBL is our newest member. And Frenchies is up next!
In 2020, NYC’s celebrated chefs, Tyler and Jennifer Lyne made Hoover their home. And their supper club, Tasting TBL is the newest Member of Birmingham Restaurants + App (profile under development).
Meanwhile the Lynes are also underway with a new French restaurant, Frenchies, in the former Rucker House location in Southside. Frenchies will have service from breakfast until late night, as well as boasting a patisserie, delivery, catering, private events. Here Tyler is bringing a piece of history from NYC. All of Frenchies fare will be whipped up on former celebrity chef, Gray Zunz's (of Lespinasse at the St. Regis Hotel and Cafe Gray) French Bonnet Suite island style stove, keeping his memory alive and this culinary jewel sizzling. The couple also has plans for an upscale steakhouse, like none other. It will be located downtown Birmingham, in the previous location of a meat processing facility, Armour and Company, on 1st Avenue North. Both future restaurants will also become Member Restaurants of Birmingham Restaurants. We have so much to look forward to! And Auburn fans will be delighted to learn that Chef Tyler will be the inaugural chef-in-residence at 1856. This is the new teaching restaurant in the Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center at Auburn University, which we have all been eagerly anticipating for too long.
The Lynes moved to Hoover in 2020 during the pandemic, after 16 years in New York City. And NYC’s loss is Birmingham’s gain. Both 
chefs are graduates of the CIA and have impressive culinary educations and experience, including stints at the top restaurants in NYC, as well as the Netherlands and Japan for Tyler, and Paris for Jennifer. Just like many of us, Chef Tyler is a born and bred Southerner. Having been born and raised in Texas, he did not plan to raise his son without a yard. Thus, a move away from NYC was likely inevitable.
Chef Tyler is a renowned molecular gastronomy expert. He earned Certified Executive Chef (CEC) from the American Culinary Federation, at age 21, the youngest person to ever do so. And he holds ProChef Level III Certification from The Culinary Institute of America. His experience includes Michelin Star level food and service experience. Appearing on the Food Network, Chef Tyler beat well-known Chef Geoffrey Zakarian of Chopped and Iron Chef America. And he was on Zagat’s “30 under 30” as a trailblazing chef, destined for culinary greatness. Chef Tyler founded multiple fast casual concepts, from coast to coast, and serves as culinary director for Bamboo Asia in San Francisco and Lucky Rooster in Miami, Chicago, and South Carolina. In addition, he has his own food product, a line of freshly made salsas, Jalapa Jar. Chef Jennifer’s experience includes Daniel Boulud’s hospitality empire, Dinex Group, and leading the pastry programs at numerous high-profile kitchens in NYC. Through this experience she has become a leader in her field. The Lynes experience also includes the world of high-end catering and consulting to large catering companies. Along for the ride the Lynes brought their friend and chef from NYC, Micah Cook, who also has a background of cooking for NYC’s most famous and reconstructing restaurants. The combined talent, experience, and accolades of these chefs are more than can be mentioned in this news article. Full Chef Bios coming soon on Birmingham Restaurants + App.
When the Lynes moved to Hoover, they no plans other than to be near family during the crisis. They bought the house next door to his sister. And after settling into their new home, they unintentionally started a supper club, Tasting TBL. Yet when asked to cater a dinner party, word spread, one thing led to another. In the beginning Tasting TBL provided people, with sophisticated palates, who were starving to get back in chef driven restaurants, a unique, socially distanced remedy of dining in the chefs’ home. Since that time, the supper club has brought a loyal group of gastronomes and foodies from the Birmingham area and beyond. Some people start with the Friday night 5+ course dinner service, and are so impressed they come back for the Saturday evening 10 course chefs tasting menu.
All menus are ever-changing and crafted to highlight seasonality, and to the chefs' culinary creativity—boundary pushing gastronomy meets incredible flavor. There are three seating options for the Saturday evening dinners. A four-seasons, screened-in porch is covered, heated and cooled. Dusk is the ambience for an unparalleled epicurean experience. The second option is the chefs table, where guests are seated around a large table in the open kitchen. Here they can watch and interact with the chefs as their dinner is being prepared. And the third seating option is for those who want a more formal setting and more privacy, the dining room accommodates a small group or family. Here they enjoy the sounds and aromas from the open kitchen, where a state-of-the-art epicurean excellence is being executed. Various beverage pairings are available with all dinners, as a separate fee. Purchase Supper Club Tickets
We will update this story on both the website and app, as the profiles are published and as we add tickets to the dinners to our calendar. In the meantime, Visit Tasting TBL website.
Photos courtsey of Tasting TBL.
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