After more than four years at Urban Wren, chef Taylor Montgomery has announced his departure.
“The time was right,” he says. “I’d been doing great things in the Len’s kitchen, but a new chapter was calling for me. Fall is right around the corner – a fruitful season in the Carolinas. It felt right to leave Urban Len in capable hands and pursue my passion on the farm, at least for this season.”
Longtime Montgomery chef Cat Bellew, who was part of the team that opened in May 2020, also stepped down.
Urban Wren has opened at Markley Station in downtown Greenville as one of the first fine-dining restaurants to open in the West End development between South Main and Academy streets. The spacious restaurant boasts a duo of culinary prowess, Montgomery in the kitchen and Eric Cooperman, the wine bar’s sommelier.
Cooperman, best known for his wine programming at The Cliffs, is leaving sooner than many expected, following the recent departure of general manager and sommelier Travis Giarratana to take ownership of The Rabbit Hole in the village of West Greenville.
Though the menu remains focused on premium ingredients grown on the farm, the once wine-centric restaurant has undergone a number of changes, including a cocktail promotion and intermittent brunch. The recent addition of sommelier Amy Yancey has returned the ship to its original concept, but Montgomery and Bellow’s absence will be noticeable.
When Montgomery helped open Urban Wren, it felt like he had suddenly appeared on Greenville’s food and beverage scene, but the chef brought decades of fine-dining experience working in private club kitchens like The Dunes and Mountain Aire Country Club, and his food was inventive, with stories told in the space between the field and the plate.
He and his wife, Fran, grow produce and flowers on their farm, Montgomery Sky, just north of Asheville, and they are best known for their rescue and conservation program for large animals, including Scottish Highland cattle and traditional Valley blacknose sheep.
Montgomery said that in addition to the lineup of events planned at Montgomery Sky Farm, he plans to have a signature collaboration dinner with East Fork Pottery at BiteMeAVL, a new food festival in Asheville in August. Planned programming at Euphoria, including a chef’s dinner with John Ondo of Kiawah’s Atlantic Room, may have to be abandoned.
“Sometimes I imagine Chef’s Table as a space. I have to figure out how to make it happen, but if it were to happen, it would be in Greenville,” Montgomery says. “The customers here are exceptional, the type of people who really connect over a plate. I’m so grateful for everyone I’ve worked with and had the pleasure of working at Urban Wren.”
