NYC chef to elevate culinary scene in Five Points

Five years ago, no one in the food world had heard of Sarah Simmons.

But then the former Columbia resident and Spring Valley High School graduate saw an ad for Food & Wine magazine’s America’s Home Cook Superstar contest and, on a whim, entered it.

And won.

That was in 2010. Two years later, she was again recognized by Food & Wine, this time as one of America’s Best New Cooks. Last year, the magazine named her one of the 50 best chefs in New York City.

This month, Simmons brings her talents home to Columbia, where she and former Oak Table restaurant pastry chef Charley Scruggs will open Rise Gourmet Goods and Bake Shop at 926 Harden St. in Five Points.

“Charley has always wanted a bakery and I’ve always wanted a sandwich shop and so this was really a way for us to bring those things together,” said Simmons, whose parents still reside in Columbia and whose sister lives in Lexington. “You’ll see in the food that these are some of my ideas that Charley’s brought to life and some of his own recipes – it really is a true collaboration.”

After graduating from Spring Valley, Simmons went on to the University of Georgia, where she graduated in 1999 with degrees in telecommunications and Japanese. In 2004, she moved to New York City and begin work as a retail strategist for Fortune 100 companies. However, her lifelong passion for the culinary arts that began as a child stayed with her.

“I loved to cook since I was a kid. I have been dreaming about menus and dishes and food my entire life. I would write these menus for parties that I knew we would never have. I actually love to cook and dream up dishes more than I love to eat even. There’s just something magical about it – bringing something to life,” said Simmons, whose mother, now retired from the Lexington One School District, once ran a catering business in North Carolina.

Winning the Food & Wine contest in 2010 was just the inspiration Simmons needed to leave the corporate world and venture out as a chef in a city that’s home to some of the world’s most well-known chefs. The restaurant she opened in 2011, City Grit, continues to be recognized by Zagat as one of the most innovative restaurants in the country.

Simmons pursued one of those concepts last September when she opened her second New York restaurant, Birds & Bubbles – an elegant take on a Southern classic (fried chicken) served with champagne. She also began curating exclusive City Grit gift baskets for Williams-Sonoma and was selected as one of 10 chefs in the kitchenware chain’s inaugural Chef’s Collective – a group of culinary experts who will share their expertise and innovative ideas to advise on the brand’s marketing and product development initiatives.

At Rise – which Simmons calls a “Southern boulangerie” – Simmons and Scruggs will feature traditional bakery favorites with some creative twists such as a citrus crackling brioche-based muffin with toasted and candied almonds and citrus peel, a specialty cookie Simmons calls a Smoreo (a graham cracker cookie and a chocolate cookie with Italian meringue in the center), and a blondie called a Take 6 – Simmons’ take on her favorite candy bar, the Take 5, made with caramel, pretzels, pecans, peanut butter and dark and white chocolate.

“Our plan with Rise is really to bring another element to the scene in Columbia,” said Scruggs, who first worked with Simmons 18 months ago at a pop-up dinner Simmons held at Oak Table. “There are some great bakeries here such as Silver Spoon, Crust and Heather’s, and we hope to add to the growing scene. We’ll be baking from-scratch breads daily, along with Southern/ American-style pastries based on French technique. The whole idea is for people to come in, try our product and have a sense of nostalgia – with a twist.”

The Rise menu will change throughout the day with an Early Bird selection of freshly baked breads and spreads, pastries, breakfast bowls and sandwiches in the morning; a midday menu featuring soups, sandwiches, salads and sweets; and gourmet family meals on weekday evenings from 4-8 p.m. featuring a dinner for four. The dinner will feature a protein, salad or vegetable, side dish, bread and dessert, available for preorder on a first-come, first-served basis. In addition to traditional creams and sugars, Rise will offer house-made infused creams such as bourbon vanilla, burnt cinnamon and spiced pumpkin to serve with its Counter Culture coffee.

The restaurant will also be stocked with packaged goods of its own schmears and jams and a rotating collection of chef-driven artisan food products created by Simmons. The shop area will also sell Sqirl Jams from L.A. Chef Jessica Koslow, Arnold Palmer Gum Drops made exclusively for Rise by Chef Jami Curl of Quin candies in Portland, Ore., hot sauce from Bravo Top Chef contestant Edward Lee, Chocolate Confections from NYC’s Liddabit Sweets, and caramels and taffy from Portland’s Jacobsen’s Salt Co.

Columbia venture capitalist and former South Carolina Commerce Secretary Joe E. Taylor Jr. owns the Harden Street building that will be home to Rise.

“That area of Five Points needs a real shot in the arm,” Taylor said, “and if Sarah can do for Columbia what she has done in New York, that ought to be one of the most exciting areas in town soon.”

For Simmons, the location is a nostalgic one.

“I’m really excited about the location because as a teen in Columbia we spent all our time in Five Points. All my good memories are from something there – St.Patrick’s Day or some show or festival or even going to Oops! (Co.) and buying fun clothes,” Simmons said. “Eating at Andy’s Deli is still to this day one of my favorite things in the whole world. I hope one of my sandwiches is as good as the Andy Special. If one of them is, I’ll be successful.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 8:39 PM with the headline "NYC chef to elevate culinary scene in Five Points."