Nashville-based chef Trevor Moran was back home in Dublin recently when his restaurant Locust was named 20th on the coveted North America’s 50 Best Restaurants List for 2025. As he streamed the glitzy Las Vegas ceremony on his laptop, his staff assured him he came close to attending in person after they brought a cardboard cut-out of their boss to enjoy proceedings with them. Achieving 20th position was “an honour, mad stuff”, he says, joking that he was relieved to have avoided the worst spots: “49 or two”.
He also admits that he was more than a little relieved at not having missed being shortlisted for the ranking. The relevant email rested in his work inbox for several weeks before he noticed it. “I’m just happy we caught it,” he says, more calmly than most people might.
Moran exudes a low-key Zen which belies a stellar talent and career; the 50 Best judges said that if Nashville had “culinary royalty”, Moran would be it. They said Locust had seen Moran “setting his own rules for his own place” and described a menu “stripped back, not out of limitation, but out of intent”.
“I’m happy we’re full,” says Moran of his “small, concise restaurant” of just 10 tables serving some 350 people every week over six servings.
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He is not a formally trained chef (“you get notions in college”), instead learning from other experts as he followed a path through illustrious restaurants. “All the best chefs I’ve ever worked with have just come up in kitchens,” he says.
After cutting his youthful teeth in Dublin spots including Brasserie na Mara (now Hartley’s) in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin and Dylan McGrath’s Mint in Ranelagh, Moran made his way to the acclaimed Noma in Copenhagen in 2009 as a stagiaire.
Two years later, he had progressed to sous chef and was on a clear upward track, but an offer from Nashville, Tennessee to head the kitchen in the Catbird Seat lured him away. Noma did not give up, however, coming back to offer him the head chef position in 2015.
“It’s a blur now,” he says of the period that saw him come close to heading back to Denmark to take up one of the most prestigious roles in the restaurant world. Ultimately though, he decided to remain in Nashville, a town where he soon realised he wanted to build a life, and which he now considers himself to be at home.
“I had been in Nashville for three years but had spent all my time in the kitchen. I didn’t want that to be the memory.”
At around the same time, financial backers emerged and, five years ago, Locust opened its doors. It started with roughly six staff and now has 14, serving lunch and dinner three days a week: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
He describes Locust as “Irish seafood, French-leaning” and serving “just things I kinda like”. Typical lunch menus include hot swordfish and beef tartare, while dinner might feature whole dover sole and “too much caviar”. There will also be potato bread and butter, and chipper curry sauce.
As well as lunch and dinner, it opens its patio at weekends, serving charcuterie and drinks and featuring music.
Moran says that as time passes, he is “leaning into” things he learned as a younger chef, while working in Dún Laoghaire, or from his mentor, veteran Karl Whelan.
“They come back to you as your favourite memories and then you explore them.”
Locust does not operate a tasting menu and Moran says it’s not family-style but does like to feature “elaborate drops on the table” that can be shared.
The 50 Best Restaurant judges described staff bringing dishes to the table with “equal balance”.
“They’re enthusiastic about the food and the ingredients and your experience, but not overly expository. They know you want to get eating,” they said.
“The Locust team is terrific at making flavour combinations you haven’t considered before and at delivering an aesthetically perfect table (you will want to take a picture of that toast, go ahead),” the judges added.
They also noted Moran’s attention to the wellbeing of his staff in his decision to open on three days only: “Yes, it could fill tables in Nashville’s popular 12 South neighbourhood other nights. But Moran wants his staff to have lives outside the restaurant and to be able to spend time with their families and get a good night’s sleep.”
Moran welcomes his latest accolade, particularly for his team, but is more than aware that these rankings can also create “a pressure test” as word spreads to a new clientele. He also notes that “Michelin are coming to town in November”.
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While he has no plans to change a successful format at Locust, Moran does have an eye to expansion, perhaps at home.
“I would be happy to take the Locust concept entirely to Ireland,” he says. “Or a smaller thing, a little concept, out in Howth ... or Kinsale,” he adds dreamily, teasing that he will start to explore the idea “over the next year” but is not actively looking at it now.
