Old and Improved

F. Scott’s

2210 Crestmoor Road. 269-5861.

Hours: 5:30-10 p.m. Sun.-Thurs.; 5:30-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

All food half-price after 9 p.m. in the dining room

If your dinner salad of choice is always a Caesar, be forewarned that for the first time in nearly 15 years, you won’t find it on the menu at F. Scott’s restaurant. Since taking over the kitchen in January 2001, when chef Margot McCormack departed to open Margot Cafe and Bar in East Nashville, executive chef Jason McConnell has made significant and exciting contributions to the culinary profile of this popular Green Hills dining and drinking spot. But it is what he eliminated that first got the attention of regular customers.

“There has always been a Caesar salad at F. Scott’s, and there has always been a tenderloin,” he says. “I took the Caesar off not long after I took over. And this winter I replaced the tenderloin with a New York strip. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but for some people, any kind of change is huge. Different chefs have tried to take the crème brûlée off the dessert menu, and you can’t believe how incensed people get. The crème brûlée is still here. You have to pick your battles and make changes gradually.”

Since opening in 1986, F. Scott’s restaurant in Green Hills has been home to half a dozen chefs, and each has brought something different to the table. When restaurateur Randy Rayburn took the place over in 1987, he hired Anita Hartell in her first leading role, and at F. Scott’s she began building her reputation as an imaginative, fearless cook. (She went on to turns at Cakewalk, Tin Angel and Sasso, and now co-owns mAmbu.) Josh Weakley was next, recruited from the four-star seafood restaurant Le Bernadin in New York; Weakley put fresh, day-boat fish in a starring role at F. Scott’s, a practice that continues to this day. Weakley now co-owns Atlantis with wife Susan. Emile LaBrousse (later of Arthur’s and Magnolia) brought a classically trained French influence to the kitchen. Louise Branch, whose résumé included several notable restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles, added a California flavor.

In September 1996, young Ben Robichaux and Allen Fiuzat bought F. Scott’s and promoted sous chef McCormack to executive chef. With her clean, fresh, relaxed style of cooking, McCormack was a key part of the team that helped lighten up and warm F. Scott’s conservative, stuffy reputation.

McConnell took a job in McCormack’s kitchen in January 1999, intent on making it a pit stop on his way to a placement under nationally acclaimed chef Dean Fearing at his Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas. A native of West Tennessee, McConnell began his culinary education at the City Grocery in Oxford while attending the University of Mississippi as a political science major. After graduating, he moved to Washington, D.C., to work for a congressman and soon discovered that Beltway politics was not his milieu. He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America, and after graduating he spent some time with a catering company before coming to Nashville.

“Working for Margot was great,” he says. “Our cooking styles are very different, but we got along fine in the kitchen.” Just as he was getting ready to move on to Dallas, McCormack was preparing to do her own thing in East Nashville and suggested he stick around. In January 2001, he was named executive chef at F. Scott’s. Though he says the transition was smooth as he imprinted his style onto the menu, the difference is dramatic when seen from the perspective of 18 months later.

“Margot’s cooking was more rustic and simple, with country French and Italian influences,” says the 28-year-old. “I like a global approach. When I eat out, I tend to go Asian and Latin-American, so I lean that way in the kitchen. I just hired a cook from Bombay, so he is adding some Indian flavors and dishes. I like to introduce new dishes and tastes to people who may not head out of their comfort zone to try an ethnic restaurant, but will try something new in a familiar setting. We’re not doing the fusion thing, but we try to bring different cultures to the table.”

Appetizers on the past two menus included a skewer of savory Mediterranean lamb chunks, onion, tomato and lemon wedges, served with tempura-battered fried artichoke hearts and lemon-caper sauce; Asian-style crab cakes with kaffir lime leaf butter sauce; Korean-style barbecued oysters on the half-shell with aromatics; house-cured dill-curried salmon with papadam crisps, salmon mousse and turmeric-caviar vinaigrette. A recent appetizer special sided petite crab cakes with an Indian dal, or lentil stew. The bento box is a delight to the eye as well as the mouth. Large enough to share, it offers a variety of Japanese treats: sushi, barbecue, tempura, meat or seafood salad and cold noodles prettily arranged in a lacquered box.