Roaring Twenty

What was not visible from the floor, but readily apparent at the table, was the passing of the baton in the kitchen. Two years ago executive chef Will Uhlhorn joined the roster of stellar chefs to lead F. Scott’s. Since then, he has restored the level of excellence that first distinguished the restaurant, while at the same time he has made his unique culinary impression on the landmark.

Uhlhorn, a native of Memphis, managed to reach his senior year at Ole Miss without ever working in a restaurant. In his last semester, he took a job at City Grocery under chef/owner John Currence, who was making a national name for himself as a leader of the New Southern cooking movement. It was a job that changed Uhlhorn’s life. “The very first night I knew that was what I wanted to do. The adrenaline in that environment sucked me right in,” he remembers. He dropped out of school—one Algebra credit shy of a degree—and spent the next three years at City Grocery before heading back to work in Memphis, where he met wife Tamara. Fast-forward the next six years through the Culinary Institute of America, East Coast Grill and Hamersley’s Bistro in Boston—where he cemented his near-pathological obsession with the Red Sox. (A Yankee cap in the kitchen would be grounds for firing.) Consulting the Places Rated Almanac and finding Nashville appealing, the couple moved here in 2003. Uhlhorn snagged a gig at Belle Meade Brasserie, where he staved off the restaurant’s final days for a time. It was there that he first attracted the attention of Burch, who tucked his name away for future reference. A brief stint at The Wild Boar preceded his arrival at F. Scott’s, where he succeeded Jason McConnell and Carl Schultheis, whose cooking styles had put a decidedly global spin on the menu.

Uhlhorn, on the other hand, combines his Southern roots and formal education to showcase regional and seasonal foods with classic French techniques and basic bistro cooking.

He spent his first several months getting to know local producers, researching out-of-town purveyors, particularly fish mongers, and ramping up his kitchen staff by promoting Charles Robb to sous chef and hiring Kevin Ramquist from the Boar as Robb’s co-sous. Uhlhorn’s first menu as executive chef emerged in fall 2005; the spring ’07 model is the seventh from this talented trio. It shines from top to bottom, a delightful journey through the South via Paris, Provence and the Mediterranean.

A few cooler-weather dishes linger, among them the seared foie gras and sauternes terrine with apple saba and winter’s green mâche, a.k.a. lamb’s lettuce; the archetypal coq au vin; and braised pork ragout, a hearty and flavorful one-bowl meal of grainy mustard-braised pork with caramelized onions, baby carrots and cremini mushrooms.

April’s combo of record-setting heat wave followed by deep freeze had unfortunate residual effects on May, and Nashville was shortchanged two of our most glorious months. But at F. Scott’s, spring bursts forth joyfully—cool mint and sweet spring peas peek brightly from the rich duck confit and ricotta ravioli appetizer; the superbly simple mix of bibb and mâche lettuces with crisped prosciutto and curry-buttermilk vinaigrette; and the halibut with crisp olive chips, saffron aioli and Spanish-origin Romesco sauce. A rack of distinctly flavored pale pink spring lamb centered in a bowl of toothsome farro double-teams the peas with kelly-green fava beans.

Two other salads vie for attention, and your selection may depend on your favorite fromage: on one, a wedge of locally made Bonnie Blue goat feta shares a plate with bitter frisée, halved sweet Concord grapes, lemon juice-olive oil citronette and several sheets of feather-light phyllo that melt on the tongue. Far flashier is the square of warm, gooey Camembert cheese, glazed with fig-and-lavender honey, studded with spicy pine nuts and served aside mesclun greens dressed in balsamic fig vinaigrette.

Since Josh Weekley arrived from Le Bernadin in New York, F. Scott’s has been rightly acclaimed for its fish, and Uhlhorn lifts that banner high, thanks to well-researched buying, exquisite preparation and refined presentation. Among the starters is a light and lively sliced yellowtail crudo, fired up with a drizzle of red chili oil, topped with ginger confit and fanned atop creamy avocado purée, circled by a perky quartet of tempura-battered, golden-fried rock shrimp and red pepper aioli. Petrale sole—which is actually a flounder—makes an exclusive local engagement here, and is rewarded with kid-glove treatment. Delicate, slender fillets wearing a light Peekytoe crab-lemon vinaigrette balance gracefully atop a cushion of buttery pommes Anna, itty-bitty baby carrots and creamed leeks. Earthier appetites will be well satisfied by the fish stew known as bouridde, which Uhlhorn prepares with white fish, mussels and rock shrimp in a tomato-tinged fish stock with garlic and onions, thickened with aioli. Uhlhorn humors the meat-and-potato crowd with braised beef short ribs; beef tenderloin served with duck-fat pommes frites; and Broken Arrow antelope with house-made venison sausage.