Roaring Twenty

“There are no second acts in American lives.” The line is among the most recognized from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished final novel, The Last Tycoon. Expressed by a fictional character, the dark sentiment was presumably his own, reflecting upon his rocket-like ascent to fame as the author of This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night and snappy ringleader of the Jazz Age social set, followed by an equally spectacular crash into despair over wife Zelda’s extreme mental illness and his own alcoholism. He began The Last Tycoon before dying at just 44 years old, leaving behind a 20-year body of work.

F. Scott’s Restaurant marks its 20th anniversary this year. Two decades is barely a blip on the time line of American literature, but a remarkable achievement in restaurant years. (Only Deb Paquette’s restaurant Zola—which opened as Cakewalk Café—has the same tenure in its category locally.) But F. Scott’s can boast more than longevity. If the notable chefs, servers, bartenders, managers and owners who have logged time within the walls of this epochal restaurant were to gather round a table, their stories would compile a fascinating history of contemporary dining in Nashville.

Date your own tenure here if you remember the original F. Scott’s in a small strip mall on Bandywood, behind the Green Hills Kroger. Opened by Queen of the Southern Tea Rooms Daisy King—a fan of Fitzgerald’s who gave the restaurant its name—and several investors, F. Scott’s had grand ambitions of challenging Nashville taste buds that lived in a culinary cocoon spun of cornbread, casseroles and fried chicken. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But clearly, F. Scott’s penetrated an epicurean vacuum and from the start was a magnet for transplants from larger cities, aspiring sophisticates and nascent foodies.

Consider the river of names that have run through it. In addition to King, Mark Rubin, Randy Rayburn, Hoyt Hill, Dr. Tom Allen, Allen Fiuzat and Ben Robichaux all put in time at the front door, through which has passed a host of celebrities from entertainment, political, media, sports, arts and wine circles. The prolific F. Scott’s kitchen has served as a veritable petri dish for local celebrity chefs and their many spin-off restaurants. Among the names who have manned—and womaned—the stove are Anita Hartell, Josh Weekley, Emile LaBrousse, Louise Branch, Margot McCormack and Jason McConnell.

Since F. Scott’s opened, there have been six announcements of new ownership. The last took place in late 2003, a business partnership between two women who met more than a decade earlier while working under Hill at the original location.

Wendy Holcomb Burch was familiar with Bandywood’s commercial community; her grandfather owned the Belmont Men’s Shop and The Gazebo. After learning the trade at the storied O’Charley’s on 21st Avenue, she was hired to bartend at F. Scott’s in 1991. Not long afterward, Elise Loehr Solima came on board, and the two young women became friends. Before the Kroger expansion moved the restaurant to its current location on Crestmoor Road, they departed to pursue other paths. Burch got a master’s in government from Vanderbilt, worked in Washington, and lived and traveled in Taiwan, Paris and New York. Loehr (she uses her maiden name professionally) devoted herself to an education in wine and is now acknowledged by many as one of the foremost experts working in the Southeast.

Shortly after Burch returned to Nashville some years ago, she ran into Loehr at a wine tasting, and the two naturally went on to dinner at F. Scott’s, renewing their friendship. They began thinking seriously about going into business together, so when they heard that Robichaux and Fiuzat—who became the sixth ownership team in 1996—were interested in selling, it seemed fate was knocking on their door.

“We signed the papers in our lawyer’s office at noon on Nov. 24, 2003,” Burch recalls. “Elise and I walked in the door as Ben and Allen walked out. We literally didn’t know where the coffee was. We called a staff meeting and one of the first things we said to them was that one of the reasons we were interested specifically in F. Scott’s was because of them, that they were what made F. Scott’s the great restaurant it is, and we hoped they would stay with us. No one left, and most of them are still with us now.” Among the many familiar faces in the front of the house are 17-year head server Pete Neff and six-year bartender Liz Endicott.