Read also: “Fido’s Final Fetch: A Look at the Cafe’s Long Legacy.”
As the clock ticks down on Fido’s planned shuttering in 2028, a blank book stationed in the cafe’s lobby invites patrons to share memories of the Nashville stalwart. Its pages are filled not only with phrases like “Thanks for the memories,” but also more specific and personal reflections. One entry is from a patron who chose Fido as their last dining-out destination before brain surgery; others include a memory of reading the final Harry Potter book from start to finish in the cafe and a former Taylor Swift employee’s memories of snagging breakfast there.
For 29 years, the Hillsboro Village spot has given Nashvillians somewhere to sit and stay
One entry reads, “This building took years off my life that I can never hope to regain and yet still I come back … like Stockholm Syndrome.” And another: “Big life moments happen here for young adults.” People certainly like Fido, but they also like the memories they made there.
Smyrna native Janvier Christine first came to Fido as a 13-year old and looked forward to making it her own personal Central Perk (à la Friends) when she got older. Earlier this year, working out of Fido, she created her brand Woogirling, a page meant for Nashville women to build community and support local businesses outside of downtown.
Christine will host her Woogirling co-working space in Fido’s side room until they close, she says. She also notes that Fido is the antithesis of new coffee shops like La La Land in 12South, an Instagrammable local outpost of a California-based chain with white minimalist interiors. Christine likes that Fido is different, noting that Hillsboro Village is her main hangout — between throwing darts at the Villager Tavern, eating meals at Dumpling House and seeing movies at the Belcourt.
“In the past, it had been this mecca of nightlife for college students, and it’s definitely slowed down in the past few years,” Christine says of Hillsboro Village. “I kind of wanted to take advantage of that pace.”
Jessie Weiss met her now-husband for a first date at Fido in 2005, during what was arguably the heyday of the business. He chose the spot because he wanted to show Weiss where he had been chatting with her every day for weeks — from Fido’s public computer. It’s also where they shared their first kiss.
“We were stepping up the curb across from Fido, and he took my hand to help me up the curb, and then kissed it, and I laughed at him, really, really, really hard,” Weiss tells the Scene. “That was the most ridiculous gesture ever. But it worked, because then we were kissing on the back patio.”
Bill Cornelius describes Fido as “frozen in time.”
“There’s a nostalgia about going there now, because it’s one of the few things that has not changed, despite the entire city growing so significantly since the early 2000s,” Cornelius tells the Scene. “If you want to know what a coffee shop in Nashville was like 20 years ago, just walk in Fido now.”
Fido is where Cornelius, a filmmaker and former Watkins College student, filmed one of his first school projects circa 2003. It was also an obvious hotspot for film students because of its proximity to the Belcourt.
If saving Fido is on the table, Brandon Styll — director of operations at Green Hills Grille and Maribol and president of the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance — would like to jump into action. He worries that the spot will be taken over by a chain restaurant, something the alliance seeks to band against.
“If I bring all these restaurants together now, we actually do have leverage,” Styll says. “My goal is really just to keep local restaurants around longer, because they’re such fixtures in the community.”
Styll has personal experience — he closed Chagos Belmont Cantina this year. He also has a personal stake in Fido. He estimates that from 2009 to 2012, he ate the cafe’s Eggs McFido and drank a Local Latte (a latte with local honey and cinnamon) around four times per week.
But Trish Crist has him beat. Crist estimates that she’s been to Fido 1,780 times or more. That’s a conservative estimate based on the 11 years she lived within walking distance of the cafe. She estimates she ate 5,500 pieces of bacon made crispy by beloved longtime chef John Stephenson.
Fido
It’s also where Crist met her now-husband for the first time in 2014 after chatting on OkCupid. She picked the venue.
“I was thinking about, ‘Why did I pick Fido?’” Crist says. “I think it’s because it was my natural, easy choice. I felt safe there. I knew the staff. It was a friendly place. I felt it reflected me as a person.”
The two met up again a few days later and saw Birdman at the Belcourt. They didn’t want the night to be over, so they went to Fido again.
Fido’s long goodbye gives patrons time to revisit, but Crist doesn’t know that she will. In recent years, the food and service weren’t the same as she remembered.
“I think I would rather be sad that my dream place is closing than to discover that my dream place is not my dream place anymore,” Crist says.
Crist credits former barista Khalil Davis for making Fido homey. Davis says working at Fido from 2003 to 2007 was his favorite job to date. He went on to start two coffee shops of his own (Coffee, Lunch and The Terminal Cafe, the latter of which closed in 2018) and worked a stint at Frothy Monkey in East Nashville. These days, he works as a personal trainer and as general manager of MRKT in Midtown.
Davis estimates that he made thousands of Roll Overs (chocolate, caramel, espresso and milk, topped with whipped cream and chocolate) during his tenure. He also has Fido to thank for meeting his wife, who worked across the street at Posh.
“When I found Fido, I was like, ‘This is the cool side and the noncorporate coffee house,’” says Davis, who previously worked for Starbucks. “That made me want to open my own coffee shop and be in hospitality and keep that going. Because of Fido, I am where I am.”
