“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.
Loehr significantly elevated the wine program—taking the selections available from about 75 to around 350, with new and interesting additions featured weekly. She is only rarely unavailable for consultation, and in her absence, servers ably guide diners to good choices.
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.
Pastry chef Scott Witherow rounds out the A team in the kitchen with an imaginative and risk-taking slate of gorgeous desserts that included just one chocolate item; the creative standout was a pear terrine with lavender crème, caramelized Marcona almond dust and brown butter ice cream.
Live jazz is performed every night in the bar—a musical genre that partially accounts for one of Nashville’s most diverse clienteles—and the tunes waft pleasantly into both dining rooms. The entire restaurant is smoke-free.
Along a time line of local dining history, F. Scott’s marks the start of the modern era, when chefs, food and wine really began to matter. Even more to its credit, 20 years later it remains atop the list of Nashville’s finest restaurants, raising the bar well into its seventh act.
F. Scott’s opens for dinner at 5:30 p.m. daily. The bar opens at 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. A half-price menu is available in the dining room after 9 p.m. every evening except Sunday.
