Strong, lasting marriages are frequently conceived in friendship. Such is the case with the two women who are both the beauty and the brains at the helm of F. Scott’s Restaurant and Jazz Bar. As Wendy Burch and Elise Loehr signed the legal papers to take over the business from their immediate predecessors Allen Fiuzat and Ben Robichaux on Nov. 24, 2003, the gods of fate must have been patting themselves on the back. Burch’s professional relationship with the restaurant began in 1991, when she was hired as a bartender at the original F. Scott’s on Bandywood, about where Kroger’s produce department is now.
Not long afterwards, Loehr joined her—also hired by Village Wine’s Hoyt Hill, then-owner of the fledgling restaurant with his wife Elizabeth—and the two young co-workers struck up a friendship. Developing careers led them in different directions and locales, but when their paths crossed again years later at a wine tasting, they went on to F. Scott’s for dinner to catch up. With a decade of education and experience under their belts, they mulled the possibilities of running a business together—which was simultaneous with Fiuzat and Robichaux’s interest in leaving the restaurant business. “Hello, opportunity calling.”
Loehr and Burch were well aware that they were not simply taking over a restaurant; they were assuming responsibility for an icon in the city’s dining development. In 1987, F. Scott’s and Cakewalk (now Zola) fired the first volley in the battle for independents, offering sophisticated menus, wine lists, service and decor as ammunition against the cookie-cutter fern bar and chain gang.
Burch and Loehr are the sixth ownership group to guide F. Scott’s since founder Daisy King, and each has built upon the work of the ones who came before. Hoyt Hill lured chef Josh Weekley from the kitchen of the famed Le Bernardin in Manhattan, elevated the wine service and began offering music in the bar; the late Dr. Tom Allen moved the restaurant to its current location when he purchased it in 1994, expanding its size and lavishly decorating in Art Deco style; after they took possession in 1996, Fiuzat and Robichaux re-did the interior for warmer ambiance, instituted the popular 9-Dine program, installed Margo McCormack as executive chef and booked live jazz nightly in the bar.
Burch and Loehr’s first executive decision was an appeal to the staff to stay the course. The response was unanimous, and six years later, many of those employees remain, of particular note server Pete Neff, who just logged his 20th year, and bartender Liz Endicott, closing in on a decade. They hired a new GM, Steve Lapiska, who is still the smiling face at the front door.
Loehr, an advanced sommelier, quadrupled the size of the cellar, with an emphasis on diversity and unique selections, artisanally-crafted and produced with sustainable efforts; ongoing, she selects new wines for each new menu. As anyone who has been the recipient of her expertise knows, helping diners discover unusual wines is her passion.
F. Scott’s was one of Nashville’s first restaurants to voluntarily go smoke free; another décor change was undertaken in the bar, which has its own casual menu. Burch expanded their presence on the Internet and introduced savvy social-networking marketing techniques with frequent emails about specials, new menu items, wine tastings and musical guests. Particularly successful has been the Speakeasy—a weekly term sent to subscribers which when spoken to the bartender delivers a deal such as the $14 crab cake for just $5 ...
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