Not-So-Quiet Comfort
Music and mixed drinks make F. Scott’s a popular Nashville hangout
Nashville may be honky-tonk heaven and a mecca for country music fans, but when record label moguls, songwriters, big-name musicians, and superstar singers — think Kenny Chesney — want to mellow out, they head for F. Scott’s, a cool jazz bar/restaurant with live, sweet sounds seven days a week. If the brilliant, cantankerous novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and his eccentric wife, Zelda, were around today, they would no doubt be skinny-dipping in the house martini named in his honor.
F. Scott’s (2210 Crestmoor Road; fscotts.com) is a hip take on a Jazz Age speakeasy, minus the bathtub gin, bootleg whiskey, and flappers. There’s no password or secret handshake to get in the door, nor even a cover charge for the music.
Music infuses the Nashville bar scene, and F. Scott’s co-owners Wendy Holcomb Burch and Elise Loehr Solima are quick to set you straight on the city’s vibe. “There’s a myth that Nashville is only country music because the [Grand Ole] Opry’s here,” says Burch. “But there is rock, blues, jazz, contemporary Christian music, and hip-hop.” Since almost every saloon serves up live music, be careful where you meet someone for a drink, business talk, or even a chat over a cocktail. One hotel bar told me it was a “listening room” and the message was clear: order up, and when the music starts, clam up. Not at F. Scott’s.
“We don’t ‘shush’ people,” claims Burch. “We have a business clientele. People meet for cocktails.” Sure enough, the crowd is a nice mix of Vanderbilt University faculty, lawyers, politicians, CPAs, health care execs, and hospital docs, plus the music industry decision makers and artists. It’s upmarket, not down-home.
A warm refuge from a jarring world, F. Scott’s is done up in warm browns and golds and sleek black and white, with colorful paintings by Nashville artists placed throughout. The roomy jazz bar has 10 stools and 14 cabaret tables and serves the full dinner menu from the restaurant side. Mixology doesn’t play second fiddle to the food and music. A dry Plymouth gin martini is $8. The classic Negroni — gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth — is $7.50. There’s a serious repertoire of single-malt and fine old blended Scotches, more than 15 cognacs and Armagnacs, and rare small-batch, single-barrel sweet bourbons like the 16-year-old Black Maple Hill, which is almost impossible to find. Liz, one of F. Scott’s personable barkeeps, will pour you some on the rocks for $18.
Thirsting for some genuine honky-tonk? Go downtown to Robert’s Western World (416 Broadway; robertswesternworld.com) where owners Jesse Lee Jones and Libbi McCullough-Lee burn through four bands a day, from 11 in the morning straight through until 2 a.m. The only break is on Sunday morning when Ron Blakely, an ordained minister and steel guitar player, takes the stage as pastor and Robert’s becomes Nashville’s only honky-tonk church. “We’re non-denominational,” says Jones, also a guitarist who dresses up like Wyatt Earp sometimes and plays daily four-hour gigs of what he calls Brazilbilly — country with a Latin flair.
Wild? You bet. And fun. The bar is 40 feet long and jammed, the dance floor packed with Western swingers, two-steppers, cheek-to-cheekers, and jitterbuggers, but no line dancers. “We have everybody from truck drivers to lawyers and doctors in here, and everyone gets along,” Jones says. And you can’t beat the price. An iced can of the most popular beer in the bar, Pabst Blue Ribbon, is $2 during the day and $2.50 at night. Jack Daniel’s on the rocks is $5.50. Work up an appetite and order a hamburger for $4.75, or go native and try the Hillbilly Round Steak, a fried bologna sandwich, for $3.50.
Like almost every place in Nashville, you don’t pay admission or a cover charge for the music. Band members get only $20 a shift. The story goes that Willie Nelson once told a bar owner, “You don’t have to pay me, just let me pass my hat around.” So when the tip jar comes your way, dig deep.
— Chris Barnett
The Wine Shop
This month, Continental Sommelier Martin Korson recommends three little-known red wines.
La Posta Bonarda, Mendoza, Argentina 2004, $17
This wine has huge flavors of blackberries and super-ripe black cherries, and a very long, earthy finish with hints of toasted spices.
Betts & Scholl Grenache, Barossa Valley, Australia 2003, $29.99
Smooth, elegant flavors of ripe raspberries and red plums give a spicy peppery note to the finish of this wine.
L’Arco Amarone, Verona, Italy 1999, $74.99
Grapes are dried on mats after harvest, concentrating their lush flavors to generate a super-rich, full-bodied red wine — one more big red for your wine arsenal.
Martin Korson is the beer and wine manager for Central Market, Houston’s European fresh food store.
FLY & BUY
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