How Fancypants survived Nashville's restaurant gauntlet
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A festive table at Fancypants. Photo: Andrew Cebulka/courtesy of Fancypants
Nashville's restaurant industry is a bit like an obstacle course: To survive, businesses need to navigate a rough and unpredictable landscape.
- Success is not guaranteed.
At Fancypants in East Nashville, making it to the one-year mark this summer required a lot of trial-and-error. Customers helped guide a number of pivots before the funky spin on fine dining settled into a groove.
What they're saying: "Every week for the first three or four months, we made some sort of adjustment," Fancypants co-founder Jake Mogelson tells Axios.
- "We had a vision, we heard feedback, and we kind of merged our vision with that feedback to create something really special."
Zoom in: When it opened, the Fancypants menu was almost completely vegetarian. Early reviews from customers weren't great.
- "I underestimated how much people were not expecting that," Mogelson says.
- While the menu is still veggie-forward, the team layered in more meaty options.
They also leaned into whimsy, upping unexpected elements like starting meals with a serving of mushroom-infused shortbread cookies.
- They've served pasta dishes in vintage lunchboxes. An order of barbecue pork ribs with a sophisticated southeast Asian flavor profile came with wet wipes and a gingham bib.
- "We are very much, I think, doing something that is completely different than anything else in Nashville," Mogelson says.
The intrigue: Customers who came back after visiting in the first few months noticed the vibe shift.
The big picture: Mogelson, who is also a senior leader at Nashville staples Butcher and Bee and Redheaded Stranger, knows not every restaurant is lucky enough to evolve like Fancypants.
- "There's a lot of competition in Nashville," Mogelson says. "Every reservation is harder and harder and harder to come by."
Case in point: The fine-dining Chinese concept Choi opened in The Gulch on the same day as Fancypants and closed just shy of its one-year anniversary.
- "It puts in perspective how hard the industry is and how grateful and appreciative we are to have made it this far," he says.
The bottom line: Mogelson is one of many restaurateurs who urges customers to support the locally owned businesses that give Music City its distinctive flavor.
- "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for people supporting us," he says. "Every time we go out, it's important that we think about what businesses we want to be there next year."
If you go: Fancypants is located at 921 Dickerson Pike. Hours are Thursday through Sunday, 5-10pm.