Remember The Coach House, the first Fazoli’s, Nellie Kelly’s? This retired exec does.

Recently retired Fazoli’s executive Sam Nelson has seen a lot Lexington restaurant history.

His career in food service started before fast-casual was even invented and stretched through some of the biggest names in dining, beginning with a Lexington landmark: The Coach House.

Nelson, 66, married into the iconic family restaurant. Nelson was working at Central Bank when he married Tootsie, the daughter of legendary restaurateur Stanley Demos.

“I got the opportunity to learn from one of the best,” Nelson said. “He was one of the most famous and highly honored restaurant owners.”

The Coach House was at 855 South Broadway, on land that owned by The Red Mile that was part of the Tattersalls horse auction property.

When Demos opened The Coach House in 1969, Nelson said, it was in an old home that had been converted to a restaurant with a portico for coaches to pull under for passengers to alight.

“So that’s where he got the name,” Nelson said. That building was destroyed in a fire, but the restaurant was rebuilt just before Nelson joined the team in 1975.

The Coach House was fine dining, Nelson said. Demos has been the manager and maitre d’ at Maisonette, five-star restaurant in Cincinnati and The Coach House was in the same tradition, with French cuisine.

“He really brought a continental flair to Central Kentucky regional cuisine which was unusual at the time,” Nelson said.

And the restaurant attracted high profile guests from out of town. Nelson remembers when the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort began hosting the PGA Senior Tour.

“It was really exciting for a town of our size to have a pro event. On the night before the tournament, Arnold Palmer walked through the front door of the restaurant. And he brought Gay Brewer and Billy Casper, three Master’s champions,” Nelson said. “And we all about fainted. I’ll always remember shaking (Palmer’s) hand. It felt like a bristle brush, it was so calloused.”

Meanwhile, another well-known Lexington restaurant business came calling.

“In 1979, I was recruited by Jerrico, the parent company of Long John Silver’s,” Nelson said. At that time, Jerrico had both Jerry’s restaurants, which were family style coffee shops, similar to Denny’s, as well as 1,700 locations of Long John Silver’s, which begin in Lexington in 1969 on Southland Drive as “the Cape Codder.”

Jerrico also had a specialty division and Nelson was put in charge of a new concept: Nellie Kelly’s.

“It was a really fun place, Irish-themed, like a Bennigan’s or a Houlihan’s,” Nelson said. Nellie Kelly’s was where Drake’s is today in the Lansdowne Shoppes, and Nelson was the general manager from 1979 to 1982, when Jerrico sold off all its properties except Long John Silver’s and Jerry’s.

As Long John Silver’s kept growing, Nelson was asked to run a training center for employees; Jerrico rented space at Transylvania University so they could put employees up in a dorm. Nelson ended up back in Hazelrigg Hall, where he’d lived as a freshman.

Long John’s eventually was bought by Yum! Brands before being spun back off in 2011. Jerry’s was sold off in 1990; in case you’re wondering, there are still a few Jerry’s restaurants around, Nelson said, including in Paris, Elizabethtown and Cave City.

Then, in 1984, Jerrico decided to test an Italian concept. But not the one you’re thinking.

You know that Olive Garden in front of Fayette Mall? Before it was an Olive Garden, it was “Florenz,” Nelson said. This was the second of seven full-service Italian restaurants, not unlike today’s Olive Garden, that Jerrico opened, with a menu focus on Northern Italian cuisine.

It was doing OK, but then-board chairman Warren Rosenthal thought things could be better.

Rosenthal pointed out that Jerrico’s strength was quick service, not full-service restaurants.

Rosenthal said, “let’s do fast-food Italian,” something no one had tried, Nelson said. “That’s where Fazoli’s was born.”

The company opened the original first fast-foot Italian restaurant on North Broadway in September 1988 under the name “Gratzi’s.” That name didn’t last long, Nelson said.

“We found out we couldn’t trademark that, so we focus grouped a lot of names and came up with Fazoli’s,” he said. It had the beauty of sounding Italian without actually meaning anything.

The concept took off. Nelson helped open the second location in Richmond, then another in Nicholasville, then another Winchester. The fifth location was on Richmond Road, where one still operates today.

Every wonder why that restaurant has so much parking on the side? It began as a Frisch’s Big Boy drive-in. “The reason the parking lot is so big on one end is because the Frisch’s had car hops,” Nelson said.

Demos retired in 1989 and the Nelsons bought The Coach House. For the next four years, they ran one of the poshest places to eat in the city. At the time, it was the only Mobil Five-Star restaurant in Kentucky.

The Coach House was named to the National Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 1991, in the same company as the famous Commander’s Palace in New Orleans and Galatoire’s in the French Quarter and celebrity chefs Lidia Bastanich and Wolfgang Puck.

In 1993, the Nelsons sold The Coach House and Sam returned to Fazoli’s, which was now owned by Kuni Toyoda, who was beginning to franchise the chain. Nelson became the company’s first franchise business consultant, working for 24 years with franchisees. He eventually rose to lead the department as vice president of franchise recruitment and development.

Under Toyoda’s helm, the concept grew; there are now about 200 Fazoli’s. Toyoda, who sold Fazoli's in 2015, still owns Bella Notte, Smashing Tomato and Crust concepts.

To cope with changing customer tastes, Fazoli’s has repositioned itself as premium quick-serve concept, with improved service and food. No more plastic utensils and black Styrofoam containers, he said.

“Business has just gone through the roof because of it,” he said. People feel like they are getting better food, for a value price and still get it quickly. The chain is likely to add 15 to 20 new restaurants this year, Nelson said.

“I think the biggest thing impacting the restaurant industry right now is the amount of importance people place on convenience,” Nelson said. The trend that began with car hops and accelerated to the drive-through and take-out, has now become online ordering and delivery, he said.

“All brands want as many options as possible,” he said.

Nelson left an industry in upheaval, and Lexington has seen its share over the last year as dozens of new restaurants have come to town, pushing others to close.

“Lexington is a great restaurant town,” Nelson said. “But Lexington is under stress right now. The population is increasing but not to the level that the restaurant population has increased.”

That creates demands that be nearly impossible to balance.

“A local operator would tell you that it’s tough to find qualified management and associates so that you don’t have to pay overtime,” he said. That pushes up costs but without the right employees, restaurants can’t meet customers’ expectations.

“And for restaurants that can’t provided the level of service that accompanies the price point, it’s a tough time.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Remember The Coach House, the first Fazoli’s, Nellie Kelly’s? This retired exec does.."