Nefetari's joins the rash of local restaurant closings in Tallahassee
Nefetari's Fine Cuisine and Spirits wasn't meant to be a goldmine, but in its nearly six years, the upscale restaurant on Tallahassee's south side couldn't break even.
It nearly broke Sharon and Dana Dennard, two well-respected clinical psychologists, who've used their backgrounds in mental health and wellness to create some of the city's most unique offerings: a bookstore, a venue for live music and poetry and a summer camp for children that evolved into an independent school.
The international restaurant, the couple's latest venture, won't live to see its anniversary in August as it is now. After June 30, dinner and brunch operations will sunset and be replaced by limited dinner service.
It will still serve food during the Tuesday poetry nights hosted by Black On Black Rhyme and monthly paint-and-sip events. Reservations are strongly encouraged for residents who may want to experience the full menu before it closes by calling 850-210-0548.
Sharon Dennard alerted customers on Facebook, triggering a flood of disappointment and shock. It didn't make sense, considering the restaurant's reputation for stellar wait service and flavorful dishes, along with favorable online reviews.
Nefetari's is the latest local restaurant in about a month to close, preceded by Merv’s Melt Shop, Downtown Ramen Bar and The Deck Pizzeria and Pub.
A lack of foot traffic is to blame, Dennard said. Despite efforts to drum up events, such as mystery dinners, it wasn't enough to sustain the restaurant. She and her husband didn’t depend on the restaurant for their livelihoods, but they found themselves subsidizing Nefetari's operations from income from their other professional ventures.
“I will no longer open this door, and hope that you will come. When these guys say build it, and they will come. Not necessarily," said Dennard, who was candid about her disappointment. "We built it, and they didn’t come."
Nefetari’s opened on Aug. 31, 2013. The Dennards, two Florida State University alumni, first leased then bought the dilapidated structure built in 1935 off Gaines Street in 1992. Years before, the building had been a church and later a rock club called “The Chapel.”
Under the Dennard era, it became Amen Ra’s Bookstore stocked with Afrocentric literature and historical books, which still hold a downsized presence in the building.
Nefetari means “the good and the beautiful.” The restaurant is named for the famed Egyptian queen who became known after the discovery of her bust, said Dana Dennard in a 2014 article in the Tallahassee Democrat.
She was the most important and most powerful of all Egyptian queens, he said. She was the wife of Ramses the Great, the most prolific builder and one of the longest reigning of all pharaohs. Nefetari was running her own empire when Ramses wanted her by his side.
The goal of Nefetari's was to provide a community service, Sharon Dennard explained. It served farm-to-table, made-to-order food. The building was splashed in Caribbean blue, soft plums and purples. The decor shined with gold accents and black pharaohs, transforming the 4,800 square-foot building into a fine-dining time capsule.
The couple wanted to provide a healthier dining option infused with flavor and vegan-food unmatched by any other local restaurant. It was a culinary ministry, a means toward improving the human body from the inside out.
“As Americans, we have cancers up the whazoo, we have stress that’s so overwhelming that’s matchless in the United States, a developed country that shouldn’t be the case,” Dennard said. “As mental health professionals, we had concerns about the mind-body connection between the food that we take in and our stress levels and the inability to actually find a quality meal that was wholesome in an aesthetically pleasing environment.”
Contact TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com or follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.