By Patrick Crowley
Enquirer staff writer

Margene Grizzell, owner of the F&N, talks on the phone with a former employee on the landmark restaurant's last day in business. The Enquirer/PATRICK REDDY

DAYTON, Ky. - The F&N Steak House, a meat-and-potatoes roadhouse that has been a Northern Kentucky dining fixture since 1929, has served its last meal.

A dwindling clientele, competition from chain restaurants, rising costs and a once-quaint but now out-of-the-way location pushed the family-owned restaurant from business.

"I feel like there's been a death in the family," said Margene Grizzell, 49, whose family has operated the F&N since it opened.

Grizzell sniffled and wiped away tears Thursday as she told the story of a family business that just couldn't make it any longer.

"We tried, but since the Newport on the Levee opened, our business has dropped in half," said Grizzell, whose husband, John, and daughter, Marjon, also worked at the restaurant.

"The younger people want the franchises and the places that are louder and more active," she said. "We were still just a family-owned business and a laid-back kind of place. People don't want that as much anymore."

Dayton Police Chief Mark Brown has been eating at the F&N for 35 years.

"It's an icon in Northern Kentucky," said Brown, who still ate there three to four times a month. "It will be missed."

The restaurant's 40 employees were told of the closing Wednesday night. Grizzell's mother, Margie Thomas, is trying to find a buyer.

The family will continue to operate the Thomasville Party Lodge, which is just across Ky. 8 from the restaurant, and plans to honor all parties and events that have been booked.

"People came for the food, and the atmosphere," said Lori Freeman, 35, who grew up across the street at Doyle's, a river camp community along the Ohio River. "It was always an experience eating there. People would come from all over, and they were always treated great, like they were old friends or family members."

Freeman can recall eating hundreds of meals at the F&N. Some of her fondest childhood memories are of summer nights eating fried eggplant carryout around the pool at Doyle's.

Along with the eggplant, the F&N was known for its steaks, prime rib and seafood specials. The outside looked like a Swiss Chalet, the inside was spread across several rooms on two floors. One dining room featured sunken couches around a circular fireplace. Another was full of antiques.

The F&N helped put the city on the map, said Dayton Mayor Ken Rankle, a Dayton native.

"I would be out of town and people would ask me where I'm from," said Rankle, whose stepfather, Clyde Young, helped build the F&N. "I would say Dayton, Kentucky, and people would know the F&N.

"This is a sad day in Dayton," Rankle said. "We've lost something special."

Media personality Nick Clooney called the F&N "the best steakhouse in America." He's been a customer since the early 1960s and one of his newspaper columns about the place is tacked on a wall just inside the front door.

Clooney used to dine at the F&N with fellow Cincinnati television anchorman Al Schottelkotte. Clooney anchored the news on WKRC, Schottelkotte at WCPO.

"I'm shocked," said Clooney, a candidate for Congress who lives up river in Augusta. "Where else can you get fried eggplant?"

Grizzell's grandmother started the F&N in 1929, though for years her father, Gene Thomas, and mother ran the place. It is about five miles east of Newport along a tree-lined stretch of Ky. 8.

The reservation book at the hostess stand pretty much said it all. Under Wednesday, it simply reads, "Last night in business."

Chris Mayhew contributed. E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com