Inside the Block
We're shining a spotlight on the vibrant businesses and and unique history of the Warehouse Block in Lexington, Kentucky! Every first and third Sunday of the month we're serving up a fun blend of inspiring, behind-the-scenes stories of the Bluegrass region's most dynamic district!
Inside the Block
Forty Years On National Avenue!
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Forty years doesn’t happen by accident, especially in a former industrial corridor that was once considered “outside the city limits.” We sit down with Chad Walker, the longtime steward of Lexington’s Warehouse Block, to unpack how a single practical purchase on North Ashland grew into a neighborhood people now line up to join. Along the way, we trade the polished origin myth for the real version, complete with snow-shovel nights, a delirious “marlin” in the sky, and the kind of unfiltered stories only a place with true history can produce.
We dig into what the Warehouse Block used to be: trades, automotive shops, and buildings that were functional long before they were trendy. Chad explains how adaptive reuse, zoning constraints, and parking expectations shaped the neighborhood’s turnaround, and why serving on city boards like the Board of Adjustment puts real weight behind seemingly small decisions. If you care about historic districts, urban redevelopment, or preservation, this episode is for you!
Job Titles And Anniversary Kickoff
SPEAKER_00Okay, we are back with the Inside the Block podcast, and I am here with Chad Walker, head honcho, I don't know, main guy of the warehouse blog. Like, what is your title exactly?
SPEAKER_01I need a title. Maybe we should do it on Facebook this time around, is put out what should my title be.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. CEO.
SPEAKER_01Parking lot sweeper and toilet plunger and just whatever.
SPEAKER_00Will you really go plunge toilets in the different properties?
SPEAKER_01I have. I haven't, as of years late, I've graduated. So no, I haven't plunged a toilet in quite a few years, but I do still have uh yeah, old faithful nearby just in case I need him.
SPEAKER_00So absolutely. Yeah, always come prepared,
How The Warehouse Block Started
SPEAKER_00obviously.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this is an incredibly special episode because we are celebrating 40 years of the warehouse block. And so tell us the history of the warehouse block. How did it come to be?
SPEAKER_01So the standard boilerplate version is that my father uh is a commercial electrician by trade and he needed a place to park his electric business. And so he bought 333 North Ashland Avenue, which is at the corner of North Ashland and National.
SPEAKER_00Which is what what business is in there?
SPEAKER_01Seasons catering is in there as well as dynamic connections.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so that was like the original spot.
SPEAKER_01That was the OG. Okay, cool. Then uh the properties on either side were run down pieces of junk buildings, so he bought those and fixed them up. Then the properties on either side of those are run down pieces of junk, so he bought those and fixed up, and it just kind of progressed throughout the years. And remind me, I will tell you a story about seasons catering at some point.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'll remind you.
SPEAKER_01You may go ahead and tell it. I'll tell it.
Snow Removal And The Sky Marlin
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, and so speaking of job titles, I we've I've always done snow removal, helped the guys do snow removal. Yeah, never have driven a truck, they always put me on shovel patrol. And one particularly bad winter, we were shoveling snow, and we'd gone for about two days without a lick of sleep, and we're all tired and cold. And I looked up and we had walkie-talkies because we're all out by ourselves. And I look up and there's a marlin, this beautiful marlin in the sky. And I'm like, I'm delirious of seeing things, whatever. And it ended up being Mike's daughter. I totally forgot that he's a world-class ice sculptor, and he had done a marlin and just pushed it out to the street. And so I'm I'm walkie-talkie and going, is anybody else seeing Marlins? Like, because I'm seeing a Marlin, I think probably we should go home. And of course, they came over and they saw the Marlin as well. And we had a laugh for five minutes and went back to work. So yeah, thanks for that one, Mike.
SPEAKER_00So great. Ridiculous. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
From Industrial Corridor To Revival
SPEAKER_00So we uh got the different he got seasons first and then the building, and then it just grew from there, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think the next one in line was um, I think it was 309 North Ashland, which was General Electric way, way, way back when. Yeah. And then when he got it, it was a couple of uh woodworker guys in there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because what's really incredible about the history of this area is that it was Lexington's, you know, premier industrial corridor for so long, especially in the early 20th century. You know, we like to say that the warehouse blocked this area built Lexington because of the brickyard that was here and all of the different um woodworking and concrete and the things that were needed to like build the structures of Lexington at that time. And then of course it's proximity to the CNO Railway. And so, I mean, it's just a really special spot. The thing that always kills me is thinking about the fact that like this was considered outside the city limits for a very long time. It's out in the movies.
SPEAKER_01It's right.
SPEAKER_00I don't, but to me, I'm like, you're basically downtown. Like this is downtown Lexington.
SPEAKER_01So and I didn't know most of the history until you went down the path of you know the historic designation, which is really cool because we know parts and pieces of it, but then when you actually see it laid out of like this is the history up until kind of time period zero, our portion of it's relatively small. I know, uh time-wise, you know, it is and of course the impact on Lexington. It was we originally we had a lot of those same type of people of contractors, like drywall guys and HVAC and plumbers. And that was sort of the first iteration of the neighborhood is just tradespeople.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, before it kind of continued on and did its thing and more stuff, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it also moved into for a while there, especially like mid-20th century when like everybody's got a car. It was a car spot. Oh, yeah, right. Like a lot of automotive, a lot of like um I I in my research, I haven't seen anybody who's like selling car, maybe some used car moments, but a lot of like um fixing cars up type things, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that sort of continued when we first started sort of doing our thing, there was a lot of automotive-based things as well, uh, repair shops mostly, not the most um savory repair shops in the whole wide world. Sure. Um, another whole horrible tale to tell is we used to lease to the police department where white dress used to be and like where Rockell's campaign headquarters are now. And across the street was where Blue Door and Void and those guys would eventually be. Well, there was a automotive place there that they they fixed cars. It was basically a junkyard. But there was a dude that lived in the very back in a little camper that sold drugs, and so the police department, it was their undercover drug division, and they could sit up in their second story and look out and build a case against this guy. He had no idea that was their undercover lab. So yeah, not the brightest uh dealer in the whole wide world.
SPEAKER_00But that building is really incredible. I mean, it's really unique for the area too, just with the the windows itself. So the building that we're talking about, in case our listeners didn't catch it, is used to be for a long time white dress bridal. And then now they have moved and it's uh Raquel Carter's campaign headquarters, but it's the it hands down the most unique building for the warehouse block just because of the windows itself. Like it's not, it doesn't have the the major um like garage doors, like warehouse style for that. So it's a kind of a neat, I don't know, it's like it's a really neat building.
SPEAKER_01We've kicked around the possibility of moving into that ourselves. And I really think you should. It is really a neat spot. Um, and you know, being that this is the 40th year, yeah, and Raquel will, you know, win or lose, she'll be heading out in in November. You know, it kind of ties in because my father bought the property at 333 right next door. So maybe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, we definitely could use the upstairs, the downstairs. I'm not sure what we do with it. I'm thinking like a speakeasy or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Well, you built them a stage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, you're you're just such a good landlord. Like back when white dress was around, they wanted they needed a stage for the brides to try on their gowns and then to come out and like feel really special and all of that. And you're like, I'll just build you a stage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, that's it was Jill's idea too. It was an upside down wedding cake, uh, was kind of the way that the stage kind of and we noticed at their old location that every time the brides would come out, they you know, like nobody wanted to just go in the dressing room with the grandmas and stuff like that. They want to come out in front of the big mirror, big reveal shoulders back. Yeah, absolutely. So we built them a platform to really do that, and they loved it. They thought it was cool. Yeah, um, there were questions. I think there was a uh one of the code enforcement people wanted to know if we were putting in a baptismal pool, and we were not, but they wanted to make sure that that wasn't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00But it's always an option later.
SPEAKER_01It's always an option, but you could have uh like obviously you know, flotation devices and same equipment, gotta build a lifeguard stand, but we didn't want to get into that.
SPEAKER_00But if you moved your offices there, then it's like a built-in. I mean, you got the offices, you could do like a karaoke stage moment. I mean, the possibilities are endless.
SPEAKER_01When I used to play Santa Claus a lot, so we're thinking maybe like a slide off the second floor and you know, like they did in the Toy Store or uh what's the movie? Uh Elf.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, no, oh uh the Santa Claus?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I know my crazy thing's movies to cannonball uh snowballs at people and the kids, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00So when your dad, RT, was starting to buy up properties kind of slowly around here, like it really was um how long would you and this would have been what late 80s? No, 40 years ago. So mid 80s.
SPEAKER_0186, I guess. 86? Yeah, because it's 2026. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0086. Yeah. So then it was still sort of uh like what was it like like in the 90s to him? Did you ever talk about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, and I was down here a lot. I uh it was a perfect place for the young version of me to like bounce around rooftops and skateboard and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00Like I have a great story about you and Eppings, but I don't know if you want to say it on air. But okay, okay. So um my favorite story. So if for anybody who doesn't know, I'm writing the National Register nomination for Eppings, which includes a ton of information, you know, a lot of research on that building. And one of the times that you and I had met, and I it took everything in my body to not put this actually in the the nomination itself. Granted, it you know, wasn't gonna contribute to like its architectural integrity or whatever. But you told me one time, um, and it always comes up whenever people ask, like, well, are the you know, the doors original, meaning like the garage doors. And I was like, they're definitely original because a good friend of mine, Chad Walker, when he was like in his 20s, would drive into them, like back when Eppings was just like uh, you know, for those who don't know, Eppings, of course, was a very famous bottling company, and then it turned into several iterations of like furniture restoration and people were in and out. It was kind of like this transient type business, but you would use it as a spot to just like, okay, I'm a little too drunk to drive home. I'm clear, complete one off.
SPEAKER_01Yep, that's exactly it. And it's okay that you tell that because I've actually got that uh worked into my little you know three-minute speech when we have everybody together, they wanted me to have a speech. Okay, great. And so, yeah, the other version of it is too that that overhead door had an old, old, old uh remote control operator. And so if I was driving down Winchester Road, I could hit the button and it would be open by the time I came around the corner. Classy. I could back in, close it back, and then feed out the door and you know, just sleep and have a good old day. Because sometimes that happened at work, believe it or not. The bad part is that because it was such an old remote, it would get triggered by uh old airlines. It was on the same frequency. So when the perfect storm occurred of I'm in there, feet sticking out the pickup truck window, and then a plane crosses over right at that same path, the door would open, exposing me to all of National Avenue as I'm sleeping. Sleeping it off. I was in my 20s, it wasn't recently, and yeah, I made the same bad decisions that we all made in our 20s.
SPEAKER_00So do you ever think about it though, whenever you're like having you know, happy hour at Eppings?
SPEAKER_01The entire neighborhood is nothing but kind of ripples in a pond of you drive by something, you're I remember something that happened there. I saw, but yeah, that was that's one of the the comical ones for sure.
SPEAKER_00And I guess I didn't quite realize it me. It really means like you grew up here. Yeah, yeah, you grew up in this area.
SPEAKER_01I was 14 or something when my father bought the first property, so yeah, it's it's it's second home.
SPEAKER_00So you've really seen it change and grow over the years, too. Yeah, yeah. So the 90s, it was starting this turnover, it was still industrial, automotive, and then it was really like it was uh if I if I remember correctly, in the 99 or 2000 is when you guys bought Eppings. So then things started to move, especially in the the 2000s, right?
SPEAKER_01They had but Eppings started as a furniture restoration company. Yeah, it was called up, I think it was ASAP. And we went through the the neighborhood with a fire marshal one time and he kind of stopped, but they had paint booths inside that they just vented to the street. And quite literally, if somebody was smoking while they were painting, it would have blown up the whole block. Uh so he kind of eyeballed it, and you know that was 90s, they didn't really care as much as they do now. There was also toward the end of the street the mechanics that uh we didn't own the building yet, but um, they would do all changes on the street and just pull the plug and let the oil go right into the sewer, and uh we're all paying that. That's why everybody's kids have three uh three arms, and yeah, why not? It's fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh man. So I mean, there it is true. I mean, like sometimes when I talk about the warehouse block, people will be like, Oh yeah, I bought a lot of drugs back in the warehouse block, like back in the day. So it's like, yep, you know, where where do you think that like shift really happened? Like, tell us about like businesses that had came. Was it slow? Was it what do you think?
SPEAKER_01It was fairly slow and organic. It it started with just a bunch of contractors and things like that. Then that was the first round, and then I guess the second round was when the gyms and things like that came in. Um, and then the and we started doing a lot of things that weren't 100% permissible. Um the zoning didn't really allow it, but if you kind of tweak it a little bit, you it kind of sort of did. So by the time that the adaptive reuse came down, other than the restaurants and the breweries, we were already doing most of the things in the adaptive reuse, and this made it all 100% above board and clean, and then allow the extra iteration of like you know, the restaurants and and the coffee spots and things like that. So uh yeah, it's just been really neat to watch. Go for that. The the cars are much nicer uh than they used to be. It used to be a bunch of old beat up pickups, and now you see, you know, Maseratis and Ferraris and stuff, which I like. Um, but yeah, it's just been kind of cool to stand back and watch.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I bet, especially since like so you think like it was these businesses like gyms and places that people would come to regular like so and restaurants and the bars came later. Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and of course it wasn't because we weren't allowed, it's before zone is one of the most restrictive zones, it's just not a really good zone, it's wholesale business, and that's a really old kind of categorization. Um and I don't think they really do it much anymore. And so under the adaptive reuse program, it allowed us to kind of get away with not having as much parking and regulate it ourselves. So, like if somebody like Eppings came in, you know, used to be you'd have to have you know 250 parking spaces. Well, now they go, okay, fine, we don't care how many parking spaces you have, but we don't want any phone calls. And sounds good. Yeah, and so then we have to sort of manage it in a in a way that makes it where it's viable.
Zoning And Adaptive Reuse Reality
SPEAKER_00Is that what led you to be interested in getting more involved with like is forgive me, are you on the boa or the boar?
SPEAKER_01Uh BOA, board of adjustments, and what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00Oh Lordy, that means explain it to me like I'm five.
SPEAKER_01For zero dollars, you get to get yelled at monthly. It's phenomenal. And you get to go in front of a room. Um, board of adjustments is sort of the kind of the soft edge of zoning. So when somebody comes in and says, I want to build a six-foot fence, and the zoning only says five, but I have a special condition, the you know, the lot's crooked or it's too high, or whatever it happens to be, then they can come in and plead their case to the board of adjustments. The board of adjustments is unique because it's quasi-judicial. So, and that's the only big word I know, by the way. I was like, oh, yeah, quasi-judicial. So you're appointed by the mayor, you're confirmed by city council, they all get together and vote and say whether or not, you know, this guy can do the job or this gal can do the job. Once they say yes, you're on your own. So any decision we make does not kick back to council for approval. If somebody doesn't like what we did, then it actually goes to court.
SPEAKER_00So as in like a court of appeals type stuff?
SPEAKER_01No, so it actually goes to I think it's circuit court.
SPEAKER_00I see. So meaning like almost like you guys get sued sued?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, or like there's like yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can push it to them, say, did they do the right thing? It will be, I'm assuming, in a in the form of a lawsuit. Um But yeah, so that kind of puts the pressure on to kind of nose your P's and Q's a little bit.
SPEAKER_00But so is that what got you into being interested in being on the BOA? Is because you dealt with zoning stuff for the warehouse block.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I started with uh I was on vacant property review commission for eight years. I did two terms, which is the max, and I served as chair for that for I think five years. Um, and that's really cool because it's just making sure that old properties that are empty and fallen down and dilapidated are used because Lexon has, you know, crisis of housing just like everybody else does. Absolutely. So it mandates that you gotta take care of your property basically and you gotta keep it up. And in Board of Adjustments, is yeah, there's been some really simple cases like that. Um, there's other ones that are much more complicated and can last.
SPEAKER_00I want to I want to hear a dramatic one. I want a really good one. You do not have to use the real names.
SPEAKER_01There's uh you know, you don't have to bunch. Yeah. There's a bunch.
SPEAKER_00I was like, I don't know how much trouble I'm gonna get you into.
SPEAKER_01There's a uh I don't won't tell the the attorney's name, but there was a case where he this there was an attorney giving the the uh appeal for his client and was going on, and this particular attorney had a habit of just going in a loop. Like he would tell you what he's talking about, and then he would just repeat it, and he would do that three or four times. And I was new to the board and I didn't know that there was certain decorums and you should be nice and things like that.
SPEAKER_00You know, I didn't really know shut up, you've already said it.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, and so I ended up saying something to the effect of insert name. Uh, this is the horse capital world, not the beat the dead horse capital of the world, and that didn't go over well at all. The attorney's kicking me under, they always set me next to the attorney, so yeah, uh the city attorney for good reason. Yeah, yeah. But it's a good group of people and they're very knowledgeable, and there are times when it gets um very content uh contentious. Um, and you know, out of the gate, half the people are gonna be mad no matter what you decide.
SPEAKER_00And when the short terms they're already mad showing up. That's right, that's right.
SPEAKER_01And we we saw so many cases for like Airbnb, like short-term rentals, and that became the job of the board to approve each one of those for a long time. And um, yeah, it's just very difficult because you don't want to make your neighbors mad at the same time. You have to uphold what the ordinance says. I know. So it's fun. You should join up. You'd be great.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I just love getting yelled at the brother you'll hop on that one.
SPEAKER_01That'd be a blast.
SPEAKER_00I left, you know, being a teacher because I just you know, you know what, I'll do that because I'm just getting yelled at so much.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Neighbor Ties And Walkable Living
SPEAKER_00Well, speaking of neighborhoods though, I mean, the warehouse block and Kenwick and Belcourt and this, I mean, this area is starting to become like very like, I don't know, symbiotic. Like they rely on each other now. And um, I mean, Kenwick property values are crazy, unbelievable. Like half a million for like, you know, two bedroom, two-bath kind of thing. So what do you is that just indicative of Lexington in general? Do you think the warehouse block has something to do with the success of Kenwick? I think a little of both.
SPEAKER_01And like with with with Belcourt, it's always been massively sought after. It's absolutely gorgeous. Totally. Um, and Mattel and Kenwick, you know, back when we're kind of working class neighborhoods, I think they still are to a degree, but it's it's really become, to use your words, symbiotic because it's what we do is we we meet with all three neighborhoods as a group, usually two to three times a year, and just to kind of keep up with, you know, what are we doing wrong, what are we doing right, you know, what can we do better? What do you guys want to see? And that's rare to have that. Um in this neighborhood in general. You know, we've we've got less buildings in the neighborhood than when we started all this. And so I joke that I'm really the worst developer because I'm going backwards like how come down we we put in grass building and parking lots, yeah. And so, like, but with that, there ends up being kind of a model that is duplicatable to make up a word. Um, I knew what you meant. So you've got buildings that are are you know not tall buildings, they're just a couple stories at the most, um, that have nothing but local businesses, and then a lot of people live work in the neighborhood, and it's just yeah, it's just a really cool community. Like it's it's amazing that it's come this way full circle. Ours was sort of the last piece of the puzzle because Kenwick and Mattel were already you know beautiful houses and stuff. They just happened to live next door to this dump. And so as we took on the dump and fixed it, you know, they were very happy about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, and it's just so walkable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, and unfortunately, that's a rarity in you know the United States of America, but certainly Lexington too. Yeah. I mean, I'll I'll go visit my friends in Kenwick and they're like, we just we just walk here and it takes two seconds, and then you have everything you need, and then you go back and you know have a last drink with them on their porch, and it's just it's a really perfect.
SPEAKER_01It's been really nice for me because when we moved our office down here, I walk everywhere. I walk from my office from here to Blue Door and from here to Salves and from here to go have a drink. So each day when I go have barbecue and ice cream and liquor. I mean, look at me. I mean, it's it's done wonders. It's absolutely amazing. That's right.
SPEAKER_00Mine too.
SPEAKER_01Call it the call it the warehouse block uh weight loss program. It really is amazing.
SPEAKER_00Just gotta join that walk club of living goods.
SPEAKER_01No, they go far.
SPEAKER_00I know. She keeps being like, Erica, can you please come to that walk club? And I'm like, and it's August. Like, there's no way it's too hot.
SPEAKER_01When are they gonna have like an e-bike club or something? Like I'd be down with that or a scooter club.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01We don't have to walk.
SPEAKER_00Pull our cars into eppings like the old days.
SPEAKER_01My last name is a horrible misnomer. I'm not a walker. Never thought about that.
SPEAKER_00Switch it to legally to Chad Sitter, Chad Sitter, Chad Hangouter.
SPEAKER_01I love it. Or drink bourboner.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So the okay. RT buys them up, and then you're but you know what's cool too is that there are still some original businesses that are not, I think that's a that's a misconception. Yeah, is that you guys you know own each and every one of these buildings. There's absolutely independent standalone buildings as well, which I think is really great because it keeps with the character of the the history of it. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the businesses that still stand that are self-owned are ones that are of you know the old crafts that would have been back during you know those industrial days.
SPEAKER_01You have automotive stuff and Shelly and and Will or Shelby and and uh Willie at Morningside. Yeah, uh, I think they're gonna be, I think their 40th is next year for the longest like business in the neighborhood. Um so they're coming up on that. Um, Kentucky Ballet Theater has been with us for decades. Um gosh, that yeah, there's so many are like uh seasons catering, he's been here for a bunch of years as well, too. So I think I think uh I think Norbay rented from us in '96 or '97. That was like my third lease.
SPEAKER_00When we interviewed him, I was shocked. Yeah. I was like, I cannot believe you've been here this long. Yeah. And I was like, You haven't looked anywhere else? He's like, Why would I? Like, I love it.
SPEAKER_01So the original guy that came and leased from us, his name was Xinjian Foo. And he would always go, What's that? Foo? And he'd go, Yeah, you know, Foo, F you. Got it. So that was his always his thing.
SPEAKER_00Love it. I want that last name.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's a good one.
SPEAKER_01And he goes, You know the tale of the. Of the the um Jan Foodie, her uh husband name was uh Ralph Foodie, and she was the Kentucky Ballet Theater's president for a bunch of years. She was absolutely vicious when it came to fundraising for her beloved ballet. Amazing. And her husband uh was Ralph Foodie, and Ralph was uh the the guy in Home Alone. The gangster. That's right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the gangster in Home Alone, the movie with the change of filthy animal. That's right. Keep the change at Filthy Annals.
SPEAKER_01And Jan was way more vicious than that character when it came to collecting money for the ballet. Jan was tough.
SPEAKER_00I always knew about Ralph Foodie. I didn't know about Jan Foodie.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool. Yep. I was all tied to the hood, so yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of celebrities, though, we're getting off topic, but we'll get back to the
Jim Varney And Old Lexington Nights
SPEAKER_00warehouse. It's all, it's just like, you know, relative. Um, I like your stories about um you knowing um Ernest.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, Jim Varney.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, who is a unequivocal local legend. Yep. Jim Varney, who plays in all the Ernest movies, um, grew up in Lexington, went to Lafayette, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think.
SPEAKER_00And then got his start at um the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville. And he was known for um, which I think a lot of people don't realize this. He was, even though he played this like dunce, he was an incredibly smart person and could memorize like Shakespearean, you know, long plays within just like a day or two. Like he had an insane memory, which I always thought was really cool because obviously, like you wouldn't have expected that of him, but you actually like hung with him a little bit too, right? Or he came by. Just for a bit, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I was a bartender at the old A1A, and and and so you ought to go back and watch an old episode of Roseanne that he was in because he was a true thesbian, had a beautiful voice, had this like deep cutting voice, he was, you know, lifelong smoker, which that's right, get name.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Um, but yeah, I was a bartender there, and he showed up and it was a slow night. It was like a Tuesday or Wednesday or something. He had just brought a brand new car, it was a uh Mitsubishi VR4, and he was a big fan of James Bond. Like he had 007 written on the back of a bunch of his watches and things, and so he was telling me about it, like, yeah, it's got this wing that flaps and this and that. And so we just sat and shot the breeze until a couple girls came in, and then I was dog meat. It's like, go stand over there, bartender.
SPEAKER_00So he told me he was wearing like a lot of turquoise.
SPEAKER_01A lot of turquoise. A lot of kind of uh like Native American jewelry type stuff. He was done, and he just he just had this aura or something about it, you know. Yeah, yeah, really cool guy. Really cool.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so great.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember if he's a good tipper or not, but I'm gonna assume he was.
SPEAKER_00Well, we're gonna say yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Hell of a good tip.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Well, if he's into James Bond, I feel like James Bond would be a good tipper too. And he just spent all that money on a car.
SPEAKER_01He was he's got the money, but he just sat at the end of the bar, just kind of hanging. It was like me and him, and was that Jim Varney now there?
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah. Were the girls cute? Were they like and how receptive were they to him? Very, very they're like, Ernest!
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was upset because I was younger and I was the bartender, but yeah. You were supposed to be the cute one. You don't hold a candle to Jim Varney, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00Wait, where was this? A1 what?
SPEAKER_01The old A1A. So there used to be um kind of like where um, oh gosh, what's the place across from Carson's uh East End Tappen Table? Yeah, that used to be this bar that had a sand volleyball court, and I used to coach and play volleyball. What? And then next to it was just nothing but a huge parking lot, and on the weekend it had probably six different bars inside. So they had like the club bar in one spot, then you would go farther and they would have the live music bar. You would loop back around and go out to the sand court and watch volleyball. There's a bar there. You had the sports bar that usually had like a little small stage of performance, something like stairs bars. Yeah. Uh huh.
SPEAKER_00So you bartended in one of those?
SPEAKER_01I think I bartended in all of those, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01At some point. Were you a good bartender? Um, no. Did you drink more than you served? There was the one of the guys that was the manager there for a spell. His whole thing was um, you know, if you're not having a good time, the customer's not having a good time. So if you overpour a beverage, and you know, there's just a little bit, go ahead, you know, because you well, by the end of the night, all the bartenders are wildly drunk. Half the bar is just free-for-all to everybody. So yeah, it I of course I never did that.
SPEAKER_00I was that sounds like the good old days. I've never been around.
SPEAKER_01It was the days of Lexington when they would do like bladder buster contests. Oh, what? So they would say, okay, drinks are only like a dollar each as long as no one goes to the bathroom. So they would have someone standing there at the boys and the girls' bathroom, and that uh kind of yeah, that made a lot of people find plants and go out on the street and all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00So why? What's the purpose? Why can't you there's no purpose at all? Just like to be funny, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like so it was cheap as long as nobody went to the bathroom. And as soon as you went to the bathroom, well, drinks at a regular price. So it would go on three and four hours of people getting blind drunk and just this is the best party ever. It was insane.
SPEAKER_00Unbelievable. I've never heard of this concept ever.
SPEAKER_01They would have uh pictures of blank and blank drinks, so they would give you a picture of Jack and Coke or CC and you know, soda or whatever. And yeah, they would sell pictures of liquor. Um, yeah, it was a wild place.
SPEAKER_00It was something else. Yeah, I even you know, going to Charlie Brown's and they'll do stuff in leaders, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. But like, even I mean, this kind of takes the cake.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, and back in those days when I played volleyball, we would go down there and play, and then you know, you most of us didn't get paid till Friday. So Thursday, they had a deal where it was, I think it was $20. You got two pitchers of beer and 50 wings for like 20 bucks. Sounds good. Well, what you do is go eat the wings and drink the beer and leave. Then when you got paid on Friday, you come back and pay off your tab.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you could put it on your tab.
SPEAKER_01No, you couldn't, but we did. I see. So there was about 20 people every Thursday that would all gather up and then be like, Well, I'm out of here. And they would, we would in as a group run out on our tab, and then when we got paid on Friday, you'd come back and settle up. And it became a tradition.
SPEAKER_00Amazing.
SPEAKER_01And they would be okay with us or look forward to they were not and they started putting people by the door, and so then we found alternate ways, i.e., jumping over the fence by the upper parking lot, or one person would distract, like I think there's a fire upstairs, and then everybody run out. It it was cowboy days of good old Lexington.
SPEAKER_00Incredible. This should have, I mean, we I feel I feel I'm inspired, like a book coming on, or at least like, can we get Mac to at least a little bit more of those glory days here in Lexington?
SPEAKER_01Well, they they get really upset now with like even with just like you know, buy one drink and get a second for free and things like that, or the you know, I think ladies' night we used to be, and I don't know that they do that much anymore either. No, I don't think they do any type of discount is like ABC's not happy with, and you know, truth be told, that probably should happen because this happens otherwise. So it's like you know, there's cautionary tale. Yeah, I'll sit at the end of the bar you're drinking with your future. Yeah, so you want to be this please stop now.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I guess we can go back to the warehouse blog. Yeah, although I could I want to hear more of your drinking stories, and I want to know about them off camera as well because I feel like there's some really good ones. Um what about the warehouse
Curating Tenants And Protecting The Future
SPEAKER_00blog? So, in regards to you know, we're now in the 2000s, like I feel like even just the past like five, six years, it's really boomed in terms of I mean, like when the for example, when that willow spot became available, you had people knocking on you know down your door to try and get into that spot. And you know, the willow got it, and thank goodness for that, because they're fabulous, awesome, yeah, wonderful establishment and really bring a lot to the neighborhood, I think. But it's competitive now, like it's hard to get in here as a business.
SPEAKER_01It is, and it's it's kind of unintentionally. I mean, used to be we would we'd be begging people to come in here because they knew nobody ever went down National Avenue except to go to Christmas Cleaner, and that's where you got your wedding dress like put in a bag for your you know daughter one day or whatever. And that's I mean, I gave directions to everybody coming up the street to Christmas cleaner. And you know, after that time went where we didn't have to beg anymore and it was actually fixed up and people liked it, then we started really curating like, are these people gonna get along with the neighborhood? Do they understand what's going on? Things like that. And so for like the willow, it's such a funky spot where it's used to be a loading dock, like it's an interior loading dock that you back up. And if you tried to go back and build that, it would be the dumbest you know, creation ever, yeah. But because you know, Avina and and um uh Aaron did the like upper level for like an event, it really turned out cool and it was really creative, and they've done an amazing job with it. Like everybody loves going to that spot. And to think that it used to be a loading dock for semis would drip oil and it was disgusting, and now it's like this beautiful flowered little heaven, you know.
SPEAKER_00It's just like wine and plants, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, I just it really makes it an easy transition for me to go in and have a glass of wine. And of course, you totally well, I gotta manly and within 30 seconds like this is fabulous. Like, I love this place, I love it so it's wonderful, and that's part of the reason I have plants in my office now.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, oh, they've inspired me. That's right. They're rubbing off. Yeah, I like that. It is good. I mean, in regards to the neighborhood, too. I mean, there's such a good variety of businesses, so it's not all, you know. I feel like you know, the distillery district is really cool in its own way too. But like you're going there, you're either eating or drinking. You know, here it's like you know, it's it's lifestyle. So you're you of course you can eat and drink, but you've got gyms, you've got shops, you've got bakeries, you know. There's really something for like not just everyone, but for everyone's different parts of their life that they might need.
SPEAKER_01So many people do that. They walk in, like, I didn't realize this was here. We hear that all the time. It should be on our business card of well, I didn't realize this was here because people will come for Mir Twin and then discover Eppings, or they'll come for Eppings and Discover Salves, but yeah, it's a neat spot.
SPEAKER_00It is very well done for sure. So what's next? Any, I mean, what's what's the future of the warehouse block?
SPEAKER_01I you know, I'm kind of going into this place as an old, old man of uh wanting to preserve and and kind of keep it the way it is, uh, not let it get absorbed by you know great big development and just kind of keep that nice vibe between the neighborhoods. So that's what I'm focused on, and just letting the dust settle. It's been a bunch of years of continual growth and development, and it's nice to just sit back and go Enjoy it. Well, yeah, like I've I've never been to breakout games. I'd love to do that, you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, let's let's do a breakout game.
SPEAKER_01Um, no, because I and there's a reason. Okay, that was the nice part. I was supposed to say that on camera. The bad part is they know me, so I'm afraid I'll get into a game and they'll just lock me to a wall or something and go, yeah, have fun, and then they make it like extra hard.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's it'd be easy, it'd be hard for me anyway, that those things. But there's lots of things I haven't even gotten to do, and I kind of want to do it.
SPEAKER_00I know.
SPEAKER_01So that'll be next.
SPEAKER_00You'll have tons of time for sure. Oops, thank you for letting me um do our fabulous 40th anniversary.
SPEAKER_01Cool, I always have fun, yeah.
SPEAKER_00For sure.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, appreciate it.
unknownAbsolutely, thank you.