You can see this everywhere you go: young, middle-class people whose lives are beginning to disappoint them making too much noise in restaurants and clubs and wine bars. 'Look at me! I'm not as boring as you think I am! I know how to have fun!' Tragic. I'm glad I learned to stay home and sulk.
-Nick Hornby
Food. What would we do without it? Besides feel a little more peckish, it has long been surmised that Lexington would shrivel up and be a ghost town without its restaurant/fast food industries.
All it takes is a drive down Nicholasville Road to realize that half of our city's workforce earns their paycheck from the food service industry, while the other half is blowing their paycheck on the new Applebee's ethnically-themed steak.
Thus, it is all the more important to cull the cream from the curd, metaphorically speaking. With so many terrible restaurants out there to choose from,(and in so many wonderful locations) readers were emphatic about who does serve the best food in Lexington...
Huzzah for us. We'll show those crappy Americana chicken-tender-vending wall-filled processors yet. Our survey indicates that original, interesting, and imaginative fare can be rewarded.
Or as David Sedaris puts it, "I'm always searching the menu in the hope that some courageous young chef has finally recognized tobacco as a vegetable. Bake it, steam it, grill it, or stuff it into littleneck clams..."
Just another way to support our local growers.
Best Pancakes
Alfalfa
Perkins
Waffle House
Best Smoothies
Smoothie King
Everybody's
Body Works
Best Place to Buy Bread
Great Harvest Bread Co.
Cosmo's
Atlanta Bread
Best Place to Buy Cookies
Magee's
Great Harvest
Cosmo's
Best Sub
Jimmy John's
Subway
Penn Station
Best BBQ
Billy's Bar-B-Q
Red Hot & Blue
Family Soul
WHAT LEXINGTON NEEDS
"more locally-owned restaurants that exhibit a little imagination, attention to detail, and prices that acknowledge Lexington isn't New York."
-reader essay
Best Bar & Patio
Cheapside Bar & Grill
Atomic Cafe
Dudley's
Best Dive
Tolly-Ho
Stella's
Buffalo's & Dad's
Best Wine list
Dudley's
Emmett's
Jonathan
Best Beer Variety
Marikka's
Lexington City Brewery
Jonathan
Best Distillery
Maker's Mark
Labrot & Graham
Best Caterer
Phil Dunn Catering
Harriet DuPree
Billy's Bar-B-Q
Best Service
A La Lucie's
Dudley's
Jonathan
Best Cosmopolitan
Jonathan at Gratz Park
Bigg Blue Martini
Mia's
Most Original Menu
Ed & Fred's Desert Moon
Jonathan
Helios
Best Place for Marriage Proposal
Dudley's
a la lucie's
Jonathan
WHAT LEXINGTON DOESN'T NEED
"Any more Applebee's style restaurants or chain restaurants of any kind..."
-reader essay
Best Restaurant Worth a Road Trip
Hall's on the River
Lilly's (in Louisville)
Shaker Village (Pleasant Hill)
Most Veggie Friendly Restaurant
Everybody's
Alfalfa
Oasis
Best New Restaurant
Helios
Pazzos
Portofino
Best Role Model for Lexington Restaurant
Jack Fry in Louisville