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Local business owners Will Pieratt, Bill Farmer, Jr. and Kevin Heathcoat took ownership of Chevy Chase Inn – Lexington’s longest continually operating bar - last March, with the specific intention of preserving a slice of neighborhood culture. This month, the trio is launching a Kickstarter campaign to install a replica of the iconic neon sign that adorned the bar’s exterior in its heyday. Photo by Sarah Hoskins
When Chevy Chase Inn – the oldest continually operating bar in Lexington – went up for sale in 2014, a handful of the bar’s neighbors and loyal patrons decided that letting their favorite watering hole get turned into a wine bar or retail space wasn’t an option.
So, much to the chagrin of their financial advisers, they pitched in to buy the place.
Owners of the Cajun eatery Bourbon n’ Toulouse, Kevin Heathcoat and Will Pieratt, and Farmer’s Jewelry owner Bill Farmer Jr. took possession of Euclid Avenue’s 82-year-old neighborhood bar in March 2015. Due to several years of poor sales, most banks were hesitant to grant a business loan, but the trio eventually managed to secure financing from BB&T – which, as Heathcoat explained, “gave us a loan on what we were trying to do instead of what we were trying to buy.”
“Our entire reason for purchasing the bar was to make sure that it stayed the same as it has been,” Heathcoat explained.
The intention behind the venture went deeper than preserving one of their favorite hangouts, however – the business owners were just as interested in preserving a slice of Lexington and neighborhood culture. Built in the 1933 following the end of Prohibition, Chevy Chase Inn (originally called the Blue Goose) was one of the area’s first businesses and has remained largely unchanged over the years. As for how it has survived for 83 years, local author Sarah Razor put it eloquently in her book “Chevy Chase Inn: Tall Tales and Cold Ales from Lexington’s Oldest Bar” (published by this magazine’s parent company):
“[The bar] serves as a hub for not only the adjacent Chevy Chase neighborhood, but the community at large. The clientele is a Petri dish of Lexington, providing a watering hole for the refined and the inelegant, the lawful and the lawless.”
In other words, Chevy Chase Inn is not trendy. There are no gimmicks or glitz or pretenses of any type. It’s simply a classic neighborhood bar.
Staying true to the new management team’s premise of altering the bar as little as possible, the staff and live music have both largely remained the same, though the building’s maturity and condition have forced them to make a few improvements.
“We cleaned the bathrooms and mopped the floors, made a couple of improvements for the fire inspector, covered the patio, and brought in craft beer,” Heathcoat said.
That was where the improvements were supposed to end. But after discovering old photographs of a neon sign that hung above the door of the bar in its “glory days” while cleaning out a closet, it became clear to the owners that a replica of the classic vintage sign was exactly what the bar needed. The trio immediately started researching ways they could make it happen, drafting a business plan to cover the costs and bringing the project before the local Landmark Sign Committee council for approval, which it granted at the end of April. The Versailles-based sign business Ruggles Sign Company, which specializes in custom neon, drafted a design that is identical to the original sign, with the words “Air conditioned • Bar • Music” under the bar’s title.
Heathcoat explained that while the owners originally intended to change the phrase from “Air Conditioned” to “Lexington’s Oldest Bar,” they switched the wording after pushback from longtime customers.
“We originally decided to put ‘Oldest Bar In Lexington’ on the sign, because that was the most logical thing to do, but this is the CCI,” Heathcoat said. “Our regulars, who are the most important part of this bar, all half-jokingly have told us that they will not donate if we don’t put ‘Air Conditioned’ on the sign – that was enough for us.”
“We’re carrying on an 83-year tradition of not making business sense,” he added with a laugh.
Kickstarter video created by Beardhouse Media.
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To that end, while the owners are willing to pony up a portion of the expenses out of pocket, Heathcoat explained that the “$2.73 a day of pure profit” that the bar made in its first year under their ownership isn’t quite enough to cover the entire cost. To bring the new sign to fruition, they are seeking help from their loyal customers and the community. Working with Beard House Media, Chevy Chase Inn’s owners have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 to offset the cost of the sign, which Heathcoat estimates will cost closer to $20,000. Rewards for donating to the online campaign, which runs from June 1-30, include a “drunken thank-you note,” pickled eggs (which may, or may not, be 83 years old), commemorative pint glasses and T-shirts, gift certificates from Bourbon n’ Toulouse, personalized brass nameplates to be displayed around the bar’s iconic stained glass window, a private party at CCI catered by Bourbon n’ Toulouse and a few additional surprises.
Interest in the project is already spreading, and the new owners are confident that they’ll get the support from the community needed to make the sign a reality. “People have been coming in and showing us photos of the sign from different points in history,” said Farmer.
The trio feels strongly that the sign will enhance the Chevy Chase business district and the neighborhood that they have fallen in love with – and the one in which Farmer was born and raised.
“And as far as my financial projections go, it would take us five or six years to pay for the sign,” Heathcoat said, “and if that’s the way it goes, that’s fine. But we believe that this neighborhood and this community will find it worthwhile to kick in a little bit of money.”
Click here to check out - and donate to - the Kickstarter campaign!
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