Chef ASHBY_Sarah Jane Sandersc2015-1
Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
When chef Jeremy Ashby was hired to help lead Azur Food Group in 2005, the young restaurant needed help. Despite a profitable first year, its partners knew the business needed someone with his energy and experience to refine its systems and put an edge on its culinary identity.
“When I came in, the partnership structure wasn’t working as well as they wanted, but it wasn’t for lack of trying,” Ashby said. “So they had this idea to bring me in as Azur’s executive chef and general manager.”
Only that job description created another problem: “There’s no such thing such thing as a GM and executive chef position,” Ashby said. So he kept his focus on the food, creating a menu mash-up of Southern U.S. and Latin cuisines that was wholly unique to the city’s restaurant scene. Many believe the repositioning of Azur even helped jumpstart the growth of similarly progressive restaurants in Lexington.
Bernie and Sylvia Lovely had opened Azur Restaurant and Patio, a 100-seat upscale casual restaurant in Beaumont Center, in late December 2004. Designed and permitted to open in a little over three months, the plan for the restaurant came together quickly. It took more time for Azur to find its footing, however, with obvious food and service inconsistencies.
At the time, Ashby was executive chef at The Merrick Inn and its sister restaurant, Murray’s (which closed in 2010). His restaurant pedigree also included valuable externships at Magnolia’s in Charleston, South Carolina, and Norman’s in Miami, in addition to a University of Kentucky business degree and a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales University, also in Charleston.
Azur’s owners brought Ashby on board, believing that his broad operations knowledge would help focus their staff on essentials and hoping his experience overseeing high-volume restaurants would help Azur grow.
“I knew we had to push the envelope more with our food to be noticed in what was mostly a meat-and-potatoes town,” Ashby said. “I had to learn to delegate a lot of things in order to be in the kitchen more.”
Ashby added dishes such as grilled rack of elk and braised rabbit to the menu, and increasingly infused dishes with Caribbean and south Florida touches he absorbed while working under Norman Van Aken, the Florida chef and author who is known for helping introduce the concept of “fusion” to many American palates in the 1980s.
Despite its modest strip center location, Azur – which celebrated its 10th anniversary in January – soon captured the attention of diners eager for something new, and favorable reviews and media attention followed.
“I really feel like Azur awakened what restaurant chefs could get away with in this town,” Ashby said. “I think it was and is a trailblazer restaurant.”
Today, Ashby and the other Azur partners continue to blaze the trail of new restaurant opportunities. Recognizing a shortage of Latin cuisine options in Lexington, the group opened Brasabana Cuban Cuisine on Lane Allen Road about a year ago, tapping on Miguel Rivas – a Dominican Republic native who had worked with Azur early on and departed amicably to take a position at Georgetown College – to return to the fold and captain the kitchen. And just last month, the Azur Group announced a merger with Dupree Catering. The merged catering company, which operates under the name of Dupree Catering and Events, is headed up jointly by Azur Catering’s general manager, Tom Evans, and Dupree’s founder, Harriet Dupree Bradley, with Ashby giving opinion and guidance on menus. Maintaining Dupree Catering’s Delaware Avenue facilities, the partnership will open new opportunities to combine the experience and creativity of both organizations.
Meanwhile, Ashby has been both humbled and stimulated by the success of Azur, and is excited by the prospect for continued growth and new possibilities.
“You might see another Brasabana — hint, hint — but expect to see variety from us,” Ashby said. “Our partners want chef-driven concepts, which is exciting for Miguel and me.” ss
Another version of this story appeared in this month’s edition of this magazine’s sister publication Business Lexington.