Lexington, KY - After three decades running music venues and dance clubs, J.D. McHargue didn't envision himself jumping back into the same situation he was in when he opened Breeding's and later the Blue Moon.
"I was kind of looking forward to buying that little neighborhood bar that could hold 40 to 50 people and playing golf everyday, not trying to run a large nightclub," he said about his decision to take over the former Main Street Live, Avio, A1A location and open Bar Lexington. "It's not something I (jumped) into without thinking about quite a bit."
And what he thought of was how to encourage revelers enjoying the revitalization of downtown nightlife to take a short walk south.
"It's a difficult situation, because there's sort of a food court mentality in the bar business now, and Ö right down here, five minutes away in downtown Lexington, you've got all these bars clumped together, and there's an excitement going on Ö We want to be part of that," he said. "It is a little five-minute walk, so we're a little on the outskirts. We're not way on the outskirts; we're not on New Circle Road."
So McHargue, who with friends at the age of 22 opened his second bar by convincing Lexington music scene staple Doug Breeding to be a part of a venue bearing his name, decided to create his own food court of sorts.
"Eventually when it is all said and done, I am five bars and two sides," he said, "One (side) that's a club and you're going to have to pay a cover, and one that you can walk in free and just have a drink - have some fun without having to commit to a cover charge. So we're going to have the best of both worlds: casual tavern-like and nightclub."
Consisting of a lounge with multiple VIP areas, a music venue, a blues and jazz bar and a yet-to-be-renovated upstairs bar and patio, Bar Lexington is also aiming to attract a business lunch crowd by opening the blues bar as a Gumbo Ya Ya at 11 a.m. each weekday, adding another location for the Cajun restaurant from its original at Broadway and Virginia.
On another side of downtown, Lexington mainstay Two Keys is under new ownership and also incorporating a contract food operation in the form of a gourmet burger and fry joint called Bunk's.
Opened in the South Limestone bar by Pita Pit franchiser Ryan Veith and his business partner Dallas Rose, Bunk's not only targets a lunch crowd, but also late night snackers, by staying open later than the bar Thursday through Sunday with a walkup window on the back patio.
"There's no reason why an office full of people who want to go grab lunch shouldn't want to come here in this atmosphere to sit down and have a couple burgers," said Veith, who enjoys being free of the constraints of a franchise and able to pick his own vendors, such as Critchfield's which makes a special blend for all of Bunk's burgers.
Two Keys, under its new owner Seth Bennett, also is seeking to break from constraints - in its case, the limitations of being perceived as a "college only" watering hole.
"This is going to be a Lexington bar," Veith said. "It doesn't matter if you're 21 or 41; you can come have fun. We got rid of the DJ so it's jukebox, and we'll be having live bands in here."
Ryan McGuffin, Two Keys' general manager and longtime employee, is helping the bar evolve from the feeling of a hard-driving kids' party. "We're not strictly a Thursday, Saturday fraternity-sorority bar. We're going to be open. It's going to be a welcoming environment. We're going to be playing good music. It's not going to be dance and hip hop; it'll be rock and country, which will be more of a tavern feel," he said.
In addition Two Keys has dropped its seven-day-a-week cover charge in favor of Thursdays-only. The idea is similar to McHargue's gameplan of expanding the definition of downtown - in this case, to South Limestone.
"This is the street where everything used to happen. This is the street where everything should happen," said Veith, who saw a 50 percent reduction in his Pita Pit business this September over 2008 as a result of the street being closed for streetscape construction. "There's the Paddock and Tin Roof and everything like that; there's no reason that this block shouldn't keep expanding."
If all goes as planned, Veith and Rose hope to open stand-alone locations of their higher-end burger concept that comes with homemade dipping sauces for fries and unique combinations between buns.
"You couldn't just go into anyplace and have this work. It's the right combination with the crowd that's going to go in here, the atmosphere that's in here and the food we're serving. It works. And when you tell people we're located inside Two Keys, they automatically know where it is," he said.
Meanwhile on Jefferson Street between Short and Second, Keith Clark, an original owner of Cheapside, is in the process of opening a new bar and restaurant called Grey Goose. In what was once Skully's Grocery and then Ballard's Market, Clark has been phasing in his new business in a fully renovated and expanded two-story building with exposed brick, a historic Brunswick bar top and rich woods including a floor made of recycled plank fence.
The location is taking on the feel of yet another of Lexington's many small "node" districts, with Stella's restaurant across the street and the recently opened Wine + Market in another Clark-owned building on the corner of Jefferson and Second Street.
Like the new owners of Bar Lexington and Two Keys, Clark hopes to capture the energy that's been building in the center of town and expand the vibrancy to downtown's outer limits.