Annette's City Cafe yields Old Vine location to no-alcohol sports bar
Bar None, a new concept in non-alcohol sports bars featuring "mocktails," smoothies and sodas, will succeed Annette's City Cafe on Old Vine Street with an opening targeted for mid-September.
Annette Jett and husband, Frank Bickle, are relocating their catering headquarters to the Signature Club in Lansdowne, where they recently opened their beach-themed Franky & Annette's restaurant.
"Part of the neighborhood zoning regulation was that in order to cater from that zone, you have to be attached to a restaurant. We didn't know about this until after we signed the lease (on Old Vine.) So I've joked with people that we kind of became the accidental restaurant," Jett said.
In addition to a busy catering business, Annette was already operating a cafe in the Central Bank building on Vine Street, and with the new venue in Lansdowne, she and Bickle, parents of two young children, came to the decision to streamline their operations into something more manageable. "But from this has come some great opportunities," she said. "Had we not opened the restaurant (on Old Vine), then we never would have come up with Franky & Annette's. So things happen for a reason."
Jett emphasized that her catering business remains the same, with the same full staff and telephone number. "We now won't have to also staff two restaurants as well," she noted with great relief.
Jett and Bickle have more than two years remaining on the lease of the Old Vine Street location, so it was important that they were comfortable with the business that would sublease.
John Sims, a 17-year veteran of The Blue Moon nightclub on Euclid in the Chevy Chase neighborhood where he served as DJ, is opening the new Bar None concept in partnership with Roger Fields, president of Kidz Blitz Ministries and creator of the Christian music family event, Kidz Blitz Live.
"We feel there's a void in Lexington for a lot of people who want to go to a full-scale hybrid of something like Drake's and a nightclub feel with ambient lighting and that kind of thing - a cool place for all ages to go basically with everything that a secular sports bar or lounge would have but without the alcohol," Sims said.
"We'll have all the eye candy. Instead of a back bar full of liquor bottles, you'll see Jones sodas and ginger beers and root beers. It'll have that edgy feel of a bar without the alcohol. If you want to get a draft beer, you can get the root beer served in a glass mug. We'll have what they call mocktails - virgin daquiries and things like that."
Sims said he hopes to attract UK sports fans as well as fans "of the good Christian music that's out there - the gospel stuff that we grew up on."
Sims' target date for opening is September 19, the same evening Franky's & Annette's will host a "Big Blue Beach Blast" following the UK-UL game, a fundraiser featuring Conch Republic on behalf of children's special needs programs in the Bluegrass. - Tom Martin
S. Limestone businesses come up with their own "stimulus plan"
Business owners along the stretch of South Limestone undergoing a makeover have launched their own "stimulus plan." To generate traffic while the city upgrades sewers, buries utility lines and widens and beautifies sidewalks, they're offering 10 percent discounts to customers who present a receipt from any other South Limestone business located within the construction zone and dated the present or previous day.
East End Renaissance Fund to support neighborhood initiatives
Revitalization projects in Lexington's historic East End neighborhood are coming in for some newfound support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Foundation is working with the Blue Grass Community Foundation to launch an East End Renaissance Fund.
Knight Foundation is kicking off the fund with a $5,000 donation and hopes to raise a minimum of $25,000 from the community.
The fund will help realize several recommendations from the East End Small Area Plan, a blueprint to take the downtown neighborhood into the future. EHI Consulting developed the plan for the East End after multiple community input sessions facilitated by the Blue Grass Community Foundation's Legacy Center.
The East End Renaissance Fund will support neighborhood signage improvements, beautification projects, the identification of historical sites and properties and housing rehabilitation.
Anyone interested in contributing to the East End Renaissance Fund can contact Barbara Fischer at the Blue Grass Community Foundation at (859)225-3343 or at bfischer@bgcf.org.
Are you mindful?
Ellen Langer, an internationally renowned psychology professor at Harvard University, recently talked with faculty, staff and graduate students in the University of Kentucky School of Human Environmental Sciences about mindfulness and how it can enhance their careers, teaching skills and personal life.
Mindfulness, which Langer has studied for more than 30 years, is the simple process of noticing new things. This kind of noticing makes people aware of uncertainty and keeps them in the present, sensitive to others' perspectives and actively engaged in learning. It helps them enjoy the moment. In contrast, mindless individuals respond to others and make decisions based on past experiences without updating them.
"If we're mindless, what we're doing is what we've done before, even if it no longer makes sense," she said. "To be rewarded in big ways, you have to in some way engage in a paradigm shift, even if it's a small one. And if you're not there to notice, you won't be able to do this."
Mindfulness is applicable for everyone, no matter one's profession. In the daylong workshop, Langer discussed with the group a variety of topics including pursuing research that is meaningful and interesting to the researcher, ways to enhance the classroom experience and quality family time.
"One of the things our faculty prides themselves on is that they are strong teachers," said Ann Vail, director of the School of Human Environmental Sciences. "So we wanted to do something to reward the strong teaching in the school but to also give faculty and our graduate students something to think about that could impact and enhance their teaching."
Langer said it is easy for individuals to become more mindful.
"The way to make the switch is to recognize how pervasive our mindlessness is as a function of our thinking we know. Once you recognize that you don't know, you more naturally put yourself in a position to find out," she said.
Ronald-Werner Wilson, chair of the Department of Family Studies, said much of Langer's presentation could help UK faculty enhance their students' educational experience and prepare them for life after college.
"Employers tell us what they need are critical thinkers," he said. "They need college graduates who come into the profession and are able to do jobs that may not even exist right now."
After the workshop, Vail planned to discuss with faculty different avenues in which they could pursue mindfulness in research and the classroom. -- Katie Pratt, UK College of Agriculture
Oh ye of little faith: Lexmark survey on longevity of tech devices
78 percent of the people polled in a survey commissioned by Lexmark said they do not expect their technology devices to last more than five years. In addition, 50 percent of the 10,000 respondents in 21 countries believe the materials used in the manufacture of devices could be of better quality.
Kentucky Bourbon Trail gains high profile attention
The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is featured in the September editions of National Geographic Traveler and Southern Living magazines.
National Geographic has selected the route linking eight Kentucky bourbon distillers for its list of "Drives of a Lifetime: World's Greatest Scenic Routes." The Bourbon Trail is listed in the magazine's online edition (nationalgeographic.com/drives) as among 50 classic road trips in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. And it survived the cut to be included among the top 20 routes cited in the print edition.
The route between Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Tom Moore, Wild Turkey and Woodford Reserve is also featured in a spread in Southern Living's September issue.
Kentucky farm values stable compared to nation
While farm real estate values across the nation have been in a recession-driven decline, values in Kentucky have held steady, according to new statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The price of Kentucky farmland averages $2,850 per acre. That's $750 per acre above the national average. A breakdown of the numbers, however, shows that pastureland in Kentucky has taken a hit, falling almost six percent. Cropland, on the other hand, is up 1.5 percent over last year.
UK agricultural economist Richard Trimble blames "profitability challenges in livestock" - dairy and beef cattle, in particular.