Merrick owner brings "Grab 'n Go" concept to Chevy Chase
Busy households in the Chevy Chase and Ashland neighborhoods, and commuters passing through the area, will soon have a new option for that quick and easy weeknight dinner. Merrick Inn owner Bobby Murray has joined restaurateurs across the nation searching for new profit centers and finding them in a fresh foods "grab 'n go" revolution.
Murray is fitting up the corner space in Chevy Chase Plaza that has housed Red, Hot 'n Blue, Smitty's and most recently Jack and Maddy's, to house "Josey's Grab 'n Go" (Josey is the Murrays' four-year-old daughter), a prototype for potential franchising. "We do do more to-go business than we ever had, but this is something I've really wanted to do for a number of years," Murray said.
The veteran Lexington restaurateur said he was initially inspired by today's time-starved lifestyles, including his own. "I come up here to the restaurant, and I grab a couple of steaks or fresh fish and get all my sides and my salads, dessert or whatever. And I head home, enjoy a glass of wine, put the steaks on the grill, and everything's done. There's no cleanup, no pots and pans."
The Josey's concept will ride the tide of a national trend exemplified by the healthy foods "grab 'n go" approaches of Whole Foods and Fresh Markets, and could prove competitive to the Fresh Markets store in Lansdowne by attracting customers who might otherwise make the trek out Tates Creek Road. "We'll have fresh fish, shrimp kabobs; we'll have a number of different steaks; we'll offer chicken, chops, veal. And we're going to emphasize teaching people how to grill those proteins so they're comfortable with it. We'll offer accompanying glazes or sauces. And we're going to offer a number of hot items, which will include our fried chicken, and based on the season, it could be pot roast, country-fried pork chops, along with all of our vegetables, (such as) corn pudding, green beans, twice-baked potatoes. They'll be offered hot or cold," Murray said.
Customers who plan to do their own cooking will be provided recipes, a concept Murray picked up while visiting the huge delicatessen in one of Dayton's venerable Dorothy Lane Markets. "They offer so many recipes on everything. I thought, 'I've got to do this. People will just love it!' The Dorothy Lane recipes are printed on cards designed to fit recipe file boxes.
But for those in a hurry - or just too bushed after a full workday - Murray said he will offer prepared items such as lasagnas, chicken salads, crab cakes, pasta salads and organic items. Plans call for a "huge" salad bar and three or four soups daily.
The space has been gutted for a total renovation, with its entrance moved around to the front of the building where large windows are being installed. A pre-holiday opening depends on delivery of coolers.
"If I don't get the cases before Thanksgiving, then we probably won't open 'til the first of the year. We will not try to open in mid-December. You can never have enough staff then," Murray explained. "I'm a firm believer in baby steps - doing it right rather than screwing everything up and nobody ever comes back."
And if all goes well? "I would love for it to get me out of the restaurant business," Murray confided. "The business is a lot rougher than it used to be. People have changed. Kids are different from what they were like ten years ago. I'd like to be able to keep it simple enough that we could open some more stores, move to a different market. I'm kinda excited about that."
- Tom Martin
Solar powered, digital, multi-space parking meters coming
Parking in downtown Lexington is about to go "digital" and "green," as well as more efficiently managed, according to the city's new parking authority.
"We have a new delivery and installation date for our first five units," LexPark executive director Gary Means said of 50 solar-powered $9,000 units now on order from Canada's Digital Payment Technologies (DPT). "They should be installed on Tuesday, October 7th, and up and running on the 8th," Means said.
According to Means, the three units being installed downtown will appear on The Esplanade, Limestone north of Main Street and on Main Street along the Victorian Square block. Two more will be installed near the UK campus. "We will have 20 more installed mid-November. The last 25 will be installed early December," he said.
According to DPT, the Luke Payment Station ordered by LexPark features a "full-featured, Web-based remote management system; proactive e-mail, pager and cell phone alarming for repair and maintenance conditions; complete reporting and auditing capabilities; remote update of rate and configuration information; networked functionality through wireless and cellular communications technologies; multi-lingual messaging - including non-roman characters (think World Equestrian Games); parking pay-by-cell-phone integration; and integration of third-party, custom card providers for campus card applications."
- TM
ACS adding 100 jobs in Lexington
Despite a slowing economy and rising unemployment in Kentucky, Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) is hiring an additional 100 full-time employees.
The full-time positions are in high-level technical support and customer care services.
The additions solidify ACS's position as Lexington's sixth largest private employer, with 2,075 employees. The company is among the top ten employers in the state, with approximately 4,000 employees.
Add "feedback" to daily business checklist
Central Kentucky businesses concerned about customer/client feedback should make a habit of regularly checking a new Web site. KentuckyBizBuzz.com invites consumers to rate and review local businesses.
Founded by Charleston, S.C., entrepreneur Ward Lassoe, the concept launched as Evening Post BizBuzz LLC operates PalmettoBizBuzz in South Carolina and has since expanded to Kentucky and Colorado.
Lassoe said he was inspired by his own habit of checking online consumer reviews for travel and new products. "I was a new owner of an old home and had been looking around for an electrician, a plumber - all the usual things you look for when you're a new homeowner. And I just thought there had to be a better way to do this than doing the word-of-mouth thing, asking family and friends."
The BizBuzz.com concept takes the time-honored word-of-mouth testimonial online. Lassoe concedes that the approach has perception challenges of its own. "I think reviews on the Web have gotten a bad name because there's sort of a wild, wild West, anything-goes mentality out there. Reviews are our lifeblood, so if we don't take them seriously, we're in trouble. We want them to be honest, accurate and informative."
To ensure that, Lassoe employs a full-time review monitor in Lexington. "An actual human being looks at every review before it's posted on the site to make sure it meets the set of seven criteria that all reviews have to meet. If they break one of our rules, it won't get posted. Sometimes a review just doesn't pass the smell test - either just too good or too bad. In that case, we send it back to the consumer."
And if a review does fail the test? "The first thing we'll do is immediately suspend the review while we investigate, and then we have a five-step process that starts with contacting the consumer to see if they still feel the review is accurate, and then actually asking for a copy of the invoice so we can say with 100 percent certainty that they were, indeed, a customer."
Lassoe's organization planned an Oct. 1Lexington launch of its "GiveBack" campaign, designed to both promote the site and recruit reviewers. Nonprofits (excluding religious and political organizations) are invited to raise funds in exchange for critiques by their members of local businesses. The nonprofits receive $1 for each review, up to a maximum contribution of $1,000.
Non-member consumers who post reviews of local businesses can designate a non-profit to receive a donation.
- TM
LexTran gets seed funding for downtown trolleys
It's turning out that entertainment in downtown Lexington is developing in "nodes" scattered from The Lexington Center and Victorian Square on the western end of Main to venues on Cheapside and eastward to Natasha's on the Esplanade and the soon-to-reopen Dame on East Main. A key to a successful downtown entertainment economy identified by the Downtown Entertainment Development Task Force is readily accessible, timely public transportation to move club and bar patrons with ease from venue to venue.
If matching funds materialize, 29-foot replica trolleys will fill the role.
Gov. Steve Beshear announced a $1,212,800 grant toward the purchase of four of the vehicles LexTran plans to circulate east-west along Main and Vine and north-south between UK and Second Streets along Limestone and Upper. Additional routing could be added to include Manchester Street if a planned entertainment district materializes there.
To make it happen, LexTran still needs to come up with $303,000 in matching funds, according to assistant general manager Jared Forte, plus an estimated annual operations budget of $500,000.