The home of Henry Clay, Keeneland and Memorial Coliseum are all signs that you’re in Lexington. Lexingtonians know all of these off the top of their heads, and many are also familiar with Billy’s Bar-B-Q. This barbecue restaurant has been running for nearly 40 years, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Owner and manager of the restaurant, Bob Stubblefield, a native of western Kentucky, has been running Billy’s since 1978. Stubblefield and his former partner, Billy Parham, were pioneers to Lexington barbecue.
“Not many people in Lexington knew about barbecue,” Stubblefield said. “[It was] a cuisine that was mainly a southeastern, flatland kind of food.”
The diner was formerly an old service station that was adapted into a restaurant and plastered with pictures. Among the many things on all the walls, Stubblefield’s favorite is probably the fisherman hall of shame, a compilation of pictures sent from his friends and customers, sporting the big fish they have caught, some weighing more than 90 pounds. Stubblefield also has a line of pictures near the ceiling of celebrities he has served, including BB King, John Lee Hooker, Waylon Jennings and Greg Allman.
Stubblefield began his entrepreneurial journey with partner Parham, also from western Kentucky, who was the namesake for the restaurant. Western Kentucky, in Stubblefield’s words, was the “Barbecue Capitol of Kentucky.” As Stubblefield began to migrate toward Lexington, so did barbecue.
When he was a kid, one of his friend’s parents taught him to barbecue, and then it all began. Before Billy’s, apart from waiting tables and making some food, Stubblefield didn’t have much background in the business. That didn’t stop him from co-starting Billy’s.
Not only is Billy’s one of the original barbecue places in Lexington, but it has also been recognized frequently for its quality over the years. Billy’s has won the Reader’s Choice Award for best barbecue in the Herald-Leader five years in a row, and also in Ace Weekly, until the magazine stopped offering that award.
Though Stubblefield is proud that he owns a longstanding barbecue restaurant, he said that it’s something he has to keep working at every day.
“Nothing is certain in life, and it’s definitely that way in business,” he said. “We have to keep at it every day, in order to keep selling food.”