At the Upstart Crow, the recently opened restaurant and bar on the corner of Short Street and Limestone, not everything old is new again.
The antique Rothschild mahogany bar, for instance, is the same one that was used at the original Upstart Crow location, at Angliana and Broadway, during the 1970s. The co-owners of the bar and restaurant, brothers Tim and Mark Adams, have taken it out of warehouse storage and polished it up to serve as a showpiece at the new location, as the seasoned hospitality industry veterans prepare to jump once again into the local restaurant scene.
“I decided to come home with my brother and take one more run at it,” said Tim Adams, who had relocated to the West Coast and recently retired to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2011. Mark Adams had been living recently in northern Kentucky, but both have strong roots and family ties in Lexington, Tim Adams said. In addition to the Upstart Crow, the brothers were also the owners and operators of Morgan’s Cafe in downtown Lexington until the location was demolished in the mid-1980s to make way for the Lexington Financial Center.
The reboot of Upstart Crow, in the space formerly occupied by Jax, has been designed to offer the feel of a metropolitan bar, such as one might find in San Francisco, New York or Chicago, Adams said. The aim of the Adams brothers for the Upstart Crow’s second round is to offer patrons an affordable but upscale dining option.
“The goal is a very affordable menu that will attract repeat diners and not just event patrons,” Tim Adams said.
That kind of regular patronage was a keystone for the original Upstart Crow, Adams said. The former place was a popular watering hole for attorneys, judges, journalists and other professionals from 1972 through 1978, and the staying power of the name over four decades has been a welcome surprise, he said, with multiple former patrons stopping by the new location in recent weeks to reminisce.
“Every day somebody walks in, saying, ‘Do you remember me? I was a regular at the old place,’” Tim Adams said.
Upstart Crow is currently open for lunch Monday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant will also be open for dinner, starting in November.