Chef Lucie Slone Meyers has raised more than $40,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to fund her next local restaurant enterprise, The Red Light, planned for the corner of North Limestone and Loudon avenues.
The month-long Kickstarter campaign, which drew to a close on November 29, gathered $40,865 in pledges from 78 backers.
The building that housed Slone Meyers’ former restaurant, a la lucie, was recently sold, and an impending rent increase led her to close the eclectic local French eatery that had been a Limestone fixture for three decades at the end of November. Local diners packed the house for the restaurant’s special closing dinner, Lucie’s Last Dance, on November 30. Mayor Jim Gray also made an appearance, Slone Meyers said, and recognized it as "a la lucie Day." Slone Meyers said the support and generosity of community members and a la lucie customers has been a welcome comfort for her as she closes the doors to her longtime culinary home.
"I guess after 31 years, I did touch some people's lives and they touched my life, too," Slone Meyers said as she prepared to pack up her cooking gear and collect the linens from a la lucie for the last time. "When you are going through something like this, you feel kind of alone, and last night, I didn't feel so alone."
The sadness of the restaurant’s closing was lightened earlier this month when Slone Meyers quickly announced her intent to launch her next concept, The Red Light, in a building she currently owns, six blocks to the north. The Red Light, which is planned to be a hotspot for warm noodle bowls, burgers and bourbon, is projected to open in March, in time for the next Keeneland meet, barring any unforeseen construction delays.
In addition to owning and operating a la lucie and other former local restaurants, including the Pacific Pearl and Roy and Nadine’s, through the years, Slone Meyers is credited with training and nurturing some notable culinary talent in Lexington. To learn more, read the recently published business profile of Slone Meyers in the December issue of Business Lexington.
While Slone Meyers is no stranger to launching new restaurant ventures, she said this new chapter is a little different for her, because she will be leaving her tried-and-true a la lucie location behind.
"I’ve done a lot of adventures in my life, but I’ve always had [a la lucie] to fall back on," Slone Meyers said. "This has always been my safe haven. It will be a little scary that I don’t have this, but we’ll make it happen up the street."