Tyler Murray has drawn on years of past experience in his various roles as a chef — including feeding sports spectators, students, athletes, and hotel patrons in several states — to craft a Kentucky-forward menu with hints of Appalachian and Lowcountry cuisine for his new restaurant, Millstone.
The restaurant is set to open in November at Dudley Square at S. Mill St. in a space that formerly housed Dudley’s and Sabio restaurants. The building itself was built in 1889.
Tyler Murray
For Millstone, the space has been renovated and refreshed to accommodate four dining areas: an existing dining room for larger groups, a bar, a newly added dining room built on the former patio footprint, and above that addition, a spacious seasonal deck shaded by trees.
Together, those areas will seat about 70 to 80 guests, Murray said.
Murray laughs when he says that “never in my culinary chef mind” did he think he’d one day be pondering lampshades and other design details.
But Murray said he’s giving every facet of the new restaurant his attention, aiming for a place that feels worthy of a nice date night yet comfortable, casual, and affordable enough for a weekday dinner when cooking isn’t in the cards.
“In building out the concept of Millstone, we’re not trying to be the fanciest restaurant in Lexington,” he said. “There are some great fancy restaurants in Lexington, don’t get me wrong, but the idea is having a place to connect and engage in a comfortable environment. That is the vibe that we want to give people when they first set foot in the space.”
Murray will serve as executive chef and owner. Randy Boden, most recently with the Holly Hill Restaurant Group, will be chef de cuisine.
They will prepare regionally influenced dishes that are familiar and approachable yet elevated, such as a take on chicken and dumplings that pairs seared, roasted chicken thighs with pillowy Parmesan-ricotta gnocchi and wild mushrooms.
Murray’s road to Millstone is a full circle of sorts. The Maysville, Kentucky, native started his restaurant career in Lexington at age 19 at the Marriott Lexington Griffin Gate while attending the University of Kentucky.
He then enrolled at the Midwest Culinary Institute in Cincinnati and worked at the Cincinnati Marriott for four years, advancing from buffet replenisher to sous chef.
Next came the Charleston Renaissance Hotel, where he served as executive chef and embraced Lowcountry cuisine while learning from seasoned colleagues how to make proper Southern grits. “I loved my time in Charleston,” he said.
With a wife and a baby on the way, he then moved to another, closer Charleston — this time in West Virginia — to oversee food and beverage operations for a large hotel. He later worked in Ohio and Washington, D.C., before returning to Lexington five years ago to oversee UK Dining.
“The beast of it was obviously student dining — you’re talking 8,000 people a day through both of the dining halls,” he said.
A big University of Kentucky sports fan, Murray enjoyed working with athletes across many sports as he helped manage food service during home games, including VIP suites at Kroger Field. He also catered luncheons at the college president’s house and other special events.
Still, he said he missed the creativity of owning his own restaurant — curating a seasonal menu, seeing a dish through from concept to plate, and watching diners enjoy it.
With Millstone, a career’s worth of culinary experience and expressiveness has come to fruition, and he invites the community to take a seat at his table.
“It’s kind of the core of the culinary art of being creative and developing something from scratch and telling a story about what that food is,” Murray said.