Catherine Nichols
December cover
Delaware Avenue, until recently a sleepy strip on Lexington’s near east side populated by small homes and industrial businesses, is growing out of its reputation as just a shortcut between Henry Clay Boulevard and Winchester Road.
With the help of some of the trailblazing businesses that staked claim to the area years ago, several newcomers are adding liveliness and variety, putting Delaware Avenue on a short list of fast-growing Lexington neighborhoods, alongside North Limestone, the Distillery District and the Warehouse Block along National Avenue.
The newest addition to the block is Pivot Brewing Co., and although they will be brewing beer, its focus is on artisanal hard cider.
Owner Kevin Compton had become disillusioned with the mass produced ciders most people are familiar with, which he says are almost always back-sweetened and pumped with flavored syrups.
“It’s hard to buy good ciders,” Compton said, “but really good cider would compete with a really good Belgian beer any day.”
Theresa Stanely
Pivot Brewing Co. - Kevin Compton - 1
Pivot Brewing Company owner Kevin Compton. Photo by Theresa Stanley
As the popularity of craft beer soars, craft cider remains largely unexplored.
Compton comes from a beer background (he’s been home brewing since the late 1990s), but the opportunities in the market, along with his general appreciation for cider and the challenges it poses, led to Pivot’s emphasis on cider.
Neighbors collaborate
Though Pivot doesn’t serve food directly, there will be food trucks, as well as some collaboration with Pasta Garage Italian Café, located just down the street on Delaware.
Pasta Garage served food at the brewery’s Oct. 29 grand opening and plans have been set in motion to make this collaboration a permanent part of Pivot’s offerings. Soon, Pivot customers will be able to place Pasta Garage to-go orders on an iPad then walk over to pick it up.
Pasta Garage and Lexington Pasta owner Lesme Romero says if demand is great enough, he might begin delivering the orders directly to Pivot.
Compton and Romero also teased a cider-vodka sauce they’re planning.
“I’ll try and give him something that’s really acidic and something that actually imposes itself, so you can put it in the sauce and you can still kind of see it through the other components,” said Compton.
When news first broke that Romero was moving his business to Delaware Avenue, he received a phone call from Compton, who he had not previously met. Compton told Romero about his plans for Pivot and his excitement about Pasta Garage joining the area.
The Pasta Garage has been operating at 962 Delaware Ave. for more than a year now and has been growing steadily. Its first location, at 227 North Limestone, is set to reopen soon as Lexington Pasta’s bodega market, a one-stop shop where you can buy pasta, sauce, bread, olive oil and wine, as well as order from a selection of ready meals.
Romero stated that the Pasta Garage name- brand recognition might have surpassed that of Lexington Pasta’s.
“We’re really happy,” said Romero. “Growing steady and keeping control of the growth, because you can lose it like this.”
Romero is planning to organize a Delaware Avenue block party next summer. He wants to reach out to businesses across Lexington, inviting them to come together for the growing Delaware Avenue community.
“With a brewery, with a restaurant, with International Book Project, with Cowgirl Attic, that’s what we need,” said Romero. “We need people that can come over here, and not only go to the restaurant, but they can see antiques, they can see books. That’s how you build a community: variety.”
Boosting business
There are actually more businesses on Delaware Avenue than meets the eye. Romero has a business incubator in the back of Pasta Garage that several businesses call home.
Crank and Boom Ice Cream produces all its ice cream in the incubator, and Gents Original has been producing its sodas and cocktail syrups there for quite awhile, though they are moving production to Pivot.
Other companies using the incubator include Jun Bug probiotic honey soda and Ble Amour bakery.
Romero is planning to fund a statue of a life-size horse to be placed in front of Pasta Garage. Local artist Benjamin Bartlett, who has done work for Jim Beam, has designed the work, which will be made of pieces that resemble penne pasta. At the bottom of the sculpture there will be bricks with the names of the people who donated.
Public art is one aspect of Romero’s bid to attract more people to the area. Also on his wish list are more sidewalks to make the block more pedestrian friendly, as well as some sort of overpass, tunnel or path that would allow people to traverse a railroad track and connect Delaware Avenue to the nearby Kenwick neighborhood.
The Pasta Garage was designed by the architecture and fabrication company Nomi Design, which has an office right up the street at 1584 Delaware Ave., next door to International Book Project.
Owner and principal architect Matthew Brooks has a philosophy that variation is important when approaching Nomi’s projects, which can range from big architecture projects to small designs for furniture, such as tabletops and cabinets.
“It keeps you sharp,” said Brooks. “You do the same thing over and over again, you may lose the innovation. I think that with the way we approach our design work, we see everything as a design challenge, that even the smallest things are a design challenge, that we hone our design skills for everything that we do and we keep it fresh.”
Although Nomi does work on new buildings, Brooks stated that renovations and adaptive reuse are important to the company. They designed the Fayette County Schools Warehouse on Russell Cave Road, which was originally a 1970s IBM building many didn’t think had any value.
In addition to the Pasta Garage, Nomi designed both Athenian Grill locations, The Plantory, Rumi’s Cafe and J. Render’s BBQ, among others.
With the help of another Delaware Avenue business – Honeycutt Mechanical – they designed the metal gears that the Pasta Garage uses a central design element.
“We like local,” said Brooks. “That’s what it comes down to.”
Brooks wants Nomi to be a part of what many of the Delaware Avenue businesses have embraced: good design. He hopes to get Nomi to the point where its offices can add to that and improve its building’s recognition on the street.
“You know that old saying about cobblers: Their kids were always the last to have shoes,” said Brooks. “We’re the same way.”
Another new addition to the area is Pomegranate, a wholesale clothing and apparel company that has been in existence for 20 years.
The company opened a spot at 527 Lagonda Ave., just off Delaware, in September and has added a retail area to showcase many of its goods, including cashmere sweaters, bags, accessories and equestrian gifts, as well as some antique furniture, free monogramming and, soon, fabric by the yard.
“There are a lot of eclectic, creative people in this area,” said Megan Hillenmeyer, the director of business development at Pomegranate. “I think it’s only going to get better. I think over the next five years we’re going to see a real transformation.”
Trailblazers
Two of those eclectic businesses are a couple of Delaware Avenue veterans: Barnhill Chimney and Cowgirl Attic.
Barnhill Chimney, Fireplace and Grill has been at its location for almost 10 years now. It entered the business from the service side, maintaining people’s chimneys and fireplaces, before deciding to find a building, stock products and provide a showroom for customers to browse.
Owner Brion Barnhill said he saw Delaware Avenue’s potential when he picked this location but didn’t expect it grow as quickly as it has.
“You’ve got a fireplace shop, a linen shop, a pasta shop, brewery, lots of shops with special trade up and down,” said Barnhill, who has already had a few business meetings at Pivot. “You can walk next door [to Stems florist] and get the nicest flowers in town. It’s kind of cool because I really didn’t see it happening this fast.”
Cowgirl Attic, a shop that sells recycled, repurposed and reclaimed urban artifacts, moved in 2001 from its original spot on Walton Avenue to its Delaware location.
Owner Karen Payne retired from the jewelry business and, as she put it, “decided to sell junk.” Her mother was in the same business, so Payne has been going through the process of attending auctions and reclaiming unwanted goods since she was a child.
Payne said she’s hoping an art gallery will join the area, which said would attract more people and make the neighborhood more well-rounded.
“People can go eat, they can go to the gallery hop, and they can go drink,” said Payne. “And it’s all within a perimeter.”
Cowgirl Attic has been a staple in the community for 15 years, and Payne has seen the neighborhood go through a transformation in that time period. She and other business owners on the block are eager to see how it evolves from here.
“I don’t know what’s next,” said Barnhill. “I’m excited about it though.”
“Can you imagine this place three years from now?” said Romero. “Three years from now it’s going to be crazy.”
