Timing, service, fine food, loyal customers take Dudley’s into 45th year
Dudley’s and, since 2010, Dudley’s On Short has built a local clientele who return again and again to savor the experience of dining in Debbie Long’s (pictured center) downtown Lexington restaurant for 45 years. Photo furnished
Debbie Long knows that today, launching a new restaurant with “no clue” about running it is dangerous business.
But that’s just what she did 45 years ago, and that restaurant, Dudley’s is still going strong, serving up Long’s personal favorite Pasta Dudley, hot browns, scallops, steaks, chops, seasonal cocktails among other libations, and much more.
“I realize that it doesn’t work anymore,” she said, laughing about her novice years. “I think the timing was good.”
A Louisville native who also attended the University of Kentucky, Long worked in ski lodges, steakhouses and pubs in the 1970s when living in Colorado, mainly because the flexible work hours allowed her more time for skiing.
But the restaurant industry grew on her — seeing people happy, full of energy and in many cases, becoming her friends. So when she moved back to Kentucky, planning to stay just four or five years before heading back to the mountains, she opened a new restaurant, Dudley’s, in 1981 in Dudley Square with then-business partner John Shea, whom she bought out eight years later.
What she needed to know, she learned, and she was dedicated to making the restaurant thrive, even amidst challenges.
In 2003 she opened another venue over in Chevy Chase, Buddy’s Bar and Grill, but sold it after about seven years, factoring in The Great Recession’s effects and in 2009 losing her main restaurant lease, prompting the relocation of Dudley’s to West Short Street in a 1889-era former bank building requiring about five months of renovation.
Long said Central Bank helped her secure a small business loan and she found four partners to buy the building where Dudley’s now resides. It was business as usual for a while until the next hurdle arose: COVID.
“That was the most interesting time,” she said. “There wasn’t a playbook for it, so you just kind of went day to day. You really didn’t know what to do, and we survived that, so here we are 45 years later.”
With four employees whose tenures added together comprise a century of service, Long credits her great staff and customers-turned-friends for Dudley’s longevity.
Famed landscape designer Jon Carloftis is among the many longtime loyal customers of Dudley’s. Photo furnished
Counted among the latter is noted landscape desiger Jon Carloftis of Lexington, who has been a customer since the beginning, having dinner with his parents at Dudley’s original location when he was a University of Kentucky freshman.
“To stay in business 45 years in any kind of business, that’s something,” he said. “But a restaurant business? It’s just unheard of, really.”
Carloftis said Lexington is fortunate to have a vibrant food scene, and credits Long with carving out her niche, creating spaces where horse farm owners along with all ages and generations of customers gather to enjoy good food.
That includes his go-to order, medium rare steak with mayo instead of ketchup, preferably enjoyed in the boisterous, people-watching haven found in the bar area.
He said if someone wants a quieter setting for their meals, the traditional dining areas are the place to pull up a chair. And of course he enjoys the rooftop garden area — he designed and built it after Dudley’s relocation.
The service, he said, is what really makes Dudley’s special.
“There’s no place that has service like Dudley’s,” Carloftis said. “I mean come on, it’s the best place. It’s amazing!”
Customers say service and attention to quality are what makes Dudley’s On Short an experience they seek out over and over. Photo furnished
Langdon Shoop said the first time he ate at Dudley’s was in 1986 as an 11-year-old with his mother, and in recent years he’s often dined there three to five times a month.
“I was not a fine-food person until after college, and a friend and I started eating there with real frequency in 1997,” he said. “I have had many birthdays there, and in fact my wife and I had our surprise wedding ceremony upstairs there in 2017.”
On a first-name basis with staff members and good friends with Long, Shoop tells people the reason he likes living in downtown Lexington is because, “It’s a five-minute walk to Dudley’s and a 10-minute walk home.”
This level of fandom has its benefits.
“My favorite dish is an off-menu filet that used to be on the menu called Marchand de Vin,” he said. “It is an awesome Filet Mignon with a red wine reduction sauce and shallots. It is amazing. It went off the menu several years ago, and I requested it so often that they added a button for it back into their computer.”
Over the years, Dudley’s has been recognized by Wine Spectator, twice named “Best in the South” in Southern Living Magazine and featured by Bobby Flay on the Food Network.
To celebrate the 45th anniversary and share memories with those who made it possible, Dudley’s held “A Night of Nostalgia” event in late August, and a supper series featuring notable guests is planned later this fall.
Long said eventually she’ll be ready to pass the baton to a new, energetic owner with their own vision to hopefully carry the Dudley’s brand forward.
There have been fleeting thoughts of retirement, she admits, but then someone will share their heartfelt thanks for being able to return time after time to the place where they celebrated an anniversary or special birthday, the place where their favorite comfort meal still awaits them, prepared just as they remember it, and she gets another second wind.
“I’ve never been much on projections for the future because I hate disappointment,” Long said. “… I guess maybe one day I’ll look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m done!’ but I haven’t gotten there yet.”
Owner Debbie Long made an enormous pivot in 2009-10 when her long-time Dudley’s Square lease ended. She sold her second restaurant, Buddy’s, took on three partners, renovated a building on Short Street and finally reopened after more than a year of no operations. Dudley’s On Short became an even larger success. Photo furnished