Pour Decisions Social Bar, recently opened at 233 E. Main Street, is a new venture from hospitality veteran Kelly J. King.
About two years ago, Kelly J. King was sure she was settling into retirement mode after founding and overseeing company after company for decades, but Pour Decisions proved her wrong.
Open since early August, Pour Decisions Social Bar is the latest project from King, a Lexington native and longtime local food, beverage and events industry professional. As the daughter of Thoroughbred industry veterans and nightclub owners with operations in both Lexington and Nashville, King had founded her first nightclub by age 26 and her second by age 29.
“I was just kind of born into the entertainment industry,” she said.
In late 2019, King sold her share of Venues of the Grand Reserve (now known as 903 Venues) on Manchester Street, a 50,000-squarefoot events space in the Distillery District that she founded in 2009-10 and formerly owned.
Over the years, the ideas for new businesses kept coming.
In the two years before COVID-19 hit, she founded Barrel Fest KY, a beer, wine and liquor festival that may one day make a comeback. For the past three years she’s been founder and owner of events planning company Kingsway Events. Five years ago, she founded Dipsie’s Gourmet Mini Donuts & Ice Cream (aka Dipsie’s Sweet Treats), which started out at the Venues of the Grand Reserve but in 2018 became a mobile doughnut and ice cream truck.
King
In 2012 she founded Cocktails and Wedding Bells, a nighttime wedding show where engaged couples could browse vendor displays while enjoying a variety of cocktails. And for the past dozen years she’s been founder/owner of Top Shelf Bartender Service, a company providing bartenders-for-hire with catering options for special events.
After mostly cooling her heels in 2020 and part of 2021, a newly energized King began to get antsy for a new project.
“I missed the camaraderie of doing things, so I started looking into venues that were available, and actually the first place that I’d looked at was the old Grillfish on Limestone,” she said.
That property was snapped up, but she was able to secure a lease at 233 E. Main, the former location of The Casual Pint and more recently Gather on Main. It had been vacant since March 2020.
Doing much of the labor herself in the 2,300 square-foot space, she set about demolition work, painting and building a bar, as friends Chad Howard and Andrew Shayde lent helping hands.
Opening during a pandemic wasn’t easy, and she had some delays in sourcing furnishings and other equipment. Opening weekend was pushed back a week while waiting for glassware and a dishwasher to arrive.
The finished space has an industrial speakeasy type feel with red and black décor, sparkling chandeliers overhead, concrete flooring, dance floor and a mirror wall. Patrons can sit at tables or on Chesterfield couches, and tinted windows with crushed red velvet draperies help create an intimate, cozy vibe. Garage doors can be opened to the outdoors, and many wall-mounted televisions will be tuned to popular sports events.
King said several patrons have remarked that once inside, they feel like they’re in a bigger city nightspot. “We are something that’s not a normal place in Lexington,” King said.
“We’re something different. There’s not another place in town that looks like ours and has the feel of ours. The drinks themselves should entice you enough to come here because nobody in the state is doing what I’m doing here.”
Many cocktails are served in glasses generously rimmed with white or dark chocolate or caramel, depending on what best suits the libation. King’s personal favorite is called Going Back for More, a Roscato wine served in a glass rimmed in white chocolate.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “it’s like drinking grape juice.”
The full bar features a variety of liquor, wines, 10 taps with mostly local brews from favorites like West Sixth Brewing, Mirror Twin Brewing and Ethereal Brewing.
Pour Decisions has partnered with Skip the Fork to provide traditional and dessert charcuterie for patrons to snack on as they socialize.
Karaoke is held Mondays, followed by Trivia Tuesdays. Every Wednesday is Ladies Night, and live music by either bands or DJs round out Fridays and Saturdays. Eventually monthly themed costume parties will be held, like disco night, as well as other special events centered around sports or holidays.
King is confident in her ability to deliver once again with this latest venture.
“I feel that I keep a grasp on entertainment around me, and I feel that I am good at what I do and know what people want,” she said. “It’s all about customer service. You are the face of your business, and you’ve got to be one with it, so people recognize me and hopefully recognize the quality of the work that comes with something that I do.”