"Deep within the heart of the north side of Lexington's downtown core would be the last place you'd think you'd be able to find an organic burger with all the trimmings — priced under five bucks, but there it is — smack on the corner of North Limestone and Sixth Street, right in the middle of one of the more notorious places in town.
In its heyday, of the disreputable kind, Al's Bar was the kind of place you could go to pick up a prostitute or a crack rock over the counter any time of the day or night. Maybe take in a knife fight. It was the kind of festering blemish in the North Limestone neighborhood that perpetuated and condoned criminal behavior, and it made three of its next door neighbors, brothers Josh and Lester Miller and Aumaine Mott, a little uncomfortable.
When the bar went up for sale earlier this year, they thought it would be a fine opportunity to rid the neighborhood of the predatory business, but they were already neck-deep in physical and financial responsibilities to Stella's Kentucky Deli on Jefferson Street, which Aumaine and Lester, along with other partners, purchased and reopened last May.
"But at the same time, here was the only chance that we saw that we had for changing the corner and the neighborhood," Lester Miller said, "because as long as the place was here doing what it was doing, it seemed like there was no hope for the neighborhood to ever improve."
The stakes were too great. With Dr. Paul Evans Holbrook, another Stella's partner, a shoestring budget and some very creative financing, the purchase of Al's Bar was negotiated in May. With new owners, the business didn't even close down for one day.
Since the change of hands, Al's Bar has gone through a kind of dramatic metamorphosis, of the positive nature, once thought only to be exemplified by winners of The Biggest Loser. But they're deep, soul changes, not surface changes, aside from lots of cleaning in the bathroom. Most of the kitschy dècor — the low chandeliers, the odd wall hangings of unicorns, eagles and puppies — has been left untouched.
The real change has come in the menu, and, more importantly, in the way in which the owners view their patrons — not as marks who need their money extracted from them, but as real people who live in the neighborhood. "I think a lot of our people aren't used to getting polite service," Josh Miller said.
The change caught a lot of regulars by surprise. But the cleaner restrooms and people being cut off when they had had enough, and shorter operating hours were signals that a change was taking place.
Some didn't stick around. Some just ordered another beer. Some were really appreciative of having a safer, cleaner place to hang out. Some just wanted some regular American cheese for their burgers, as the selection from the venerable Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese was a little too piquant for their liking. They keep the American cheese in stock.
"We want everybody to feel welcome in here," Josh Miller said, "as long as you're not selling drugs or your body."
Even the menu, which could arguably be considered the best bar food in town, is an extension of the owners' consideration for their customers. The option for healthy local food in that part of town is scant to non-existent. Taking cues and relationships from Stella's, Al's Bar specializes in serving the best of locally grown produce — from bison burgers to homemade salsa. It could be considered the antithesis of gentrification, and in a time when healthy and natural food has become synonymous with trendy and expensive, a menu with over a dozen specialty burgers affordably priced for any budget is inspiring to behold.
"There's a real limit to healthy eating around here, so that was one of our motivations for bringing in the good food," Lester Miller said. "We've had higher food costs; they're astronomical. Most businesses would look at it and say, 'You people are crazy.' We subsidize that with our own labor; we're all working for nothing basically, all the time. But we do that because that's what we believe in It's community building. If you have healthy food, you have healthy people, then you have happy people."
Until recently, the only non-local component to Al's was their music selection, which was restricted to a jukebox with a busted display so you have no idea what song you were picking, though some of the regulars already had their favorite selections memorized. The selections mirror the diverse, racially and economically, clientele — some AM Gold hits, Latin pop and Top 40. It would be a safe bet that Al's the only place in town where you could hear Akon, The Eagles and Alacranes Musical all in one sitting.
"We have a divergent audience that comes in here," Josh Miller said. "We have lawyers coming in here, we have the people that the lawyers are prosecuting in here. We have literally every strata of society that regularly comes through that door."
Beginning earlier in October, Al's Bar will began hosting local music every week to liven up their Thursday nights. The owners hope that over time, the venue could be considered the premier Bluegrass venue in town, which makes sense — in terms of music, you can't get more local than Bluegrass.
With the music, the owners hope they can attract some of the younger urbanites living in the downtown area, and anybody else who cares to come and have a good time.
While some might be a little apprehensive about coming to a bar in that part of town, the owners, by their own example, have created a safe environment for people to come experience people and a side of life they may not have been exposed to.
"People don't go out of their way to be aggressive with people they don't know down here," Josh Miller said. "They'll talk to you, and if you're freaked out by somebody talking to you that you don't know, that comes from a very different background, then the odds of you having a bad experience go up dramatically.
"But if somebody coming up and talking to you, being friendly, asking where you're from, if that sort of thing doesn't freak you out, then you're going to have a good time here."
Al's Bar is the kind of place everybody needs to frequent. Aside from the healthy, affordable food, it's important to get to know the people who live your city. Even though it might seem world's apart, it's only half of a mile north of Main Street. That's not very far.
" A lot of people feel like if you walk through that front door, you're fair game. And frankly, I'm happy about that," Josh Miller said. "I like to see people from different backgrounds talking to each other. I like seeing people leaving their comfort zones a little bit. I think it's valuable; I don't think you should necessarily only hang out with people who have college degrees."
Al's Bar is located at Sixth and North Limestone. It's open Wednesday through Sunday. Thursday night music begins at 8:30 p.m. For more, call (859) 252-9104.
This story originally appeared in our sister publication "W" Weekly.
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