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Dad's Deli owner James Caudill. PHOTO BY EMILY MOSELEY
With a small window of operation and a remote location, James Caudill often jokes that people accuse him of making it hard for customers to get to Dad's Favorites Deli because he didn't want it to be any more crowded.
Those that boo-booed having difficulty getting to the popular Gardenside lunch counter during their lunch break in the past will find elation with the news that Caudill plans to open a second location for the downtown lunch crowd in the coming months at 236 E. Main St.
"It's perfect," Caudill said. "We still have a little light construction we need to do, so it's all about how fast we can get it up and running. But it's coming, Dad's Deli to downtown Lexington."
The 1,800-square-foot storefront, a few spaces down from the Kentucky Theater, will seat about 40 customers, according to Caudill, which he estimates is about the same number of patrons he can accommodate in the hallway of the Garden Springs Shopping arcade currently.
Caudill said the second location will have the same menu and the same look as the original Dad's Favorites Deil, and, hinting at perhaps even larger things to come, said the new store could be a blueprint for spots in other cities.
"That is the way it is going to look if we opened up one in downtown Louisville - we're looking at the big picture. Downtown Cincinnati, downtown Nashville, downtown Indianapolis," he said, naming venues where he already has a presence at local farmers markets.
Caudill originally opened the deli counter more as a vehicle to promote his line of local cheese spreads, called Dad's Favorites, than a popular lunch destination, which it ultimately became.
Caudill anticipates having a soft opening sometime in March, and plans to have a delivery service closer to the fall.