For nearly a century, the neighborhood market Wilson’s Grocery & Meat has been considered an essential business and hallmark of nostalgia for Lexington’s Kenwick neighborhood. The small corner grocery has served as a favorite place for neighbors, nearby workers and other fans to grab a quick sandwich from the deli or stock up on pantry staples.
While the grocery had been established for more than 75 years prior, it was named Wilson’s in 1995 by Roger Wilson, who had purchased the shop that year. Wilson and his wife, Connie, lived above the grocery for the entire 23 years they owned the shop, during which time it was known as a no-frills neighborhood market and one of Lexington’s best-kept-secret butcher shops.
The store recently fell into new ownership – and a new chapter – when Corey and Hannah Maple bought it in 2018. The new owners, a married couple in their 30s with a young family, are working to make it their own while also preserving many of the aspects of the business that longtime fans have relished.
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Long known as a favorite local butcher shop, Wilson’s has continued its focus on a quality meat and deli program under new ownership in recent years. (At top) Wilson’s store manager, Logan Benton, a historic preservation major at the University of Kentucky, views the efforts to keep the shop going as a measure of historic preservation. Photos by Emily Giancarlo
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Long known as a favorite local butcher shop, Wilson’s has continued its focus on a quality meat and deli program under new ownership in recent years. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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Long known as a favorite local butcher shop, Wilson’s has continued its focus on a quality meat and deli program under new ownership in recent years. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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Long known as a favorite local butcher shop, Wilson’s has continued its focus on a quality meat and deli program under new ownership in recent years. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
“Wilson’s is both a tangible and intangible cultural heritage to both the Kenwick neighborhood and Lexington,” said Logan Benton, who recently became store’s manager. “Neighborhoods like Kenwick were just far enough away from the commercial city center to warrant having a grocery. These small stores quickly became important to the neighborhood, and that importance is still there.”
Benton grew up in Estill County and is pursuing a master’s degree in historic preservation at the University of Kentucky.
“In a way, this is preservation,” he said of the effort to keep the store alive. In a world where grocery shopping is increasingly easy to do without actually setting foot inside a store, he added, the store “cater[s] to those who enjoy and need human and community interaction.”
Supporting other local businesses is part and parcel of community and is a charge that Wilson’s incorporates as much as it can. The market carries bread from Sunrise Bakery, bagels from Great Bagel & Bakery, coffee from Magic Beans Coffee Roasters and eggs from Clark Family Farm. It also carries ice cream and gelato from Sav’s Chill and Sorella Gelateria, kombucha tea from Thrive Kombucha, pasta from Lexington Pasta, Peril Hot Sauce and frozen pizza from Pearl’s.
“Any company we can get that’s local, we try to bring in here,” Benton said.
Among the relatively new local offerings are specialty cut flowers from the Nicholasville flower farm Agape Fields.
“Fresh flowers bring so much life and beauty into the store,” said owner Hannah Maple. “That’s been one of my favorite changes we’ve incorporated in the last year.”
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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Fresh flowers, stocked weekly from Nicholasville-based floral farm Agape Fields, are among owner Hannah Maple’s favorite features of the shop. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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Wilson’s’ small but highly curated craft beer selection is a favorite local feature for many neighborhoood residents. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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The market has also expanded its inventory to include a handful of new local and specialty products, while maintaining the same pantry staples it has long been known for. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
Despite the ever-increasing supply of these specialty products, the shop, which has long been known as a hidden gem among butcher shops, continues to emphasize its meat selection, with fresh-cut steaks, pork chops, bacon and more. Benton noted the shop still carries “the same country ham everybody goes nuts for.”
Prepared-food manager Blake Hester has worked in the local food economy since graduating from high school in Garrard County, working first for Marksbury Farm Market in Lancaster and then Good Foods Co-op and Sweetgrass Granola in Lexington. Hester and the Wilson’s team members make chicken salad, ham salad, pimento cheese and other packaged take-home deli products; homemade soups and bacon beef patties are also popular homemade items available at the deli counter.
Hester also makes an in-house pastrami, featured on a sandwich topped with sauerkraut and kimchi from Counterculture, another local food producer. Meats come from Porter Road, a meat-processing facility out of western Kentucky that works with local farmers to provide pasture-raised meats with no antibiotics, steroids or hormones.
Emphasizing the definition of “neighborhood business,” Hester, Benton and the Maples all live in Kenwick. The Maples had been regular patrons of the store while Roger Wilson owned it. In 2017, as the grocery’s shelves were getting barer, neighbors were wondering if Mr. Wilson was going to close the store. The Maples were setting off to Keeneland one morning when Wilson flagged Corey down. Hannah watched from the car.
New branded products were designed by owner Corey Maple’s marketing company, Harris & Ward, and printed locally at PrintLEX. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
“I could tell from the conversation they were having he was asking Corey to buy it. I just knew it,” she said. “Roger had gotten to know us and trusted we would take care of it. He told us himself that other people had made him cash offers, but he really wanted us to buy it.”
They said yes. “Without knowing what we were really getting into,” explained Hannah. (She is an interior designer by trade, and Corey has a marketing company, Harris & Ward.)
The store’s handwritten lunch board is drawn by employee Laura Banik. She is one of a dozen employees, some of whom are college students with sporadic work hours.
“They give creative freedom,” Benton said of the Maples’ leadership. “A lot of people are drawn to that when they work here. It’s not corporate.”
While it can be more difficult for niche shops to keep prices as low as chain stores, the owners work to keep things as reasonably priced as they can.
“We don’t want to be a bougie market where people feel everything we have is expensive,” Hannah said. “We want people to walk in, and no matter what their budget is, leave Wilson’s with that price point.” For example, in addition to the higher end Intelligentsia Coffee and a local Kenwick blend by Magic Beans, customers can also buy Folger’s.
“We feel like that’s why we were meant to own Wilson’s, so we can positively impact the people who come in our store and live in this vicinity,” Hannah added. “That’s our driving force.”
This month, the business’ local footprint will expand when Wilson’s Grocery opens a second location at GreyLine Station, a new marketplace opening in a former bus station in the NoLi area.
Photo by Emily Giancarlo
If you go:
Wilson’s Grocery and Meat
1010 Cramer Ave. • wilsonsgrocerylex.com
Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m. • Sat. 8 a.m.-7 p.m. • Sunday 10 a.m-6 p.m.
Lunch served daily from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Instagram @wilsonsgrocery • Facebook @wilsonsgroceryandmeat