Another Lexington dining spot and two ice cream stores have bitten the dust.
Romano’s Macaroni Grill at 116 Marketplace Drive, near Nicholasville Road and Man o’ War Boulevard, closed Monday.
“It just wasn’t meeting company expectations,” general manager Dan Stevens said.
Macaroni Grills are still open in Florence, Cincinnati and Louisville. Visit www.macaronigrill.com for details.
Also, the Cold Stone Creamery stores at 842 East High Street and The Mall at Lexington Green have closed. But Cold Stone stores at 2337 Sir Barton Way in Hamburg and 350 Langley Drive, Nicholasville, remain open. Call (859) 243-0694 for Hamburg, (859) 971-0941 for Nicholasville. Visit www.coldstonecreamery.com for more locations.
Ted’s Montana Grill decides to do Thanksgiving
For the first time in its five-year history, Ted’s Montana Grill will be open on Thanksgiving Day. The restaurant in Hamburg Pavilion will serve a traditional meal from noon to 8 p.m. Included are creamy sweet tomato soup, roast turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, country-style green beans, squash casserole, homemade rolls and nutty apple crisp. The cost is $30. Call (859) 263-5228 for reservations. Visit www.tedsmontanagrill.com.
Fresh Market offers holiday sampler
The Fresh Market, 3387 Tates Creek Road, is helping cooks get a head start on their holiday meals. The market will have a Taste of the Holidays event from noon to 6 p.m. today and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Sampling stations include turkey, petite spiral ham, Yukon gold whipped potatoes, traditional herb stuffing, corn and carrot soufflé, green beans amandine, yeast rolls and desserts. Call (859) 266-0150 or visit www.thefreshmarket.com.
Lexington Farmers Market isn’t done yet
The growing season is almost over, but the Lexington Farmers Market will continue to be open on Vine Street each Saturday through the end of November. After that, a group of farmers will move indoors to Victorian Square through December.
Saturday’s market will have collard, kale and mustard greens; lettuce; peppers; potatoes; mums; homemade soaps; honey; beef; chicken; turkey; country ham; bison, and farm fresh eggs. Herb n’ Renewal is making hot soup for customers.
Applecreek Bar-B-Q has a new manager
Joseph Mata is the new manager at Applecreek Bar-B-Q, 185 Pasadena Drive. The restaurant serves pulled pork, pulled chicken, beef brisket and corned beef sandwiches. Call (859) 277-1188.
Alltech’s Bourbon Barrel Ale wins a medal
Alltech’s Lexington Brewing Co. won a silver medal at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival competition in the “barrel-aged” category. Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale is made by filling freshly decanted bourbon barrels with Kentucky Ale, and letting them rest for six weeks to draw the bourbon flavoring and coloring into the beer. The company also produces Kentucky Ale and Kentucky Light.
Stir-fry just the way you want it
Café on the Park at the Radisson Plaza Hotel at
West Vine Street and South Broadway is featuring a stir-fry bar on Tuesdays. The stir-fry is cooked to order with meats, vegetables and sauces of your choosing, and served over white or fried rice. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Call (859) 281-3773.
How many more restaurants are we going to lose in Lexington? Macaroni Grill is a staple in chain Italian restaurants. I cannot believe that Macaroni Grill is gone yet Olive Garden still lives. Thanks for the heads up Sharon; you saved us from the shock of showing up for dinner and coming to the realization that a staple is now gone.
See, until I read John’s response I was getting really excited that maybe Lexington was one of the most progressive cities in America! I figured since they didn’t go to these stupid, crappy, ‘wannabe’ chain shops (I’m really just talking about Macaroni Grill, Stone Cold’s not that bad), they were giving a … to the corporate chains, choosing instead to eat out at mom-and-pop, independantly-owned eateries instead. I was going to stand up on my couch and clap, screaming BRAVO, LEXINGTON!!!! But, instead, I’m depressed again with the knowledge that it’s b/c another nasty, wanna-be CORPORATE CHAIN is the reason for the demise of these other chains. Die, Olive Garden! You give Italians (and it’s delicious food) a HORRIBLE name. Amy @ neverfull.wordpress.com
Macaroni Grill is so much better than Olive Garden!
Thomas
Too bad… I agree with Thomas – Macaroni Grill is MUCH Better than Olive Garden – and a lot more classier.
The management rats are jumping from the ship as hundreds of Cold Stone locations are now collapsing around the US. Why? Because the “concept” of mixing stuff into ice cream has always been a fad, and the fad is now over. The product isn’t that good, is grossly overpriced, and consumers are flocking back to properly formulated ice cream from other chains like Baskin Robbins and Ben & Jerry’s.
The Cold Stones have been largely sold to Yuppies with too much equity in their homes, who jumped into the stores to be “business owners”. But since the labor costs are double the competition, and stores are too big and too expensive to run, the number of unprofitable stores is skyrocketing with the results we have here. Sad for the owners who have likely lost a couple hundred thousand dollars EACH.
Thanks to Amy for her enthusiastic response! Whenever possible we try to hit the local places and avoid the chains. I won’t list the obvious “pros” regarding hitting a local places, but one thing we intend to investigate more are the places (local and chain) that use locally produced food.
We are not radical about the local thing, and appreciate the convenience factor and the “least common denominator” factor (important with diverse dining groups) of chains. You can find anything you get at chains at a local place, and it is not any more expensive.
Hopefully people are going to Giuseppe’s just down the road from Macaroni grill, as opposed to Olive garden. Bella Notte is also just down the street – even though owned by same company as Fazoli’s (http://www.answers.com/topic/fazoli-s) is a great alternative.
That said, we did go to Macaroni grill once a year, and liked it better than Carrabba’s and Johnny Carino’s (both over in Hamburg). The other times we go to chains are when we are out of town and don’t have the time to search for a local place. We should make more of an effort to hit tripadvisor or something for local recommendations, or at least google independent restaurants for that location.
Correction about Bella Notte being a chain – according to that link in my last post:
On October 21, 2006, Sun Capital Partners Inc. purchased Fazoli’s for an estimated $100 million price tag, replacing CEO Kuni Toyoda with Bob Weissmueller, a veteran executive of McDonald’s.[1] Toyoda will maintain ownership of Bella Notte.
“I cannot believe that Macaroni Grill is gone yet Olive Garden still lives.”
I said the EXACT SAME THING when I read this article.
i loved The Macaroni Grill. I guess it just didn’t get the traffic that Olive Garden does. Speaking of being surprised when trying to go somewhere for dinner……i was taking my (ex) wife and kids to Chi-Chi’s one late afternoon and instead of getting out of the car we sat and watched as the Rescue Squad carted someone off on a stretcher and then someone put a sign on the door saying it was closed for business. I miss Chi-Chi’s.