Lexington Ky Restaurants
Barbeque
Your
Guide to Fine Dining
in Lexington and Kentucky
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Lexington Ky Restaurants Barbeque Your
Guide to Fine Dining |
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Billy's |
Corky's |
Old Happy
Days Smokehouse |
Apple Creek |
| Barbeque is a Kentucky specialty. Lexington has four restaurants who specialize in it, several more who offer it as an item on their regular menu, and in good weather you may pass gas stations with portable rigs set up selling it to drivers. There are regional differences in the way Kentuckians fix their barbeque, and beyond the state there are several more versions across the South, with the most famous being Carolina style and Memphis style. But most Kentuckians prefer Western Kentucky style, from the other side of Kentucky Lake (NOT Owensboro, which produces good barbecue, but not the same kind as further West). For true Western Kentucky Barbeque, you have to go to Billy's. The current Billy's father was the first person to sell Western Kentucky Barbeque east of Elizabethtown. He first bought a site out on New Circle Road, then moved to the Sunoco station on Tates Creek Road just to have an in town location from which to sell Barbeque. The gas station was abandoned long ago and a full scale restaurant built there in 1980. The family has been in the barbeque business ever since. The secrets to Kentucky Barbeque are the sauce, the temperature, and the firewood. Everybody creates their own sauce and guards the formula. The temperature needs to hover between 215 and 225 for 5-8 hours. And everybody has their own idea of what wood makes the best coals and what kind of oven best concentrates that heat. |  |
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Billy's is the Chevy Chase Barbeque restaurant. It is most certainly a Git Down Good Ole Boy place, but is the oldest and best BBQ outlet in town. The appetizers include Marty McMahon Dillckles, actually Deep Fried Dill Pickles in horseradish sauce, and Catfish Strips in lemon. You HAVE TO order at least a cup, if not a bowl, of the Kentucky Burgoo, which since Brookings closed is the best in town except for what they serve at Keeneland when the track's in session. The authentic Burt Douglass Mexican Corn Bread includes cheddar cheese, green peppers, pimentos, corn and jalapenos. Quite a few locals drop by and make a lunch out of the Fried Dills, Corn Bread, Burgoo, and a bottle of Blue Moon Ale. Then there's the barbeque. We're especially fond of the Mutton, but there's Pork, Beef, or Pulled Chicken. If you prefer ribs, they serve St. Louis style wet or dry ribs by the slab or half slab. For atheists, there's the Pork Tenderloin deep fried and smothered in gravy, or the Catfish Platter. Billy's offers nine sides, but the only two you need are Blackeyed Peas and Cheese Grits With Garlic. For beverages, there's Ale 8 and local Ho-Made Lemonade. It just don't get no better than this. 101 Cochran Road, on the corner of Tates Creek one block South of the Euclid - Tates Creek light. 269-2953. |
Corky's Barbeque is a local version of the famous Memphis Roadhouse run for 40 years by the original Corky. Barbecue Memphis Style involves mixing hickory chips with other charcoal flavors, keeping the temperatures low but extending the cooking for 22 hours for pork shoulders and seven hours for ribs, and hand pulling the meat from the bone, as opposed to the automated separation used by many restaurants. Among the side dishes, don't miss the potato salad. Many locals consider it the best in town. As does every restaurant, Corky's bastes its meats with "its own special blend of tangy sauces." There's been an epic war going on for quite a while in Lexington between Billy's and Corky's and each has its loyal crowd. Both use hickory smoke. It may come down to whether you prefer the Western Kentucky version or the Memphis version, which are quite similar until they apply the sauces. The Western Kentucky style is more mellow, a deep rich flavor, while Memphis style has more tang, more bite. Sir Barton Way. 272-7675. From downtown, follow Vine Street east, cross Main Street and keep going as it turns into Winchester Road. Climb the mile long hill, cross over New Circle Road, and drive another half mile. Then turn right onto Sir Barton Way. A mile and three tenths brings you to Bonefish Grille on your right. Turn left there and immediate right into the plaza. Corky's is on the far end. |
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Tony Roma's is the big corporate entry in the Barbeque Stakes. It has the largest facility in town, the longest menu, and the finest ambience. Launched in Florida in 1972, the chain has 200 restaurants. It has its own style and, as usual, its own sauces. But Tony Roma's claim to fame is the Baby Back Rib. Tony chose the tiny ribs at the bottom (back) of the rib cage. The restaurants offer either full or half racks of these. They're always tender and delicious. Now, four decades later, most other restaurants also offer them, but no one does them as well as Tony. The Roma technique is flame grilling. They don't bother with the many hour routine of Billy's or Corky's, but they've experimented with the flaming process until they can produce a great taste. The menu offers other items, especially seafood and steak. Don't bother. You go to Tony Roma's for baby back ribs. However, while you're there, there's a dessert you have to order: the Skillet Sundae. They take a huge chocolate chip cookie, place it in an iron skillet, bake it, and pile it high with ice cream and chocolate sauce. This concoction should be outlawed, but before it is, you need to sample it. Lexington Green, next to Joseph Beth. From downtown, drive out Nicholasville Road and as you cross New Circle Road, get in the right lane. Turn right on the first entry, and look for the huge cupola halfway down. As you park and walk toward the cupola, Tony Roma's is on your right. |
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