Another downtown Lexington restaurant – at least the fifth – closes

Limestone Blue, a sandwich place on North Limestone that had good reviews when it opened in 2013, closed this week.

The restaurant was a winner in the celebrity judging category of the annual Taste of the Bluegrass fundraiser for God’s Pantry Food Bank in 2014, and it built a following with sandwiches and salads.

The restaurant posted a farewell note on its Instagram account, saying, “Thank you all for letting us be a part of such a wonderful community. We will never forget the memories.

“We owe a huge thanks to our LB family; our employees and our loyal customers — we couldn’t have done it without you. ... The future of the building is in great hands. Again, we can’t thank this city enough for letting us be a part of something truly special. –— LB.”

Although Limestone Blue was open for dinner, it was known primarily as a lunch place, drawing the courthouse and downtown crowd.

Owner Gerren Reach said in an email that the restaurant closed because of a decrease in business, which he attributed to “growing markets spread out across the city, such as the Distillery District and The Summit.”

Limestone Blue is the latest in a string of restaurants to close in Lexington, as others cite saturation that has made the market tough.

The restaurant closings haven’t been restricted to one part of town: Four of the recently shuttered restaurants have been downtown, four near the University of Kentucky and four in or near Fayette Mall, and others have been sprinkled throughout the city.

According to the Fayette County property valuation adminstrator’s database, the building at 131 and 133 North Limestone is owned by PASA Holdings, which is owned by Peter and Angela Armato, who owned Giacomo’s New York Deli, the sandwich shop that preceded Limestone Blue in that space.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Another downtown Lexington restaurant – at least the fifth – closes."