Lynagh’s, a fixture for UK students, sold to college professor

Lynagh’s, a fixture on the campus bar and food scene, has sold.

Amy Messer, who had been an adjunct professor in the sociology department at the University of Kentucky, bought it and plans to gradually bring back old favorites — like the TnA (turkey and avocado) sandwich and restore the O’Round burger.

A first-time restaurant owner, Messer said Monday that she closed on Lynagh’s on Friday. “I had been teaching at UK, as an adjunct teacher, decided that I needed something more steady,” she said. So, she went to the bar business.

The bar on Woodland and Euclid had been for sale for a while; then-owner Robert Swan said last fall that he wanted to focus on his other business, Great Bagel, which is also in the Woodland Plaza shopping center.

Messer said she doesn’t plan a lot of immediate changes while she becomes familiar with the way Lynagh’s runs. But she does plan to bring back live music. For decades, bands performed on a small stage in the main front window, she said, and she hopes they will again soon.

The hours will mostly stay the same: open 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m., Monday through Saturday, and open 10 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sundays for brunch. In the fall, Messer plans to open up as early at 7 a.m. so soccer fans can come in to watch the games in England.

And she is talking with customers about what they miss and what they are looking for in Lynagh’s.

“I’m looking for good food, good beer, good music. Those are things we’re going to get back to,” she said.

As for the O’Round, which was changed as Swan revamped the menu a few years ago, Messer said she hopes to get it back to what people remember. The problem is figuring out exactly what that was.

“I’m talking to people, to figure out how to get it back to what people believe is the original O’Round,” she said.

This story was originally published June 12, 2017 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Lynagh’s, a fixture for UK students, sold to college professor."