Popular Versailles restaurant closes; lawsuit filed over Lexington location

Less than two months after the Napa Prime in Lexington closed, the original restaurant in Versailles is gone, too.

The Versailles Napa Prime closed abruptly at the end of July. The location at 508 Lexington Road opened in Woodford County more than five and a half years ago and built a strong following for its burgers and other items.

However, an expansion into Lexington apparently spelled trouble for the first restaurant.

Owner Darrell Lewis could not be reached for comment. There was no mention of the closing on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

The Versailles building had a “for lease” sign up; a separate sign had a number for the restaurant’s vendors to call the landlord to retrieve leased equipment. The logo on the door was papered over.

The popular restaurant was in a remodeled Pizza Hut and had a menu that focused on specialty burgers and fresh fish as well as good comfort food. One sought-after burger was the bourbon bacon burger, which came with bacon jam.

The Lexington location, which opened in 2018 at the corner of Cedar and Broadway, closed in June after less than a year.

On June 21, the owners of the Lexington building, Jefferson Davis Enterprises, filed suit in Fayette Circuit Court against Lewis and the restaurant location’s former tenant, Ronald May of Bardstown, for payment of remainder of the five-month, $10,000-a-month lease.

May opened Alexander Bullitt’s Winery, Brewery and Bistro in December 2017; it closed in June 2018. According to the lawsuit, May agreed to guarantee Napa Prime’s lease for the first year.

May has filed a cross-claim against Lewis and Napa Prime. Lewis has asked that the suit be dismissed.

The Broadway building was the home of the revamped JDI Grille & Tavern, but it closed at the end of 2016 after the family partnership that owned it dissolved after years of litigation.

This story was originally published August 12, 2019 at 1:39 PM with the headline "Popular Versailles restaurant closes; lawsuit filed over Lexington location."