Two more downtown Lexington restaurant spots are on the market
Two buildings on opposite corners of North Limestone that have housed popular Lexington restaurants are for sale.
The spot at 265 North Limestone, where most recently Grillfish was and Atomic Cafe for years before that, also is available to lease, according to the listing with Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty.
On the opposite corner, the owner will also be selling the former gas station that has Doodles restaurant inside.
The move comes after The Village Idiot and Parlay Social were listed for sale last month on West Short Street. Both of those restaurants and buildings are for sale as going concerns.
The former Grillfish property, listed at $2.75 million, also includes the Third Street Stuff coffee shop and retail space, as well as offices, other retail and apartments as well as a parking lot.
The tenants on both sides of North Limestone are expected to stay in place, according to Tim Mellin, who owns both properties.
Atomic Cafe, an iconic Northside restaurant in the city, closed in September 2015 after 23 years in business.
Then restaurateurs Wayne Masterman and Robbie Carter opened Grillfish, a high-end steak and seafood place that closed in July after three years.
Mellin and his wife, Lynda, renovated the buildings, beginning in the 1980s with the Atomic Cafe, which they purchased from Marika Levas. It opened first as Acajou, a French restaurant. The opening helped expand the now-thriving dining area along along North Limestone.
“It was absolutely the finest restaurant in town,” Tim Mellin said. “But the neighborhood was still very rough.”
The Doodles spot was a liquor store and what is now Transylvania University’s ballfield was a former Southern Belle dairy operation, he said. So the French place didn’t last too long.
“Lynda, Dale Holland and I decided to open a Caribbean restaurant, and we opened Atomic Cafe,” Mellin said. He said that they had tremendous support from the community.
In 1993, he was able to purchase the buildings next door at auction. “So I got a big loan and spent three years renovating the rest of the block,” Mellin said. They recruited Pat Gerhard, who owns Third Street Stuff, to move her coffeehouse and store there.
In 1996, Lawrence “Doodles” Welch sold his liquor store to Kentucky horseman John Gaines, who had plans to build some offices there, Mellin said. But it never panned out, so the Mellins bought it and eventually renovated it.
“My wife opened Doodles, and she and Sue Harkins ran it for a while,” Mellin said.
Mellin also is selling that property but it has not been listed yet.
Now owned by Melissa Jackson, the breakfast and lunch place also has a lease so Mellin expects to sell that property with the tenant in place, too.
“I’m going to do everything I can to accommodate my tenants, who are my buddies,” he said.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Two more downtown Lexington restaurant spots are on the market."
