Forget PB&J: This lunchroom elevates the menu with Cuban specialties, local burgers

Jesus Gonzalez is loving life as head chef at Athens Lunchroom.

During three years of running his popular IP&J Cuban Food pop-up business his cell phone was never on vibrate as he worked long days with little sleep, often with his now 14-year-old son by his side.

Now, at Athens Lunchroom, he still cooks the Cuban favorites that brought him a devoted following along with many more traditional Southern items but “my job is my job and not my life.”

And his son is happy “he can kind of take a break” from the food business.

Just opened in September by Frank and Annette Bickel, the Athens Lunchroom occupies the space that was the cafeteria in the old Athens Schoolhouse on Athens Walnut Hill Road. It’s open weekdays for lunch and the second weekend of every month when the Athens Schoolhouse Antiques Show and Sale takes over the whole building.

Although both Gonzalez, who is half Cuban, and Frank Bickel each have long experience in the restaurant business in the Central Kentucky, they had never worked together before this venture. But timing was everything when they got together last summer.

Gonzalez had decided after selling out quickly both days at the Crave Food Festival last summer that he needed to make a change and decided to invest in a food truck to take his pop-up business to the next level.

Meanwhile, Bickel was looking around for someone to head up the kitchen at his new venture and noticed IP&J and Gonzalez as he monitored the Lexington food social media scene. Gonzalez stood out and he reached out to him. They sampled some food, got to know each other and decided it was a partnership that could work.

“I liked the vibe I got from them,” Gonzalez said. He ditched his food truck plans and was happy to let someone else worry about the financing so he could concentrate on cooking. (“Having my own business for three years was awesome but financing it was the hardest part,” Gonzalez said. He started IP&J with a $1,000 loan from his father, known as Papi, the “P” in the name.)

Bickel and Gonzalez decided to concentrate on luring some of the hundreds of workers at the nearby Blue Sky Industrial Park to their lunchroom. “We’re just trying to really give them a nice hot alternative to the normal drive-thru stuff,” Bickel said.

That’s why speed – something Gonzalez learned well in his pop-up years – is a key part of their appeal. Whether it’s one of his Cubanos, “Frank’s lasagna,” the burgers made with beef from nearby Evans Mill Cattle Company or one of the vegan options, they promise most of the food will come out hot and tasty in less than 10 minutes.

“So far, it’s worked,” Bickel said. They’re seeing some people from the industrial park coming back regularly and “new faces every day.” Gonzalez said nearby farm owners and workers have been supportive as well. “There’s a couple families that come in almost every day.”

There’s also support from the many people who, at one time or another, went to school there. The school, built in 1927, was ultimately replaced by the new Athens-Chilesburg School, which opened in 2006. Bickel said he’s been surprised and gratified by the number of former students who’ve stopped in for lunch. One woman, he said, took advantage of their liquor license to toast her school days. “I had to order a glass of wine,” she told him, “because this is the school I used to go to.”

For his part, Gonzalez is “surprised how much I’ve enjoyed it.” He likes the work, he likes the people and he loves the hours. And he likes being able to put his phone on vibrate.

Athens Lunchroom

Where: 6270 Athens Walnut Hill Rd., Lexington, Ky.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the second weekend of every month

Call: 859-263-8533

Online: athens-lunchroom.square.site

This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 6:00 AM.