This UK restaurant might be Lexington’s best bargain. Here’s how you can eat there

Allison Perry compares getting a reservation to The Lemon Tree to getting tickets a few years back to see Prince in concert. When reservations open up, “you don’t even have time to consult,” she said. “I just pick, this one, this one, this one, and I know someone will come with me.” It’s what she’s learned to do over many years when she was, first, unsuccessfully trying to get a seat at the University of Kentucky student-run meals, and now since she’s cracked the code.

Several years ago she worked with Bob Perry on a neurogastronomy seminar at UK , where they both work, and since then he’s let her know when reservations are opening up for the coming semester. Bob Perry (no relation) teaches the food side of the class that produces three tasty and beautiful courses served at white-tablecloth-clad tables by solicitous staff for only $14, tips not allowed.

Allison Perry, who works for UK as a public relations director for health care and the medical campus, works near The Lemon Tree and so, now that she knows how to get reservations, dines there three or four times a semester. One semester she ate there almost every week but felt “kind of guilty,” about getting more than her fair share of the high-demand reservations.

What is the Lemon Tree restaurant?

The scarcity arises from the nature of The Lemon Tree, where students from both food sciences/dietetics and hospitality combine their skills to create excellent meals served in a lovely dining atmosphere.

Each semester a group of students from the two disciplines combines in a class co-taught by Bob Perry and Aaron Schwartz that runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. In the first hour or two students listen to lectures but then they put their knowledge to work.

“The number of meals is determined by the number of students in the class, as each student does each job once a semester,” Perry said, from washing dishes to making bread, to serving diners to managing the reservation book. The idea is that they learn to work together as a team and, to do that, each discipline must understand both parts of the equation: producing high quality food in quantity in the kitchen and serving it in a pleasant and welcoming environment in the dining room.

It is what’s known as a capstone class for the students and gives them hands-on, real world experience working under seasoned professionals to serve members of the public and run a restaurant.

How to get a reservation at UK’s Lemon Tree restaurant

But the trouble is that there are only a few Tuesdays and Thursdays each semester when diners — often largely people from within the UK community, like Allison Perry — can get a seat at the table. Each semester reservations fill up almost as soon as the schedule goes up online, which is usually about a week before classes start. So people eager to try out The Lemon Tree keep a close eye on its Facebook page and are prepared to act quickly when the semester’s servings are announced. Bob Perry says all the spots fill up in about two days.

On a recent Tuesday an almost-full house (there were a few no-shows) of diners started with a green salad with goat cheese, croutons and honey mustard vinaigrette adorned with cooked beets cut in the shape of hearts (it was Valentine’s week), shaved carrots and watermelon radishes.

Perry designs the menus and teaches the students how to prepare the food while Schwartz, who took the class as a student, teaches the hospitality aspects, including how to manage reservations and create “an experience” for diners, including unique centerpieces on each table and specialized napkin folds.

And then there’s the food itself. “I can’t think of a single thing I’ve eaten there that I haven’t liked,” Allison Perry said. Often Bob Perry comes out during the service to talk about new and local ingredients he’s trying out, like the Kentucky sourced rye flour he’s been grinding in the kitchen.

Dishes this semester included Old Bay Baked Cod with pepper jelly, eggplant Parmesan paired with Focaccia bread, roasted root vegetables with romesco sauce and more. Each semester the class ends with a signature burger.

The menu that Tuesday continued with a lemon-dill baked salmon served on a bed of vegetable couscous with cloverleaf rolls and a double chocolate brownie sundae (choice of ice or whipped cream or both on top) for dessert.

Schwartz said seats have become even more precious since the pandemic. Pre-covid there were as many as 45 diners per lunch. Early in the pandemic, the Lemon Tree was shut down, like so many other dining options, then reopened with only 30 diners to allow for more distance between seats, and is now up to 36. There is “a great demand” for The Lemon Tree’s food and service, Shwartz said, but finding a larger space that is still close enough to the kitchen is a challenge. Currently there’s no takeout but that might be one way to expand access to The Lemon Tree’s fine food, Schwartz said.

For now, though, hopeful diners need to keep watch early each semester and be ready to move fast when reservations open. Allison Perry knows: “we pounce on them immediately.”

This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 6:00 AM.