New burger restaurant coming to downtown Lexington, but don’t ask for lettuce, tomato
If you’ve been missing Oscar Diggs’ burgers and beer, take heart: A new burger is coming to downtown Lexington.
Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint is moving into the spot at 155 North Limestone where the locally owned downtown restaurant closed in July after five years.
Block + Lot’s Greg Leveridge and Lauren Cambron brokered the lease for the new-to-Kentucky chain. The restaurant is expected to open this fall.
A representative of Jack Brown’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jack Brown’s is owned by childhood friends Aaron Ludwig and Mike Sabin who opened their first restaurant together in Harrisonburg, Va. Now they have more than a dozen and a cult following for their inventive food and fun atmosphere.
Known as “a bar that happens to sell a really fantastic burger,” Jack Brown’s focuses on burgers and craft beer, with an extensive range of local, domestic and foreign beers.
Why doesn’t Jack Brown’s Burger Joint have lettuce and tomato?
But don’t ask for lettuce and tomato because apparently they don’t do that. Says so right there on the menu.
When the restaurant first opened, they decided not to put inconsistent commercially available tomatoes on their good beef burgers.
“That was kinda how it started, then it just started to become like our thing,” founders Ludwig and Sabin said in a Youtube video. “It’s kind of like the counter-culture a little bit. Of just doing something different. Then it just became like, well yeah now we can never do it.”
What is on Jack Brown’s menu?
What they do serve are burgers made with 100 percent American Wagyu beef, either plain or with cheese. Don’t worry, those aren’t your only options. They have several specialty burgers on the menu and daily specials, such as the Dr. Gonzo topped with sauteed mushrooms, caramelized Guinness onions, applewood smoked bacon and Swiss cheese.
There’s also one non-burger: The Frankie Brady, which is Jack Brown’s version of a grilled cheese, with housemade mac ‘n’ cheese and barbecue potato chips on a potato roll.
But it isn’t an extensive menu: The only sides are french fries, sweet potato fries and fried Oreos.
There are Jack Brown’s locations in Birmingham and Huntsville, Ala.; Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke, Va.; Cincinnati; Chattanooga, Murfreesboro and Nashville; Columbia, S.C.; and Kill Devil Hills and Greenville, N.C. The website indicates that a location is coming to Lexington and to Kansas.
Locations are typically open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 11:31 AM.
