Legendary UK restaurant known for burgers, all-day breakfast planning to move locations
Is a Wildcat dining institution about to move ... again? It seems that way.
Tolly-Ho, which has served burgers, shakes and breakfast any time to generations of University of Kentucky students, is slated to move down Broadway later this year, according to UK officials and public records obtained by the Herald-Leader.
An application for a commercial remodeling permit was filed with the city on March 11 for 350 Foreman Ave., which is the former location of Bad Wolf Burgers. Last July, Bad Wolf Burgers moved back to the Meadowthorpe area and is now at 1402 N. Forbes Rd.
According to Dan Graves of Graves + Graves construction contractors, remodeling on the building just off South Broadway is expected to begin next week. The Tolly-Ho move is expected to happen later this year.
Tolly-Ho owner Roy Milling could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
The building is owned by American Campus Communities, which owns the Newtown Crossing apartments that surround it.
Why is Tolly-Ho moving?
The move comes after a February vote by the University of Kentucky board of trustees to authorize purchase of the current Tolly-Ho building at 606 S. Broadway for $2.3 million. The former location of Hart’s Dry Cleaning, the building was purchased by Milling in 2010 and the restaurant moved from its location on South Limestone in spring 2011.
The building at 606 S. Broadway is surrounded by properties already owned by UK, in “an area planned for development of an innovation corridor that stretches from The Cornerstone building on South Limestone to the Gray Design Building at Broadway and Scott Street. This multiyear project will further connect the university to downtown Lexington and serve as a catalyst for innovation, design, entrepreneurship and job creation in the decades to come.”
UK spokesman Jay Blanton said, in an email, “We have signed a purchase and sale agreement for the property. We are now in the process of conducting due diligence, so I don’t have a timetable on a next phase. Our hope, long term, is for this property to be part of the growing innovation district off of Broadway that includes the Gray College of Design, Cornerstone and the presence we have there with our College of Fine Arts.”
What will change, what won’t for Tolly-Ho diners
What will it mean for the restaurant?
The new Tolly-Ho location will have some things that the current one doesn’t have, including a drive-thru, Graves said.
But many of the Tolly-Ho traditions, including the menu of Ho burgers, sandwiches, desserts, milkshakes and breakfast served 24 hours a day, will be moving with them, he said.
“It’ll have some of the old Tolly-Ho vibe,” Graves said. “The layout will be different from current one, but it still be the staple of UK’s campus ... with the greatest late-night burger in all of Lexington.”
The restaurant, founded in 1971 by Bob Tolley and Bob Hollopeter (the Tolley and the Ho in the name), opened originally at 108 W. Euclid (it’s now called Winslow Street) before moving to South Limestone in the early 1980s.
The original spot closed on March 11, 1985, as a 24-hour greasy spoon before moving to 395 S. Limestone, where it served burgers, shakes, breakfast and more until May 2011.
Tolly-Ho has always been known as a crossroads of Lexington, where police officers and partiers, professors and students, doctors and celebrities might cross paths.
When “Top Chef” came to Lexington to film part of its Kentucky season, celebrity judge Graham Elliot ate at one spot: Tolly-Ho, where he had the Hot Mess breakfast sandwich, with a banana pudding shake at 9 in the morning.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 2:13 PM.
