Did Y'all Hear Joe Bologna's is for Sale?

“Did y’all hear that Joe Bologna’s is for sale?”

Over the past day or so, I’ve gotten several variants of that message over a variety of media — text messages, DMs, Facebook tags and just about any other medium you can imagine. This week, several news outlets have reported that Mr. Joe Bologna intends to retire by summer’s end, with the hope that a buyer will take over his iconic Italian restaurant. He’s reportedly already received a few serious offers.

Now, I make no secret about the fact that I’m a big Joe B’s fan. I stop by for dinner any time I get a chance, and I frequently grab takeout when I’m in Lexington, trying my best to not eat the entire meal on the drive back to Louisville. Of course, I’m not alone. I assume these sentiments are pretty universal for most anyone who has a tie to Lexington. Nearly everyone who went to college at UK or Transylvania, or who’s ever worked near campus or downtown, or who’s had a little time to grab dinner before a Kentucky game has a memory of Joe B’s. It’s a memorable place.

First of all, there’s the building. You have to start any conversation about Joe B’s by mentioning the building at 120 West Maxwell. It was built as a Presbyterian church in 1890, was rededicated as a Jewish synagogue in 1914, and became a restaurant complex in 1989. It’s served a lot of Lexingtonians’ needs over the years.

And, of course, there’s Mr. Bologna himself. He opened his eponymous restaurant in 1973 and has been at the present location since the late 1980s. Fifty years of feeding Lexington great food at a reasonable price point — that’s an incredible legacy. At one point, there were three Joe Bologna’s locations across Lexington. The restaurant is an institution, and its namesake is a legend. It’s impossible to think of the restaurant without visualizing Mr. Joe Bologna wearing his signature suspenders and carrying a pan of breadsticks.

And then there are those breadsticks. Y’all know exactly what I mean. Huge, fluffy breadsticks the size of an adult’s forearm, served in a dish of garlic butter. The pizza is pretty great, too. I’m partial to the Sicilian pan pizza with generous slices of Italian sausage and delicate flakes of mushroom. The Stromboli sub is another favorite. In fact, I’ve never really had anything bad from Joe B’s.

For so many folks who’ve spent time in Lexington, there are also the memories. Fifty years’ worth of memories — many of which take us back to younger and more carefree days. Memories of pizza, maybe a beer, and definitely a conversation about the next basketball or football game. Good times, good company, and garlic butter in a place that hasn’t changed, even as the city and campus outside those hallowed walls have grown to previously-unimaginable proportions.

Thanks so much to Mr. Bologna for creating such an incredibly special spot, and here’s hoping the new owners don’t change a single thing.

Curling Class at Louisville Curling Club

Bob and I always enjoy watching curling on TV. We’re glued to every Winter Olympics, and seek out any other televised curling matches we can find. So, last winter, when we saw that Derby Curling Club was offering Learn to Curl Classes, we had to give it a try! I just saw that a class is going to be held on Saturday, February 10, so I wanted to share all the details with y’all!

Y’all, curling is hard. Like, really hard. And it was so much fun.

It turns out that curling takes a lot of flexibility, a lot of strategy and some fast footwork on the ice. It’s also pretty cold! The class is broken down into teams of four. The first hour is focused on fundamentals. You learn how to throw the stone and how to sweep. The second hour is reserved for matches between the teams.

I loved sweeping — it was so fascinating and fun to see how applying friction to the ice can alter the stone’s trajectory.Bob has watched the sport closely and understands the game’s strategy, so he was a great skip. It was such an entertaining (and humbling!) experience. You basically have to go from a deep runner’s lunge to a standing position. On ice. While throwing the stone. I may have fallen on the ice a time or two. I also would LOVE to try it again!

Derby City Curling Club classes are held at Alpine Ice Arena, 1825 Gardiner Ln. in Louisville. You can sign up for the next class on the Derby City Curling Club website! If you go, dress in warm layers, wear tennis shoes, and stay hydrated!

Sean Kenney's Nature Connects® LEGO Exhibition at Louisville Zoo

My eight year-old niece is obsessed with LEGOs, so when she came to visit us, I knew she’d love the Sean Kenney's Nature Connects® exhibition at the Louisville Zoo. Mr. Kenney is a renowned artist who creates amazingly detailed sculptures and portraits using LEGO bricks — something that I didn’t even know was possible until I saw his work!

The Nature Connects® exhibition features 16 sculptures made from more than 500,000 LEGO bricks. It was truly fascinating to keep an eye out for each sculpture and to see how well the exhibition was implemented as part of the Zoo. I didn't realize that the Victoria Water Platters were a LEGO exhibit until my niece pointed this one out to me!

The Fox, Rabbit & Baby Rabbit was my very favorite! It was such a realistic take on the wildlife I see here in Louisville when I’m walking my dogs in the morning. Can’t you just see the predatory stance on the fox? The detail is absolutely amazing!

My niece loved the signs beside each installation that gave a backstory into the ecological significance of the subjects, as well as the time and number of bricks it took to complete each piece. It was a great experience for a LEGO enthusiast who also happens to love animals!

Nature Connects® at the Louisville Zoo is free with Zoo admission. The Exhibition lasts through September 17th.

Bid Day, RushTok, and Why I Volunteer With My Sorority

It feels like sorority recruitment has been everywhere I look lately.

Part of that is because I’m at a “particular” point in life where a lot of my friends are now sending their daughters to college, and rush is frequently a component of the conversation. Part of it is because I’ve recently gotten involved with volunteering with my own collegiate sorority chapter. And, of course, part of it is because of the ubiquitous phenomenon of RushTok.

This time of year, those TikTok videos of recruitment chants and potential new member outfits of the day are as fascinating to Southern women as SEC football podcasts are to our male counterparts. It’s part nostalgia for our own collegiate days, part instruction manual for our own daughters who may soon be participating and part an outshoot of our national obsession with reality TV. It’s no wonder that many friends have asked me recently “are you watching RushTok this year?”

Balloon installation at Phi Mu National Convention, 2022

Now, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I had a really great sorority experience and that I am a huge proponent of sororities and women’s clubs. I absolutely loved recruitment and I was frequently put in the role of “floater,” which meant that I talked to a lot of potential new members and often was requested to “save” failing conversations. I was given this role for the same reason that I’ve been entrusted with the guest book at a lot of weddings — apparently, I’ve been told, I can make conversation with anyone. “Watson can strike up a conversation with a telephone pole” was the analogy I often heard during my own sorority days. This is, I hear, a compliment.  Because I loved recruitment during my own college years and because I’ve volunteered as an alumna to assist during collegiate rush, of course I’m interested in seeing how it’s being portrayed on social media. While the back flips, dance moves, glitzy outfits, drama and general mania of RushTok makes for insanely entertaining scrolling, it’s pretty far from both my experience as a sorority woman at a tiny liberal arts college in the 1990s and from what I see in the daily reality of twenty-first century sorority life.

My own bid day, nearly 30 years ago. Decidedly NOT TikTok material.

Over the years, I’ve volunteered with my sorority’s collegiate chapters as frequently as my personal and professional life would allow. I love the experience of helping college-age women develop their leadership skills and better understand intra-organizational communication and group membership. On the rare occasion when I am asked “why are you still messing with sorority stuff in your forties?” I point to the ways that, through the shared values of a sorority bond, I have watched collegiate women develop their voices as leaders and soon-to-be professionals.

Phi Mu Convention, 2022

Earlier this summer, I attended Phi Mu National Convention in the role of alumna advisor to my collegiate chapter. We attended leadership trainings, listened to keynote speakers and learned from one another. It was a fascinating glimpse at how college women across the country view their leadership roles. It was also a wonderful lesson in the way that so many collegiate sorority members are standing up for a more equitable recruitment and more diverse chapters. They are taking an active role in shaping an organization that fits the needs of modern college-aged women. I was absolutely awestruck by the level of poise and professionalism with which so many of these women articulated their vision for the immediate future of the organization — it was a far cry from the vision of sorority life that has been propagated ad nauseum by a certain segment of the media in response to RushTok. I also had the opportunity to see several women whom I’d advised over the years and who’ve now gone on to volunteer as well. It was a fantastic moment — I guess it’s what they call “coming full-circle” — that made me feel that the mentorship and advice I’d provided to collegiate members over the years had been important and useful. I also talked to women who’d been members of our sisterhood for over 50 years and still serve as active volunteers. It was a powerful reminder of the lasting impact of shared philanthropic, social, and moral goals.

With my friend and sorority sister, Heather, at National Convention.

Today, twenty-nine years after my own Bid Day, I’ve gotten the news that my college roommate’s daughter pledged our sorority earlier this week and that another sorority sister’s daughter pledged our chapter this morning. It was a lovely feeling to know that these young women are embracing the same values and purpose that we did during our college careers. It’s not the stuff of juicy RushTok documentaries, but it’s a really special feeling.

Kendra Scott and ARH Foundation Give Back to Eastern Kentucky

Hey y’all.

As I’m sure you all know, my hometown and many of the nearby towns and hollers were impacted by severe flooding earlier this month. I legitimately don’t know how to describe the feeling of seeing my hometown — the place where my family and friends live and work and go to church, where my grandfather taught school, and where my parents met — on The Weather Channel as being only a few miles from the epicenter of flooding activity. I’m so thankful that my family is safe and sound, but a lot of our friends back home were impacted pretty extensively. Homes and lives were lost, schools were destroyed, and people have been trapped in remote areas when their roads quite simply washed away.

It’s been devastating to see such extensive loss, but it’s also been amazing to see how communities have come together. In my home county, volunteers are providing meals and necessities to those who are in need. I’ve heard so many amazing stories of how friends and neighbors are helping one another recover and thrive. It’s going to take time, hard work, and a lot of assistance to get our tiny Appalachian towns back up and running.

My friends at Kendra Scott recently reached out to me about a very easy way to help benefit Appalachian communities, including my own home county. Through Saturday, August 27th, you can shop Kendra Scott jewelry online or in the Lexington or Louisville Kendra Scott stores and 20% of your purchase price will be donated to the ARH Foundation fund, which benefits Appalachian flood relief. Just mention ARH at checkout if you’re in one of the Kentucky stores, or use code GIVEBACK-CKNGN in the coupon box if you’re shopping online.

Any Kendra Scott purchase can count toward this fundraiser, but I particularly adore the Official ARH Collection, which is comprised of three beautiful pieces of Platinum Drusy set in silver tone. This stone is believed to be associated with peace, tranquillity, patience, intuition, and unconditional love. I’m wearing the necklace and earrings from this collection in the photos accompanying this blog post; the collection includes a bracelet as well. These pieces can be worn with nearly everything in my closet, and I love feeling a little closer to my community when I wear it!

Thanks so much to my friends at Kendra Scott for this wonderful opportunity to help Appalachian communities in need!

Celebrate National Ice Cream Month with Graeter's!

Hey y’all! Look for me today on WAVE3, where I’ll be sharing the latest seasonal flavors from Graeter’s Ice Cream, as well as some fun facts about National Ice Cream Month!

Did you know?

Graeter’s has been using quality ingredients to produce authentic, hand-crafted French Pot ice cream for 152 years, making it the perfectly decadent sweet treat for summer. Graeter’s is the only ice cream company to use 2 ½ - gallon French Pots, a small batch, true craft, artisanal method of production dating back over a century. This is the same process Louis Graeter used when he first started selling ice cream in the streets of Cincinnati. By adhering to the French Pot Process, Graeter’s continues to have the smallest batch size in the industry. In fact, Graeter’s Ice Cream is too thick to pump into pint containers like most ice cream makers, so they hand pack it the old-fashioned way! On a typical day, Graeter’s packs nearly 20,000 pints!

National Ice Cream Day and Month Trivia

• National Ice Cream Month is celebrated every July, and National Ice Cream Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of July. This year, it’s July 17th.

• In America, vanilla is ranked the most popular flavor. Graeter’s most popular flavor is Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, closely followed by Madagascar Vanilla Bean.

• Thomas Jefferson is credited as the first American to write down an ice cream recipe.. It was vanilla!

• In American homes, 90 percent of freezers will typically have ice cream.

• The largest scoop of ice cream weighed more than 3,000 lbs, and measured 5’ 6”, in Cedarburg, Wisconsin!

Celebrate National Ice Cream Month with Graeter’s!

This month, Graeter’s Rewards Members can enjoy a $1.52 cone to celebrate Graeter’s 152nd Birthday! Download the Graeter’s Rewards Loyalty app for sweet treats all month long!

Each summer, every three weeks, Graeter’s releases a new Bonus Flavor in scoop shops and online.: The flavor is considered a “Limited Time Only” flavor, and once the flavor is gone from scoop shops and online, the flavor is retired for the year. The third Bonus Flavor, which launched June 27th is Churro, a delectable combination of cinnamon ice cream with crunchy churro pieces.  

Happy Ice Cream Month, y’all!

Heaven Hill Springs Distillery Groundbreaking

Earlier today, Heaven Hill Distillery President Max Shapira led a groundbreaking ceremony to commemorate the start of construction on the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery in Bardstown. The event, which included remarks by Kentucky governor Andy Beshear and Heaven Hill Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll, paid tribute to Heaven Hill’s rich history while looking toward an innovative and ecologically-sound future. The new distillery is slated to open in 2024.

Governor Beshear jokingly said of the $135 million facility, “I’m pretty certain it is the Hogwarts of Bourbon.” Heaven Hill Springs Distillery has been engineered to minimize water use to below industry benchmarks and reuse certain water streams. The site will use native plants and natural systems to manage stormwater runoff and improve habitat on the property. The distillery will include a wastewater pretreatment system to ensure discharged water exceeds environmental standards and greatly reduces the load on the city’s treatment plant. Heaven Hill also will plan to utilize energy creation and recovery, lessening the distillery’s demand on the city’s electrical grid.

The distillery’s name is a nod to the Shapira family-owned company’s original facility, Old Heaven Hill Springs Distillery. This facility was founded in Bardstown by the five Shapira brothers (one of whom, Ed, was the father of Max Shapira) in 1935; the first barrel was filled on Friday, December 13th of that year.

Modern bourbon lovers will, of course, recall that Old Heaven Hill Springs distillery was destroyed by fire in 1996. After the fire, Heaven Hill moved distilling to the historic Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, while retaining bottling and aging processes in Bardstown. The new distillery will add at minimum 38 jobs to the 381 people already working in Heaven Hill’s bottling, aging and tourism roles in Bardstown alone. Max Shapira noted that the addition of a second Heaven Hill distillery indicates a belief in the long-term economic growth potential for bourbon. “I don’t have to state it, but we are bullish on bourbon,” Shapira proclaimed to a crowd that included state and local politicians, tourism industry workers and media. “Not just in the short- or medium- term, but we are bullish for the long-term market.” Shapira went on to recognize event attendees who were Heaven Hill employees at the time of the 1996 fire.

Cheers to Heaven Hill for recognizing their rich history while planning for a dynamic future!