Cheap Eats Along Limestone in Lexington, KY
by Lisa Samson author of Hollywood Nobody
Now, I admit, north Lexington isn't what anybody would call a posh section of town. You'll find small grocery stores more interested in selling lottery tickets and Doritos than fresh vegetables. In fact, for his rural sociology class at University of Kentucky, Will and some classmates conducted a food access study of the area. Not one fresh vegetable could be found in these stores. Not a single apple. Not an orange. The closest you could get was a bag of potatoes. And those were rare. You can get checks cashed as well.
Al's Bar and Grlll sits at the corner of Fifth and Limestone amid forlorn surroundings: a pool hall, a hot wings joint and a barber shop so old and decrepit it's a wonder anybody risks life and limb for a haircut. Al's is pretty forlorn itself, to be honest. The first time I entered Al's I did so because I heard it was for sale. Immediately, I began to dream. Homemade soups each day, my friend Claudia and I talking with the neighbors as we served up steaming cups of coffee and homemade food. The price was right at $199,000.00 certainly, but my life was already filled.
But somebody bought Al's. A surprise to us all because it sat with that For Sale sign on it for close to a year. The owners of Stella's Deli, another downtown establishment, but down near Second Street, and that makes all the difference in the world if you know Lexington, bought Al's and not long after a sign hung across the brick facade.
Lunch Special: Burger, Fries and a Draft Beer, $5.00.
Well, well! The owners are people committed to using as much local foods as possible, especially grass fed, organic beef.
Recently, I went with two friends to sample the special. The waiter, who I suspect is one of the owners, came and took our order. Lea ordered a Diet Coke, Amy a water, and yes, I got the beer. Budweiser on tap. Oh well, it was almost a hundred degrees that day, and they served it in a mug frosted a quarter inch thick. Baby, it was the best Bud I'd ever had!
Our burger came with a choice of fries or sweet potato fries. We all ordered the sweet potato fries. Having chatted for less than ten minutes, we soon lifted those organic burgers to our mouths. They weren't huge affairs, just quarter pound, hand formed patties. But the meat was moist and tasty and still piping hot. The grilled buns added a pleasant, crispy texture along with lettuce and a slice of ripe tomato. It was nothing less than what I expected from the owners of Stella's.
But the most pleasant of surprises came with the sweet potato fries. Skins still clinging to the perfectly fried, bright orange meat, seasoned with a blend I didn't recognize from the grocery store, I bit into a little bit of heaven. All three of us agreed, these were the best sweet potato fries we'd ever eaten. If you'd like to order them a la carte, the price is right as well at $1.50 a serving. I swear I'm going to go back, get a double order and call it a meal.
As an author, I know you can't tell a book by its cover. As someone who loves local dives, I know you can't always tell what kind of food you're going to get in a restaurant that may not look so tony on the outside. Or the inside for that matter.
If you have trouble looking beyond atmosphere, Al's may not be the place for you. A set of green naughahyde booths line the left side of the joint, just across from the bar where colorful, city locals gather. A pool table haunts one of the back rooms, the bulk of the establishment rarely used during the daylight hours. On the way out, we had a lovely conversation with the woman who works in the lunchroom at the local elementary school. She said, "Have a good day, baby," to me on the way out.
That was even nicer than those fries!
Down Fifth you'll find Stella Mae's SRO, quite possibly the smallest sit-down restaurant you'll ever go to. Wait until you hear about Stella Mae's apple cobbler. But that's for another day.
On the advice of The Kiwi Doglover, we ordered the Calamari Salad (strips of tender calamari tossed in a cabbage salad with fresh mint leaves, scallions and a tangy dressing) and the Seafood Clay Pot (lots of good stuff which I can't describe because it's not listed on the takeout menu, served in a clay pot). The Woman saw another table devouring something which our server said was the Crispy Tamarind Halibut (fried halibut cubes in a tempura batter, drizzled with tangy tamarind sauce, pictured here in a photo I stole from a newspaper review), but ruling with the Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove, I directed her attention to the (non-fried) Sunflower Special Steamed Sea Bass Fillet (California sea bass steamed with ginger, scallions and topped with a black bean soy sauce), reasoning that if it's their speciality, it's bound to be good. (And who can argue with such flawless reasoning? Don't answer that.)
On a hot tip from the Kiwi doglover, we directed our rush hour date toward a Vietnamese place off 183, only to discover it is closed on Tuesday. Bummer, since we don't get up into north Austin much at other times. We consoled ourselves with a visit to the 
I did get some fried taro sticks for a snack and we picked up some cool tea cups, the kind with a lid and an infuser. [Ours are a very cool blue, but I could only find red on the Internet, so use your imagination.]
The Woman has few weak spots. When we moved to Hawaii we went three years without