Lexington, KY - Horse Capital of the World

Lexington has new restaurants, attractions and even, debuting in the next three/four years: bourbon!  Here is an update of what’s going on:

• New location!  Oliva Bella is now located at 400 Old Vine Street, Suite 104.
• Downtown has two new markets: Shorty’s Urban Market (163 West Short Street) and Town Branch Market (233 East Main Street).  Both offer a variety of products and meals to go.
• Holiday Inn Express at 2221 Elkhorn Road (off I-75 exit 110) is now the Envoy Inn & Suites.
• If you had Baker’s 360 on your itinerary, you will need to pick another restaurant as it has, very unfortunately, closed. 
• Grey Goose has a new location in Midway at 133 East Main Street! 
• Quirk Café in Midway is now 815 Prime.
• Aviation Museum of Kentucky has moved to 4029 Airport Road (The old Tac Air Hangar).
• Fourth of July festivities including the Bluegrass 10,000 Foot Race, street festival and parade will be held downtown on Monday, July 4.  Fireworks will begin at 10 pm.
• Red, White and Boom will be held Saturday, July 2 at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.  Gates will open at 11 and feature a variety of performers including Craig Morgan and Heidi Newfield.  Tickets are $5 for everyone 12 and older (under 12 is free). 

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the glass studio.

The marketing team from the Convention and Visitors Bureau spent yesterday morning on the surface of the sun…at least that’s what it felt like. I have a whole new appreciation for people who work with molten glass. This is not a profession for the faint of heart. It’s a little like setting up a workshop on an active lava flow. Except louder.

At the Glass Studio in Berea, glass artist Michelle Westin will allow you into the inner sanctum to watch her work. This time of year, she’ll even let you participate in making your own glass ornament.  She points out where it’s not safe to stand, in case the searing heat from the main furnace or the flames shooting out of the smaller “glory hole” furnace do not make it clear enough. If you are a small group (of adults!)  she’ll let you take a long blowpipe, open the door on the furnace that keeps the glass at over 2,000 degrees and dip out your very own glob of gooey glowing glass.  She’ll let you roll it on the marver (small steel table), sit at her bench and, well, play with it. Because doing anything else with it takes an extreme amount of skill.

You feel like you’ve done all this yourself, but really her hand is right there on the blow pipe or next to it, and she is watching you like a hawk, keeping you safe and whispering instructions every inch of the way.  You get to use her tools and experience what it feels like to pinch, pull and twirl glass when it is as malleable as warm taffy.  And experience how quickly it suddenly starts to feel like “glass”  and suddenly refuses to cooperate. Now your amateurish attempt is frozen in time for all to see.

Luckily, that’s not what you are going to hang on your tree. It ends up in the scrap glass bin to be recycled. For the ornament, Michelle will roll the glass from the furnace and apply the colors herself. But with the benefit of a tube attached to the blow pipe, it is your breath that changes the glob of glass into a graceful sphere or teardrop shape, aided by Michelle’s skillful manipulations and her carefully timed instructions on when to blow, and how hard. She takes a touch more glass and adds a delicate hook on top so it can be hung. Then it goes into yet another furnace to cool. (You know something is really hot when you can use a furnace to cool it!)  At this stage, the colors you see will not be the final colors. One thing you’ve learned is that the properties of glass change depending on temperature, and that includes color. In about 24 hours, they can take it out, let it cool to room temperature and ship it to you.

I haven’t yet seen the results of my first experiment in glass blowing, but it doesn’t really matter what it looks like.  With the help of special safety glasses, I have stared into the surface of the sun and lived to tell about it. The proof will be hanging on my Christmas tree.

The Glass Studio
217-A Adams Street
Berea, Kentucky
(859) 985-0150

While immersion in the worlds of bourbon and red-eye gravy is a must when visiting Lexington, there are many other culinary adventures here that might shock your friends back home. Transplants are a staple of college towns, of course, making it logical that Asian, Indian and the Middle Eastern restaurants would be represented; West African cuisine is more of a rarity.

But here, in our town of just under 296,000 (per last year’s census estimate) …

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/21/21067.html

rustic, piquant and utterly delicious Guinean fare can be found right near campus at Sav’s Grill.

http://www.savsgrill.com/index.php

Owner-chef Mamadou Savane cooks the dishes of his childhood.  Root vegetables and tubers, rice and grains, green vegetables and herbs are the building blocks from which he creates stews of simmered goodness, often spiked with peanuts and palm oil.

Salads are available too, and you will have missed a golden opportunity if you don’t order attiéké (pronounced “kay´ kay´”) a grain impersonator transformed, through grating, soaking, drying and fermentation, from the root of the cassava bush into a moister, softer version of couscous. And be sure to taste the “goat bowl”—rich and thick and not the least bit gamey.

 But “Sav,” as he is known to just about everyone, also embraces local eating. This is evident in how he sources his products (his searingly spicy hot sauce is made from Kentucky-grown habanero peppers and even the ice cream is made in Winchester) and in his offerings inspired by the Southern style of cooking.

Want ribs?  You can get those at Sav’s. Cheese grits? Of course.

So, among the unexpected food memories to take home after a visit to Lexington put West African on your list.

BREEZE THE BLUEGRASS 2/2/12

The first thing I heard this morning was that the groundhog saw his shadow and, therefore, we were going to have to endure six more weeks of winter. However, as the day progressed, I heard more about the other prognosticating animals around the country. The majority seem to be predicting an early Spring. Either way, six more weeks of mild temps and a little rain? OK, bring it on!  

The Bluegrass region of Kentucky, which is home to so many world-class Thoroughbred racers, is now officially in the Foaling Season.  All racehorses share the same birthday of January 1st of each year.  Thoroughbreds are eligible for races based on their age group.  A horse born last year in 2011 is now a yearling, no matter whether he was born on January 1, 2011 or December 31, 2011.  Horses born in 2010 are now eligible to race as a 2 year old, whether it is actually 2 years old or just one year and one month old.  That means the optimal time for a foal destined to race is to be born is shortly after the first of January so that it will be close to being fully grown and more mature when it’s racing career begins.  

This is also a great time of year to tour a horse farm. There are as many tour companies to choose from as there are farms to visit.  I will proceed to describe a handful of the local horse farm tours in and around the heart of the Bluegrass:

Thoroughbred Heritage Horse Farm Tours, 859-260-8687, will take tourists on a three-hour tour of three horse farms and also to Keeneland Race Course.  Visitors will get to walk around WinStar Farm in Versailles (pronounced VER-SALES...an issue for another blog!) and Donamire Farm in Lexington.  They will also take you out to Hill’n’Dale Farm in Lexington and visit the grave of the famous 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. This tour group requires a minimum of six passengers and charges $32 per person.  They depart each day from various hotels in Lexington.  

Thoroughbred Heritage Horse Farm Tour details are here

Keeneland Race Course information is here

Learn more about WinStar Farm here

Watch a beautiful little video about Donamire Farm here

Learn more about Hill’n’Dale Farm here

Check out Seattle Slew's grave here 

Unique Horse Farm Tours is a service provided by the Kentucky Horse Park, 859-233-4303.  Until the end of March tours are Wednesdays through Sundays, 12:15pm.  From April through October the tours run every day.  Tours last for approximately three hours.   This tour will visit 2-3 farms where visitors will be able to get off the bus and tour inside the farms.  This tour company can accommodate 12 people during the winter months, November through March, and 25 people during the summer season, April through October.   Adult tickets are $30 and kids 12 and under are $15. They need 2-3 days advanced notice to organize each tour. 

Check out Unique Horse Farm Tours here

Kentucky Horse Park horse farm tour information is here

Bluegrass Tours, 859-252-5744, offers a walking tour of Keeneland, a visit to another horse farm in the Keeneland area, a visit to Old Friends, the thoroughbred racehorse retirement center in Georgetown, as well as a driving tour of historic downtown Lexington.  They offer tours at two different times from Monday through Friday:  9am to noon and from 1:30pm until 4:30pm. On Saturdays and Sundays the tour is only offered at the 1:30pm until 4:30pm time.  A minimum of four people is required for each tour, or can be combined with another group.  Adult tickets are $35 and kids 12 and under are $25.  

Check out Bluegrass Tours here

Learn more about Old Friends here

Horse Farm Tours, 859-268-2906, visits three farms from their rotation of 10 different farms in the Lexington area.  Included is a drive-by visit of Calumet Farm on the west side of Lexington and one walk-through visit of a stallion complex where visitors can view a breeding barn.  A walking tour of Keeneland Race Course is included.  Visitors who book a morning tour get to watch the morning workout at Keeneland.  These tours are 3 ½ to 4 hours in duration and require a minimum of four visitors or can be combined with another group.  Admission is $36 per person and they require a one-week advanced reservation.  

Learn more about Horse Farm Tours here

And here, also known as Horse Capital Tours

Calumet Farm information is here

Not all horse farms in the Bluegrass are focused on the Thoroughbred racehorse.  There is a tour in Shelbyville that focuses on the Saddlebred breed of horse. Shelbyville is known as the Saddlebred Capital of the World!  The Shelby County Visitors Bureau conducts this horse farm tour and has a charitable aspect to it.  They do not charge for their farm tour is you are staying at a hotel or motel in Shelby County.  They do, however, recommend a donation to a therapeutic riding center called the Luci Center in Shelbyville.  A therapeutic riding center, of which there are several in the Bluegrass area, is a place that provides horseback riding and equine-related activities for people with physical and emotional disabilities.     

Learn more about the Shelby County Visitors Bureau here

Check out the Luci Center here

Enjoy your time in the Bluegrass!

-Julie