Kentucky Typewriter

The Typewriter business was struggling by the 1980s, was clearly doomed by the 1990s, and nowadays no one uses them except stubborn cranks like Hunter S. Thompson and myself. That being the case, it's not a real shockeroo that Kentucky Typewriter (425 South 3rd Street) is no longer with us.

French Quarter Cajun Cuisine

French Quarter Cajun Cuisine was right next door to Zaps in the long-deserted Molee Building, which has been acquired by Blue Properties so maybe we'll see the same kind of rebirth here as with Mendel Hertz's resurrection of the Starks Building.

Zaps

Zaps Gourmet Hot Dogs, 423 W Muhammad Ali, closed abruptly in 2006 and the place is still unrented today.

Arby's, Shelbyville Road

This used to be one of the last remaining Arby's restaurants to still retain its glorious old 1960's-style neon sign.

You'd think it would be enshrined as a national treasure, right? Wrong.


The place was torn down last year and a sign was put up stating that a Mini Cooper dealership is coming. But so far, the lot is still empty and ugly.

Meanwhile, a new, modernized Arby's was erected down the street. Whoop-de-doo.

Los Chubascos

This location at 10000 Linn Station Road was previously a Tumbleweeds.

415 E. Market St.

I don't know what was here last, but at some point I'm assuming it was Greene Furniture. Broken Sidewalk reported a year ago that this was about to become "The Bacon-Debrovy Lofts". So far, it looks like they haven't gotten very far on the project. (Not that I'm complaining)

Freshway Produce

At the corner of Watterson Trail and Bardstown Road, way out Fern Creek way. Before Freshway Produce, it had been an Amoco gas station.

Blue and Gold House

This was, most recently, a campaign headquarters for Bruce Lunsford, and before that it was a store that dealt in unusual musical instruments from around the world. Today it sits empty and available, waiting to see who will inhabit it next. I hope its next tenant chooses to retain that wonderful blue-and-gold color scheme!

Cafe Metro

Cafe Metro, at the corner of Bardstown Road and Duker Avenue, R.I.P.

I ate here only once - almost twenty years ago, on a lunch date with a girlfriend. In those days, I was even more of a strictly meat-and-potatoes man than I am now, there was nothing on the menu that even remotely interested me - it was all salads and quiches and casseroles and sauteed vegetable dishes. Even the few meat dishes on the menu were ruined for me by being saturated with weird gravies and sauces that didn't sound terribly appetizing.

I watched her eat some sort of spinach something-or-other, while I munched the table's bread and drank the complimentary water, putting on my best Arthur Dent placid smile and counting the minutes till I could get out of there and get to a good steak house or BBQ joint.


As my palate has greatly matured since then, I probably should've gone back to the Cafe Metro after moving to Louisville a few years back. But I never got around to it. There were just too many more interesting places nearby. Cafe Metro was extremely pricey, and if I wanted to spend $70 on a meal on Bardstown Road, there's always been someplace far better. Like Seviche or (sometimes) Palermo Viejo.

Club Cawthon

Regrettably, another of Louisville's old-school watering holes has dried up. Club Cawthon closed after the building was damaged by a fire last year, and now there's a notice on the front earmarking 818 S. Seventh Street for demolition.

Louisville Billiard

A vacant store in progress: Louisville Billiard is closing its doors and going out of business afte 31 years. According to the Courier-Journal:

Sales have slumped at the store, which sells pool tables, bar stools and other game-room items, for about three years, president Mike Nilsson said. He blames a decrease in new home construction, which prompts people to finish basements, and a tightening of consumer credit.

“Basically the entire billiard industry nationwide is in a severe downturn right now,” Nilsson said, adding that Louisville Billiard closed its other store in Lexington in August after 19 years.

Chevron, 2501 Bardstown Road

Why do some Chevrons live and others die? Some are in remote places with little traffic yet they survive, while this one was at a highly populated fork in the road between Bardstown Road and Taylorsville Road.

Duke's Appliance Center

This building at 931 E. Main Street was most recently Duke's Appliance Center, and before that it was the Butcherblock Gallery and before that it was the Cinderblock Gallery, which I ran for almost a year, having taken it over from Katie Beach who took it over from Scott Scarboro. Before that, I think it was a dry cleaners at some point way back in the day.