Wilder Electronics

This spot at 9420 Shelbyville Road, formerly a home-theatre installation company called Wilder Electronics, has been empty for awhile now.

Pig City BBQ

Not sure when it happened, but Pig City BBQ seems to have gone away. They haven't been open in awhile, their website is down, and there's a huge angry unremovable sticker from the Coca-Cola Company rudely slapped on the glass, wanting their drink machines back.


It's a shame, because this was a great place right down the road from me that had a dee-lish variety of BBQ sauces at the tables (Though the brisket was so tasty, truly, no sauce was needed).

The furniture and fixtures seem to all still be there, though, so maybe they're just remarshaling their forces for a new barbecue attack....

Middletown Book Shop

This place (11804 Shelbyville Road, #106) has had a long history of rotating inhabitants. In my recent memory, it lasted the longest as the Middletown Book Shop, which was pretty mediocre as used-paperback places go - it relied primarily on romance novels.

Although it's true that romance novels are among the most popular genre for that rapidly diminishing sector of the population who actually still read, it's also an extremely disposable genre - I know of many middle-aged to elderly women who buy their used romance novels at places like this by the bagful, then throw them away when they're done reading them, not even bothering to take advantage of the trade-in policy these sort of places offer. For many, it's just not worth the trouble of saving the books until they're all read and having them clutter up the house in the meantime, just to save a few coins by shlepping them back down to the used bookstore.

Therefore, having a used bookstore that focuses on romance and other similarly disposable popular genres of the masses is a recipe for failure. Used paperbacks in general are already so cheap, it's practically like giving them away, so I can't imagine how or why anyone would see a good business angle in opening such a place - even back when the economy wasn't collapsing. Anyway, end of business lecture.

Before the bookshop, someone had some sort of adult educational assistance place in here, I think. Can't recall exactly what the deal was with that. And after the bookshop, it had a brief run as a place that sold, as the window still says, "Air Brush Tattoos" (groan), "Air Brush Tanning" (double groan) and "Made T-shirts and hats" (as opposed to, uh, unmade ones?)

Aetna/Deem Gas

Here's an example of a nice old abandoned building that someone actually did the right thing with.

Originally this was an Aetna gas station (in those days Aetna was an oil company, not an insurance firm) and later a Deem station, which was the forerunner of today's J.F. Deem Oil & Gas. It was Middletown's very first gas station.




According to the sign out front, after the 1930s the building went through other tenants such as Wright's Dry Cleaners, a taxicab company, and the Middletown Medical Center (must have been just an info kiosk - I don't see what else a medical center could do with this building that's smaller than my living room), then ended up in the city's hands in 1996. The building was restored to some semblance of its 1920s-30s glory and today it stands empty but impressive, as a sort of museum exhibit unto itself.




This mummified gas station can be found at the corner of Main Street and Harrison Avenue in downtown Middletown.

Red Tree, Middletown

I guess the Red Tree store on Market Street downtown does an OK business - I mean, they're always packed to the rafters during Gallery Hop nights. Although I never see anyone actually buying anything during all the wine-soaked revelry.

Someone thought it was a good idea to open a second one on Shelbyville Road in Middletown. Perhaps they were thinking that the affluent Middletown/Anchorage populace made the location an obvious choice for lightning to strike twice with that Red Tree magic.

Not so.

Middletown doesn't really have anything comparable to the downtown Gallery Hop, and there is zero foot traffic here. Absolutely none. They've even done away with a couple of TARC stops in the area since no one ever used them. Downtown, Red Tree is hipster party central personified and sparkles like a crown jewel, but in Middletown it was just another knick-knack shop among many, and on not a particularly attractive block at that. (All the "elegant junk" action is one street over, on Middletown's much more swingin' Main street.)

Henderson Music Co.

Last chance to get a piano cheap from Henderson Music Company on Shelbyville Road - they're almost out of business and don't have long left on their goodbye sale. Not a lot of people plunking down the chunk o' change, even on sale, for a piano in this economy, I fear.

The Good Feet Store

Another departed business in Middletown. Never understood how a place can stay in business just selling arch-support inserts for shoes. (Evidently, they can't.)

But hey, if you wanna take over the local franchise, this coveted territory could be yours!

Police Doughnuts

Well, that didn't take long.

It was just a couple months ago that I wrote about Police Doughnuts on Unusual Kentucky raving about their wares and their wacky concept. And now I just drove by there and noticed their sign has been taken down and the place is empty.

There's a message scrawled on the window that they're just closed for remodeling and will reopen soon. But if that's the case, why on Earth would they go to all the excruciating trouble of unmounting and removing the massive electric sign they had just finished installing on the front of the building?

Furthermore, I just called their number and it's been disconnected. They must be remodeling their phone number as well.

If they are indeed reopening soon, it seems clear that it's going to be a different concept, otherwise there'd be no need to ditch their brand-new "Police Doughnuts" sign or disconnect the phone.

I am colossally bummed now.

Mazzoni's

After 125 years, Mazzoni's closed its doors a few months ago. The place still remains empty.

For the last thirty of those years, they'd built up a great reputation and clientele near Bowman Field on Taylorsville Road... but then they inexplicably moved to Middletown. It just wasn't the same, and apparently the other used-to-be customers agreed.

Before Mazzoni's moved here, this had been a very short-lived ice cream store.

Dead Nextel Store

This place has been dead as a doornail since I moved to Louisville several years ago. It's not in the best location really - a hard-to-pull-into spot on Shelbyville Road - but if you're not worried about foot traffic, it could probably be yours for a song. If you want to sing.

The Strawberry Patch

It's a shame about the Strawberry Patch going away. It had been another deli previously, the details of which I only dimly recall. The Strawberry Patch had decent food and nice rustic interior decor, but only lasted about a year and a half, I think. They were at 11616 Shelbyville Road.

Bonus closure: right next door, there's a dead antiques/furniture place that I don't ever remember seeing open.

King Buffet

I never went inside the King Buffet near the I-64 Exit off Blankenbaker. I started to one night, and then realized they had a "C" grade from the Health Department - the only one I've ever seen - on the door.

Recently, I drove by and saw they've finally given up the ghost. Although I can't say I lament their passing for culinary reasons, I'll sure miss them for architectural reasons.