Twig & Leaf makes international news - Guardian UK

Louisville’s famous Twig and Leaf: are diners landmarks worth preserving?

Faded decor, empty seats, low quality food – this once-popular Louisville diner has fallen into serious decline. But is it worth saving as a heritage landmark?


http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... eservation

Yes, its worth saving. If the owner would just sell the damn thing at a reasonable price. Given the location and neighborhood if someone put in a serious diner with some serious kitchen talent it would make a mint!

I went to work for the Twig shortly after the previous owners purchased the business. I wrote the current menu (it has not changed in twenty or so years except to increase the prices) & we were rockin' the block! Mostly everything has scratch-made & we were moving a lot of food out to the tables each week; especially when we went to staying open 24 hours on Fri. & Sat. Sat. & Sun. days they were lined up out the door & around the building. Life was good.
Then the owners sold the business to the current owners. Everything changed. I am truly saddened to see what the Twig & Leaf has become.

I know running a restaurant is hard, so I'm not super quick to judge, but you really have to go out of your way to make that place fail. It's a perfect damned spot, and the other businesses over there are constantly overflowing, so you'd pick up at least a little overflow traffic. Loop 22 and Dundee Gastropub have both become essentially filled to the brim at night.

[Robin Garr]

Then the owners sold the business to the current owners.

The last time I went to the Twig - and to be honest, it has been many, many years - it appeared to have been bought by an Indian family. Was that the current owners, or the ones who sold to the current owners?

It's a Pakistani family. They bought it so their parents would have an occupation when they immigrated to join their children here. I'd assumed that they also owned the building, but another forumite has said that a REIT (PNC related?) owns the building.

It's been a few years since I have chatted with them, so all this could be different now.

[Robin Garr]

It's a Pakistani family.

Oops. Thanks for the detail, Steve.

A little history lesson. Kelly Madison was fresh out of the Navy & looking for equipment to open a restaurant (he was a cook in the Navy). Wheeler's Roadhouse had gone out of business & he purchased his equipment there. He also found the Twig & Leaf sign stashed in a back storeroom; not having any particular name in mind for his new venture, he bought the sign.
Here's the history of the sign. According to the owners of Wheeler's Roadhouse, they had purchased all the equipment (& the sign) from a place in central Kentucky. During the day the place served as a breakfast/lunch counter. At night the place became a house of burlesque; the owners wife was a fan dancer using the counter as a stage. The lady's stage name was Twig & her fan was a large leaf. Now before you all start yelling b***sh*t, this is exactly what Kelly Madison told me (& Jack Henchy; one of the men that purchased the Twig from Kelly). Kelly even added that he saw a photograph of "Twig" & proclaimed her to be the ugliest damn woman he's ever seen.
Kelly opened the Twig & Leaf as a breakfast/lunch counter in St. Matthews & later moved the operation to the current location in 1958. Jack Henchy & Kirk Pugh purchased the business from Kelly. Jack sold the business to the current owners.
And that is all I know.

but another forumite has said that a REIT (PNC related?) owns the building.

The REIT might be the kids though. Numerous people are now putting real estate in trusts and using the fund generated from as retirement savings in lieu of traditional 401k's.

The REIT might be the kids though. Numerous people are now putting real estate in trusts and using the fund generated from as retirement savings in lieu of traditional 401k's.

Although, if I were interested in a thriving retirement fund, I think I'd opt for a traditional 401k rather than a REIT whose sole holding was the Twig & Leaf.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I broke the CVS takeover story on Louisville.com. It was not 'rumored' as the article stated; CVS already had architect drawings drafted and had their team of lawyers on it. (Thank you, corporate manifest destiny.) And I did it not out of any great love of the Twig, but because I loved the block and didn't want a CVS at the end of my street. Such a store would have taken down the whole block (as you may recall, at the time the now-North End Cafe location was vacant) and the Twig was the end-of-the-street anchor that could have prevented it. Other news media picked up on it (unattributed), and the groundswell led to the preservation of the building and whatever petrified Womb-to-Tomb burgers within.

Initially I called the owner to ask for a comment. He hung up without a word. OK, perhaps he wasn't at liberty to talk. But a year or so after CVS had abandoned its pursuit of that space, I stopped in. I hadn't been in for years, but some onion rings sounded good—and hey, it's in my neighborhood, and I'd rather hit up a local establishment first. The place was empty but for the owner and another guy, and as soon as I walked in, the owner—a person I am sure didn't know my face or anything else—yelled 'GO AWAY!' And so I did, and never went back.

I've long had this theory that certain such kinds of businesses are fronts, because they go days without any customers and are known for lacking in the food and service departments. Tops in food? Not in my lifetime.

Also: I really wish local writers wouldn't go to international outlets and romanticize such places based on some sense of misplaced nostalgia or other noteworthiness that purports to exceed the excellence of the food, because people will seek them out anyway and then note that the food/service/whatever sucks, why is this place still open? Remember Lynn's Paradise Cafe? Can I forget it now?

[Robin Garr]

local writers

Was that a local writer? I didn't recognize the name, and was thoroughly befuddled why The Guardian was picking up an odd little non-story from Louisville.

Yes, very local. I didn't know her name either, but if you Google it she has a bunch of Louisville media credits.

I've long had this theory that certain such kinds of businesses are fronts, because they go days without any customers and are known for lacking in the food and service departments. Tops in food? Not in my lifetime.

Ive got the same theory. La Bamba on Bardstown fits that description as well. There are more.