Latest restaurant news

Our next live podcast: Residential real estate trends are redefining Louisville's growth and neighborhoods. Join us for a live Access Louisville recording as we dive into the latest market insights. The event includes networking, breakfast and a spirited discussion of the latest news in our area. Our panel includes: Stacy Durbin, Semonin Realtors, Jakeeva Lee, Greater Louisville Association of Realtors and Jon Mand, Lenihan Sotheby's. Tickets and registration are available here.

A Louisville brand with financial troubles and a new fast casual chain top this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

This week we dive into the latest restaurant news in the area, including the recent bankruptcy filing by Louisville-based coffee chain Please & Thank You. The business, famous for its chocolate chip cookies, is remaining open as it navigates a financial restructuring via a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Reporter Michael L. Jones is covering the story and is on the show this week to talk about some of the factors that led up to the bankruptcy, including a difficult environment for restaurants and a social media controversy that went viral. 

After that, Reporter Olivia Estright is also on the show to chat about a new fast casual restaurant concept coming to the area. Denver-based Teriyaki Madness has leased space at 1225 Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana, between Chillburger and The Joint Chiropractic.

We also chat about a change in menu at Louie's Hot Chicken (it's going back to hot chicken after a brief flirtation with soups and sandwiches), a  bakery that just moved into Floyds Knobs and the revival of Porkland BBQ following a zoning saga. 

Later in the show we talk about how the shutdown of I-65 is treating us thus far. The interstate closed on Monday and is to remained that way for two months as bridges are being repaired along it. We get into whether the relative smoothness of the shutdown bolsters the case for supporters of the 8664 plan. 

Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can also follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

A very popular Louisville brand has filed for bankruptcy. We'll talk about that and more restaurant news up next on the Access Louisville podcast. Thanks for joining us. My name is David Mann, and joining me today are Michael L. Jones. How are you doing out there? Allison Steins. Hello. And Olivia Estrike.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Hi guys.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. Each week we bring you the latest news and plenty of sharp opinions about what's going on here in Louisville, Kentucky. A few things before we get into it. First, this podcast is sponsored by Baird. Discover the difference Baird can make in your financial life at rwbaird.com slash Louisville. We'll hear more from Baird later in the show. Also, our next live podcast is set for July 30th. I'm calling this one How Louisville Lives. We're going to talk about the ins and outs of the residential real estate market with three local experts. Stacy Durbin of Seminan Realtors, Jakiva Lee of Greater Louisville Association of Realtors, and John Mann of Lineahan Sotheby's. The housing market is a constant conversation around town, so we hope you can make it out for this event and get some real insights into where it's going. I will leave a link to where you can buy tickets in the notes for this show. But for now, let's talk restaurants. Michael, our last live podcast was about restaurants. So I've been patiently waiting to dive back into the restaurant topic. I feel like enough time has finally passed. So let's get into it. What's going on with please and thank you?

SPEAKER_05 1:54

Well, uh, please and thank you um foul for chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. Uh, and chapter 11 is like a restructuring. And uh they had um four million four million dollars in liabilities and uh about three hundred thousand dollars in assets according to the fouling. And this comes uh one year after uh we had I'd written a story about how they were planning to expand through franchising and they had done a successful WeFunder campaign.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Yeah. But there was also this situation, to cause a little online controversy, that seems to be a factor here, too.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Yes, in February, uh uh officer let Brooke Vaughn, the owner, know that uh they were treated disrespectfully uh by one of the uh one of her uh employees, and so she put out a note uh that said, you know, that uh politics basically wasn't allowed in the store. You had to give good customer service. And her uh note uh was posted on social media and there was a lot of backlash. And so in the filing, uh she says that uh sales dropped 30% following uh all of that. So that did contribute uh to uh the decline and also the economy. When uh she uh the in the statement she sent me, she talked about uh the poor economy right now, and we and we know uh restaurants have thin margins. Yeah. Uh like we're talking like three to five percent. So when everything's going up, inflation's rising, you know, just big impact.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

And I should point out a lot of people know please and thank you as a cookie brand. They do make cookies, but they're also a uh restaurant in the fact that they're a coffee shop.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

Yeah, and and they have a wholesale business too, you know. You see things in Kroger.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Yeah. Um, so obviously with uh Chapter 11, they're just trying to reorganize and uh kind of fix uh kind of fix fix their direction and get it uh get it going in the right direction. So uh something we will continue to watch, I'm sure. On a happier note, Clarksville is getting a new chain. Uh Olivia, what is teriyaki madness? Sounds like some kind of uh thing you would catch from teriyaki, but uh uh where's it going actually?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, so um just along Veterans Parkway, they announced that they leased the building um in May. And I I spoke with Bobby Bass of uh Bass Group commercial yesterday, and he said that they're actually hoping to open in the fall. And so it's just a fast, casual Asian chain that's looking to expand across the whole country. Um but in particular, they're actually looking to expand a lot in southern Indiana because on their website, in addition to this Clarksville location, they also have a location planned for Jeffersonville over on East 10th Street. Um and so the there are two franchisees who I actually just was informed about right before we recorded, but it's Sean Honaker and Chris Hancock, and they're right now in the permitting process for the Jeffersonville location. So at earliest they'll open that Jeff location in September. Um, but this is just another another chain that's starting in southern Indiana, and maybe we'll move into Louisville next.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Yeah, we've seen some chains do that. It's like it's a good testing ground, I think.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Uh, especially Clarksville, that seems to be the place where all the chains love. Um, all right, let's see. Michael Louis Hot Chicken is back. It's on Poplar Level Road. That was a saga, right? They tried to change the concept. Customers didn't like the new thing. Yeah. So they went back to the old thing.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

Yeah, so Louis Hot Chicken and Barbecue, uh, it's been around for a while. And the owner, uh, the former owner, John Mitchell, he did try and change it into a soup and sandwich shop. And uh, yeah, that that went over by like a lead balloon. And so um uh the pitmaster there, Mark McClain, uh he he had been smoking as a hobby. He was a friend of John's, and he lost his job when they changed the concept. But when uh Mitchell told him that he was uh, you know, uh gonna sell, uh, Mark went to his son his two sons, uh Lil Mark and Cameron, and uh the three of them went in and they bought it. And so now and they pretty much returned it to just the the old concept. They kept all the employees and everything. And uh the funny thing is um that this happened back in November when I went and talked to them was the first day of the um I-65 shutdown. And you know, all the traffic is being sent to 264, and so uh they're which they're right off Popper Level Road, uh right by the expressway. And so they were packed people who were stuck in traffic. People just get out of traffic, I might as well get some food. Yeah, go get some food. So that was just an unexpected boost for them, yeah. And they're gonna be opening um a camp teller, uh, uh a pool there uh next to them in the in that park. And so um, you know, things are looking up for them, but uh the sons are are aren't really having anything to do with the day-to-day operation. Um Mark, he's not a junior, so they call him Lil Mark, is uh uh runs uh um a Harley dealership, and then and then the other son, Cameron, uh works for Spaulding University in the missions.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

So yeah, uh this is another thing that kind of blew up on social media when they switched the concept. I remember a lot of people were upset about it. And uh uh good on them. They they saw what the people wanted and then just changed it back.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

Yeah, I think that the problem was that um uh it was uh kind of um labor-intensive and uh hot chicken, the the hot chicken, yeah, and um Mitchell, when he owned it, he was having problems uh being there because he ran other businesses too. And you know, then the staffing was getting out of hand and everything. But um McLean, you know, he kept the staff and his grandson works for him, so it's really a family business, you know. So he's been able to call upon his family to fill in and help him out.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

In a non-family business, you have to rely on employees, but in a family business, you can kind of like guilt your family into helping. So um all right, let's see. Now this story was a while back, Olivia, but I wanted to throw it in a roundup here. You wrote about a place called the Cozy Crumb that's in Floyd's Knobs, um, that used to have a different name and a different location, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah, so the Cozy Crumb used to be known as Bagel Girls, and it was over in Corden, Indiana. Um, and so the owner, Amanda Marks, had bought um Bagel Girls from uh uh someone else who started it years ago, and she said that she wanted to sort of leave the Bagel Girls chapter in Corden. Um and so she once she heard so Adrian and company Donut and Desserts um previously located were had a second location in Floyd's Knobs, and they announced a few months ago that they were just moving um to operate out of their Jeffersonville location on West Court Ave. Well, Amanda Marks had known Adrian's um or the owners at Adrian's and heard that they were moving out of that spot. So she started making some meetings and um they arranged a deal for her to purchase that location um and she got to keep the uh donut equipment. So now bagel or formerly bagel girls is now still selling bagels, but donuts as well. And they opened just a few weeks ago, and I'm always happy to see another bagel place um continue to grow because I feel like this area we need more bagel shops. Yeah, really.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

They've been they've been hot lately. Michael, you've written about a couple of them. Yeah, yeah. Maya bagel, Barry's bagels. And then um, yeah, I guess paras spaguettes, that's not bagels.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

Yeah, uh New York style bagels, I think, is something out in east and but I still I love uh donuts, so they're getting all about.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

They're both good in their own way.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

LBF staff trip to the cozy crumb.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

I would love that because it's not too far from where I live. All right, let's see. Uh Michael, to wrap up the wrap-up here, uh you just wrote about Porkland Barbecue. Uh that's reopening, and that is another saga. Yes. That was a zoning saga. So what happened there?

SPEAKER_05 11:01

Yeah, so uh this couple Sean and Inga, um uh they uh Arvin, Sean and Inga, are Arvin, uh they um own uh they run a nonprofit called Love City uh in Portland, and so they took over this church, uh St. Cecilia's, and uh they started doing like uh fish fries and they started this restaurant there. They're doing everything that the church did before them, and the church used to sell beer, you know, uh um during when they sold food. So uh the Arvins applied for a liquor license, and it turned out that the the church is uh was zoned residential. Oh yeah. And so uh it didn't matter before because the actual church is exempt from a lot of the rules that commercial businesses are from are you know have to deal with. So um what happened was that the Arvins decided to just hold fundraisers for Love City on Fridays, and um they did that for two years while they worked through the rezoning, and so now they've got it rezoned for commercial, which it took them two years to do. Yeah, and uh, you know, they're still amazed because you know, like they I said, they were doing exactly what the church was doing before, yeah, but now they're all legal, and so uh they are are returning to full service, uh being a full service restaurant, and they've added a new ice cream concept called Inside Scoop because the Dairy Queen in Portland closed, so there's no kind of hand-dipped cones or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

Yeah. So they kept cooking via the fundraisers, yeah. And then so now but now they're kind of back as a a commercial restaurant.

SPEAKER_05 13:07

Yeah, and I'd written also last year they opened a thrift store there. So wow, yeah. They get they got a little business in power going on in Portland.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

And it's at a former church, so it's like um, you know, you had also just written about this uh this meeting that the mayor's trying to convene to look at redeveloping church properties because that's become a uh an issue of uh uh there's a theater group called Time Slip that just took over church in Oluisville. Yeah. Yeah, there's lots of uh that's why we see I mean, we've seen stuff like Noche Barbecue, you know, and uh Bob Dylan's bar opening churches. So um, all right. Well we'll switch gears here. We'll talk about this traffic situation. Because people were like really dreading this I-65 shutdown. I was dreading it.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

But it hadn't been that bad for me. Like, so I just like thought I'd throw it out there just to see like, has anyone had any like commute horror stories? Uh and anyone can go first. Allison, look like you're sitting on one.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Oh well, I was gonna say on Monday it was so weird driving into the parking lot, and there was like no cars, like it halfway.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yeah, you're right. Like it was. Maybe a lot of people were on vacation.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I it it was very strange. But I have I uh live in St. Matthews, and so I've been driving down Lexington Road, and now I'll hop on 64. And 64 has been fine, but Lexington Road has been to me, it's been a little bit of a mess. Well, ever since they made it be the road diet, where they've taken it down from four lanes to the three, and it's just a pain in the room.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Are you talking with the road?

SPEAKER_01 14:55

I would say it's from you know, in St. Matthews down through well, it goes all the way over to Payne and beyond. Yeah. But I from like in St. Matthew's to 64, especially like right in front of Sacred Heart and all that, it is r it gets really backed up. Yeah. And if one person is driving slow, it takes then you're all driving slow. So we it was the first day on Monday, I was uh it took me probably two or three miles before I was able to go 35. Yeah, and it was a pain.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Was that because of the shutdown, or was that more just like that road diet situation?

SPEAKER_01 15:37

I feel like maybe there was a little bit more cars on the road. At least it wasn't, you know, during school. Yeah, you know, it it could be a lot worse.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

I I think that that is probably a reason it hasn't been as bad as it could be. Sure. Because school is out. But I was in St. Matthews yes, well, yesterday I went through St. Matthew's because I was um at the um Nooshnosh on Brownsboro Road, and I took a back way to get out there. Luckily, I'd done a story about how the construction on uh 71 was hurting the businesses there, and they had put out maps, so I actually already knew the back way to get out, and I came out to Hubbard's Lane. Yeah, and it was that traffic was heavier than usual, but uh I was able to maneuver uh through, like I said, I knew all the back ways and stuff to get through, but I've realized that Louisville's not really that big.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:43

You know, I live in old Louisville, and to get to St. Matthews now, I just go down Broadway and get on Pain Street and take Pain Street to like Ewing, and you're like right there in Clifton in 10, 10, 15 minutes, and then just from Clifton go on to St. Matthew's or wherever I need to go in the East End. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

15 minutes from everywhere, as we used to say. I would say it's more like 20 minutes from everywhere. So um anything, Olivia?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

For so I'm just coming from Jeffersonville, downtown, so usually it takes me eight minutes to get here, but uh these days it's taking me seven minutes because I'm driving a little faster. Um but I will say I've been I love seeing people's reactions to the traffic or lack of traffic, um, especially on TikTok. I know WDRB had one reporter like basically make the commute from their office to um his house, which I'm assuming was in South Louisville, and he was like, it took me 45 minutes to travel 28 miles because he went all these back ways. I'm like, I feel like that's it could be worse, it could always be worse.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yes, I lived in Nashville, and that was even before what it is now.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

Even before it was a boom town.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

I mean, it took forever. I mean, I it I would had an hour commute to my job each way. Yeah, so this is lovely here. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

And like, you know, and I know we're far from the coast, but if you compare that to California or something, you know, San Francisco area, people commute an hour and a half and back to work. I can't imagine that. But um, yeah, it hadn't been bad for me either. I'm just coming over from Floyd County, so I I'm kind of avoiding a lot of it. But um the the detour does send people over to 264. So I was kind of expecting maybe a little traffic jam on the bridge, and it's been a little heavy, but it's not been bad. Um you know, I I do have to go kind of out of my zone tomorrow. Um, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going over kind of towards Clifton area. Maybe I'll get stuck in traffic uh on the way over there. But um anyway, uh, you know, I think it's just really funny because everyone was dreading this so bad, and it's been bad, and I'm sure there'll be I'm sure there'll be one day where there's an accident and everything will get screwed up, and and I'll eat these words, but it hadn't been as bad as everyone's trucks it's been bad for truckers.

SPEAKER_05 19:08

Like five trucks have been had uh decapitated on the canoe furniture on Third Street.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

So that's I think we should get whatever is in the truck anytime a truck gets canoped. Like the city should just inherit whatever was in the truck, and it was just passed out to all of us in some kind of long.

SPEAKER_05 19:26

You would think they would all know by now. Yeah, you cannot take that route.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

It's a famous intersection, and it says that the clearance.

SPEAKER_05 19:35

Yeah, there's signs everywhere, and they're talking about putting more signs, but how many signs do you think? I know.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

If you're driving one of those things, you need to know how tall it is.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah, I'm hoping for a live cam. Everyone online has been asking for the Lou Volcane Opener live cam, and I'm like, let's set it up.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

That sounds fun. Until yeah, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. But um, but yeah. Michael, do you think that people from 8664 will kind of look at this uh 65 shutdown and be like, hey, look, it turns out the 65 shutdown wasn't as bad as we thought.

SPEAKER_05 20:08

Maybe a 64 shutdown would I've already been seeing that online, and uh that conversation came up even earlier when uh they were talking about redoing Belvedere. You know, people, Ken Herndon, their counsel person, was like, you know, why not go all the way and get rid of it? And you know, I went to Glide this year in Minneapolis and they uh got rid of their uh downtown expressway, opened up uh billions of dollars worth of commercial property, and that's where the Bucks new uh uh stadium is. So uh I think that this should at least get people thinking, like, you know, maybe we should do something a little different because uh something I've always heard is that Louisville's too easy to get uh around in in a car. Yeah. And and that's one of the reasons for the um the diets and stuff that are driving people crazy. They want you to slow down because it's good for businesses, it's makes communities more walkable.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Plus, um, if you ever want mass transportation to take off, it's gotta be the mass transportation has to be easier than the car. Yeah. And right now it's not, not even not even close. So you're right about uh about Louisville being easy to get around in in a car.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

Yeah, I live on 7th Street. It takes me five minutes to get to work. If there was a regular bus that I could take, I would take the bus every day, but I would have to walk a couple blocks to a bus and then uh wait a half an hour or 45 minutes, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Well, as a frequent user of 64 going to New Albany, I am on the record as very skeptical of 86. But I do see that it's got momentum. People are uh people are into it.

SPEAKER_05 22:05

Well, I mean the talk now is about turning it into like an inner city highway kind of thing, like getting rid of the high-rise.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

See, that's what makes me skeptical though, because I use waterfront park and I would have to cross that in order to get to waterfront park. Whereas now I just walk under it. But maybe they could do some kind of tunnel thing or overpass thing. So David Beck's already wanting a tunnel. Build tunnels everywhere. I can't wait to talk about this tunnel. But we don't yeah, I did not prepare the show for that, but uh I'm hearing more and more about this tunnel. Uh all right, let's see here. Well, let's take a break with that and we'll get a word from our sponsors. We'll come back and we'll give you something to think about.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

I'm Jim Allen, Vice Chair of Baird. For over a century, Louisville families have relied on Baird to provide customized financial solutions. In addition to wealth planning and trust services, Baird also offers extensive investment banking capabilities to clients ranging from large corporations to family-owned businesses. Finally, our public finance team provides valuable advice to municipalities, school districts, and academic institutions in need of capital. Yes, Louisville, Baird has you covered.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Well, that is our show this week, except a few weeks ago, we started this thing called Give Us Something to Think About, where I kind of go around the room here and ask all our panelists to share an observation or thought uh that you just want people to know about. Um anyone want to go first on this one?

SPEAKER_05 23:39

Well, well, I will say that uh this month the Metro Council will be finalizing the city budget, and I've been doing a lot of stories about uh different programs that are getting funding cuts are um being defunded. So I think there's still time for public comment.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

So uh you know we talked about last week with the Memorial Auditorium.

SPEAKER_05 24:04

So yeah, it's fun and uh St. John's Center, Offier Street Hotel, just uh a lot of different programs. Yeah. Allison, you got one for us?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Uh I was just thinking about summer break. You know, might have uh one kid that's still in uh JCPS schools, and I was just thinking about way back in the day when my summer break ended like the week before, like the last week of Sept or August. And so now they start their next school year is August 6th. And it's like they miss out on to me on summer, and like so I spent so much time at the pool and just being a kid.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

That nice long break.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

And now they start school so early, and it just it kind of makes me sad thinking about my kids' childhood versus what I had. And so, and my mom worked at the fairgrounds um for most of my childhood, and you know, I used to spend all of August.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

That's fair seasons, August.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

The kids can't even go to the fair unless it's on a field trip.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Okay, so that's just kind of my thought. I was just thinking about summer break.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Did you do more um year-round type school, or did you have a nice long summer break?

SPEAKER_00 25:21

I had like a three-month-long summer break. So that is scary.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

They just adopt like I I would say within the last 10, 15 years, it's just gotten summer. Yeah, it's just gotten shorter.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

And I believe some like uh Indiana schools start at the end of July. I know, it's annoying. What? See, that's wild to me.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Oh, no thank you.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Well, see, this is very selfish, but I like to walk my dog in the mornings, and when there's a lot of kids standing around waiting for a bus, the dog gets nervous. She's like, What's these kids doing here? So I So, you know, I love this time of year because they're they're not out there. I can just walk whenever I want. Um, all right, Olivia, give us something to think about.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

So residential real estate has been on my mind a lot the past few months because I was in the market and just closed on a condo, but I was reading an article on um the Associated Press a few weeks ago, and it was saying that single Gen Z women are almost or are outpacing Gen Z single Gen Z men with um home buying. So, like 35% of Gen Z homebuyers are single women, while only 18% are single men, and I think that's something that we don't see often, but um just join that 35%, so I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yeah, that has to be a major turnaround from you know a generation ago.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Um, I will highlight Michael's story that you just did on Givadon, the former Gividon plant that uh what there was an explosion, fatal explosion there in November 2024. And now it looks like they are rezoning it. Uh Givadon is not rebuilding there. Yeah. Um so I just hope like I don't know. I don't know what the future of Givodon is in Louisville, but I hope there is a future in a in a in an industrial setting, not obviously not in a neighborhood, but I would just hate to think that that is how you know they bought a business that had been there for more than a hundred years, D.D. Williamson, and that's how it ends. You know, they bought this business in 2021. There was this fatal explosion, and then the company's just gone. So um, you know, obviously, and we we just need more detail on what's gonna happen next. They were not very communicative at all. Yeah, they did send you a couple of canned statements, but they wouldn't do an interview, and I thought that was that was I know they're probably following their lawyers' advice, but it's like you have something like that happen, you'd think they would want to talk to the community. Especially if you want to be part of the community. Yeah, yeah. That's what makes me skeptical. So all right. Well, there is something to think about. Uh that'll do it. If you like what you hear, uh please consider following the Access Louvel Podcast on popular podcast services, including Apple and Spotify. Thank you very much, Michael, Allison, and Olivia. Thank you guys out there for listening to us, and of course, thank you, Baird, for the support. And we will see you next time. Bye.