Barbara Lee's Kitchen closes on Brownsboro Rd
Barbara Lee's Kitchen, a honest-to-gosh greasy spoon in Clifton Heights at 2410 Brownsboro Road that was beloved by many of its regular customers, has closed.
The operators, Mark and Barbara Lee McCullock, had run the restaurant for around 20 years and recently told the landlord that they are getting old and need to watch their health, said Andy Bollinger, whose family owns the site.
"They just said they couldn't do this anymore," he said.
The small white-painted building, which for around two decades was a landmark in the Crescent Hill area, had shut its doors about a month ago and posted a sign in a window at the time that said it had plumbing problems. A plumber's truck was seen at the restaurant at least one day, but the diner never reopened.
Now, the telephone is out of service, and papers have piled up outside the front door.
The restaurant, open 24/7, accepted only cash payment and had some counter seating and about 10 booths. It specialized in breakfast offerings and had a menu that featured what the restaurant called moderately priced comfort food.
Pam Platt, a retired Courier-Journal editor who ate breakfast many mornings at Barbara Lee's, said she discovered the restaurant when she "was looking for a locally owned breakfast joint. Barbara Lee’s became all that and more for me."
She said, "They made the best patty melts I’ve ever had — the crunch of the perfectly grilled rye bread, the juice of the hamburger patty, the bite of the chopped onions combined for an unforgettable sandwich; I even had them for breakfast. Mainly what I loved was the ambiance ... the wait staff who came to know the other regulars and me. When some of us died, their obits were taped up on the wall."
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Platt said, "I don’t know that they ever knew my name, but it was my Cheers without the beer. They always had a Diet Coke waiting for me. I can’t tell you how much I’ll miss the place, and the people."
Bollinger said he is looking for another restaurant to take over the site. The McCullocks opened Barbara Lee's about 20 years ago after it had operated as a Steak 'n Egg outlet.
At one previous time, the site operated as the Dobbs House, famous for black bottom pie.
Dave Langdon, a spokesman for the Metro Department of Public Health, said health inspectors shut the restaurant down briefly during an inspection on Nov. 10 for what he termed two "critical violations" -- no on-the-spot means of sanitizing utensils and the presence of insects. Both problems were quickly corrected and the restaurant was allowed to reopen after about two hours, Langdon said.
He said the Health Department had nothing to do with Barbara Lee's current closure.
Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at 502-582-7089, or via email at sshafer@courier-journal.com.