What will happen to Vincenzo's?

Join us live: Our next live podcast, "Access Louisville: The State of Dining Out," is set for 4 p.m. April 21 at 500 West Jefferson. Three local chefs are coming on: Noam Bilitzer, of MeeshMeesh, Anne Shadle of Mayan Cafe and Lawrence Weeks of Murray’s Creole Pub. We’ll talk about issues facing the industry, including food costs, changing neighborhood dynamics and more. Tickets are available here.

The restaurant scene is ever evolving and we go over the latest on the Access Louisville podcast this week.

To start off the show, we chat about the future of Vincenzo's. With news of the potential redevelopment of the Humana Building and surrounding property, we've all been wondering what would happen to this venerable Louisville restaurant that's on the site. Reporter Michael L. Jones, who interviewed the brothers behind the restaurant, explains that a lot is still up in the air. 

Brothers Agostino and Vincenzo Gabriele opened the authentic Northern Italian restaurant in May 1986 after David Jones Sr., then chairman of Humana, invited Vincenzo to take over the former Columns location in the Humana Conference Center at 150 S. Fifth St. in Downtown Louisville.

But they're now celebrating the restaurant's 40th anniversary at a time when the future of the Humana Building is in flux. LBF previously reported that Louisville-based Poe Cos. has signed a letter of intent to purchase the 26-story Humana Building at 500 W. Main St. and convert it into a 1,000-room hotel. 

Later in the show this week, we chat about the closing of Sharetea, a family-owned business in Middletown. We talk about the latest with Akiko’s, a Karaoke bar on Bardstown Road. 

And we wrap up the restaurant talk with a chat about a new Cuban Italian restaurant, Prado 264, which is coming to the former Mark’s Feed store space.  

Following the restaurant talk, we go over some local media news, including a recent deal that saw WHAS-11 change hands. And we talk about the University of Louisville women's basketball team advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

It's time for a classic restaurant news update. That's coming up next on Access Louisville. Thanks for joining us. My name is David Mann, and joining me today are Zach Owens, Lisa Benson, and Michael L. Jones. How are you doing out there? 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 4 p.m. April 21st at 500 West Jefferson. That's the building we're in right now. It's called Access Louisville, the State of Dining Out. We've got three local restaurant folks coming on, Noam Bilitzer of Mish Mech and Shadow of Mayan Cafe, and Lawrence Weeks of Murray's Creole Pub. We're going to talk about all the issues facing the industry, including rising food costs, changing neighborhood dynamics, and more. I'll leave a link in the notes for this show where you can buy tickets. If you're a local foodie, this is not one to miss. We would love to have you out for it. And speaking of food, let's get into that restaurant news I teased up at the top of the show. Michael, we've all been wondering with the development, the redevelopment of the Humana building, uh, is they're going to try and turn that into a uh from an office building into a thousand-room hotel. And we've all been sitting around thinking, well, what's going to happen to Vincenzo's the restaurant that's there on that lot? Um well, we're still wondering that, it seems like yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

I went and talked to the owners, um, Vincenzo and Augustino uh Gabrielle, and um they don't know any more than anybody else, but um basically they want to be a part of uh the whatever is going. You know, they said they were invited by David Jones himself, the founder of Humana, to be there. And this year they're celebrating their uh 40th anniversary. And so uh it was occasion for us to sit around and talk uh about the restaurant's past and what they want to do uh because they're like a seminal uh part of America uh of Louisville food history and and did a lot of popularized Italian cuisine um in Louisville and St. Louis. They actually started out in St. Louis before coming here. Uh, but you know, there's questions because they're getting up there in age, they didn't want to talk about secession planning. And uh, you know, most uh uh hotels now have nice restaurants, so it would seem to be a nice fit. Yeah. But um, like I said, uh who knows how long they will be uh able to do the restaurant and uh what what the designs are. So everybody, you know, it's just too soon.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Yeah. And it's the Poe Companies that's redeveloping the hotel. You called the Poe Companies to see what they thought of it. They didn't get back though. Um, so my theory is they are negotiating right now to see, like maybe the uh Vincenzo's folks had a long-term lease and they are uh they're kind of just waiting to see what they can do, you know, as these negotiations are taking place, so they can't really say what's gonna happen next. Uh so that's why we're still left to wonder what what they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Is that building they're in? Is that said to be demolished as part of the new tower construction?

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Um the uh Humana building itself is gonna be converted into hotels, and then they're gonna build a companion tower. So that's gonna be where uh Vincenzo's is, you know. I think it used to be the Humana Convention Center.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

So it'll take up the entire footprint of the block.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Yeah, yeah. So regardless, it would have to probably close for a while for construction. But I I think that you know, it takes time to make those plans and to uh do uh work with the city and and uh to do those things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Well, regardless of what happens, I do hope that the name Vincenzos carries on. It has so much meaning here in Louisville. You know, so many people have celebrated anniversaries or milestones at Vincenzos. I mean, I've been in a queue waiting for Jack Carlow tickets for most of the day today. You know, he referenced it in one of his hit songs, eating fettuccine at Vincenzo's. So I mean, we have to have Vincenzo's name carry on in some form or fashion.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

Well, Augustino's son uh runs uh Sereno, so there's already a second generation of the family on the scene that are doing you know great work. And then uh one of the things I talked to to them about Vincenzo's was just the impact that they've had. Like Josh Moore started out in her kitchen. I talked to um a uh chef of restaurateur in Chicago who had been a sous chef there. Uh, and if you go back before that, Vincenzo was a partner in Casa Grizzanti's. So Tim Corey uh from Puccini's, the owner of of uh of uh Jack Fry's, um Michael Reedy uh from The Irish Rover, they all got their start under him.

SPEAKER_05 6:02

Wow, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Yeah, a lot of legacy there.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

All right, let's see. Well, uh, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next with that one. Um Michael, you also had a story about shared tea closing that's in Middletown. What happened with shared tea?

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Well, you know, they have a the original location was on Barstown Road. It was like 3333 Barstown Road. And so about five years ago, they opened this Middletown location, and so it's uh it's a franchise, but it's family run. So it's a husband and and a wife and that uh manage each each of them, and they have a new baby, and the wife just isn't wanting to work the way that she did before. And um it was funny because um uh they are uh uh Asian couple, and the husband didn't speak uh uh very good um English. So I go there, he was alone, so he uh I just called his wife, and so I'm there with him, but uh but uh interviewing his wife, and so uh uh she was just telling me about the foot traffic not being uh what they expected there, and that's a really congested area, it's right across from Freddie's. It it was uh uh an excuse for me to have lunch at Freddie's.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

You can kind of like feel the frustration in her post announcing the closure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Well, uh restaurants are are like, I think, like the canary in the coal mine for the economy, and I'm hearing a lot uh from uh restaurants about the overhead. You know, they have to buy groceries just like everyone else. They had they have are having trouble keeping employees, yeah, you know, and so um, you know, they were having to work more, and she's like, you know, we would rather consolidate at one location than spread ourselves trying to keep uh two places going.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Which makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Yeah, it's tough.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

And they they had that for a while too, so that was, you know, I think uh it's it's tough for anybody to make it past what like a year or so these days. So um all right. Speaking of places that have been there for a while, Zach, we've been following this story. You didn't write it, Shea wrote it, but uh you're familiar enough, and I'm sure you've at least sang there at uh Kiko's karaoke bar.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I've I've been known to croon at a Kiko's from time to time.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Yeah, so uh it we initially thought it was gonna close, but that's not gonna happen now, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah, they announced they were closing on uh March 17th due due to a dispute with their landlord. Uh but they came out about a week later saying that they've reached a new agreement with their landlord, so they will remain open. I think they have the strangest hours of any business inside the city. 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

Oh man, that is hard. Yeah, that's hardcore. Shea said he once left his wallet there and had to go back. He had to wait till nine o'clock to go back to get his wallet because they they open so late.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Only Shay would do that.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Who leaves his wallet at a a uh karaoke bar? But anyway, yeah. Uh I guess it's uh great they're staying on. And that they worked out a deal with their landlord. I guess if anybody needs a tip on how to uh negotiate a new deal with your landlord, post on social media that you're closing, and apparently uh that that will work. Um, but uh you know, we've heard a lot about disputes over rent and that sort of thing in the Highlands, uh, which is where this is located. This is on Bargetown Road, so um, so it was believable enough. Uh speaking of Bargetown Road, Michael, people seem pretty jazzed about this new uh Cuban Italian restaurant, Prado 264. Uh that's coming to the former Marks Feed Store location. And when are they looking to open that one?

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Uh they're gonna open sometime in the spring. Um, they're not trying to get open right before Derby. They'd love to, but yeah, it seems like every everyone I talk to now is like, you know, we're trying to open in April, but uh they were a little smarter, I think, uh, and didn't want to rush it. Um so uh this this is um kind of a Cuban-Italian fusion, and uh it's getting a lot of attention because it's going into the Marks Feed store that closed after 30 years in the Highlands, but also for the idea I wrote about Cuban pizza, and I I actually got a lecture from someone about how it couldn't be pizza, but there are actually uh Italian people who settled in Cuba in the the 20s and 30s, and they started combining the two cuisines, and so that the restaurant itself, uh Prada 264, is named after Cuban Italian restaurant where uh um one of the owners, uh Luis Gonzalez's father, worked there. And so it's actually a funny story that um they immigrated from Cuba and their and uh Luis's father ended up in Louisville and he lived here for 12 years and Luis never visited because all his father complained about was the weather. Yeah, the the cold weather. And so uh they came last year and loved it so much that they moved here, and they're like, this is a foodie town, and they love Cuban food.

SPEAKER_04 11:46

Well, I guess people from Cuba would think that the weather's cold here, but yeah, we're not normally associated with cold weather. I thought that was pretty uh pretty telling.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Um originally they were gonna open this in Florida. Yeah, they had been living in Miami, and so they're bringing in like an interior designer and a chef from Florida to um help them set up.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yeah, the the renderings of the space are awesome. I can't wait to check out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:13

Social media would not buy it, that there are Cuban Italian restaurants, as if Italians only ever immigrated here and not Cuba or anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

But uh these are the same people who argue about what is or is not a sandwich?

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Yeah, yeah. It was uh it you know, it's the typical crowd that that gets engaged on Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

I went to uh Cuba a few years ago, and the one constant on every restaurant and cafe menu is spaghetti.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah, and I I I I've I've never been to Cuba, but I anywhere I go, like there's an Italian influence because Italian food is just popular everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

So yeah, and and you know, Luis told me if you go to Miami to any Cuban community, you're gonna find Cuban pizza.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Yeah, yeah. It was uh it was a uh a stark uh stark reminder for for people that yay, this is not the center of the universe, you know. Italians immigrated to all around the world. So um, all right, let's see here. Uh switching gears, we're gonna talk about some changes with local media, including a couple of um TV deals that we've been watching. One just got finalized. Zach, you wrote about this. Uh that's a deal uh that is part of a larger deal, but basically WHAS 11 changed his hands uh in this one, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah, it it's a pretty big deal. So Nexstar Inc., which is already the largest owner of TV stations in the country, acquired Techno, which was a giant station group, which owns stations in pretty much every major market, but uh they uh acquired WHES in this deal as part of a six point two uh billion dollar acquisition that closed on March 19th. Uh and it's just part of a larger trend of consolidation in the media across the country. Uh whether it's good for uh employees of WHES, that's yet to be seen. I do know that working in TV news for years uh Nextstar had the name Death Star. They were going to come into Marcus and just absolutely gut their stations that they acquired. So we'll see what uh changes are uh yet to be made at HES. Though I imagine there's not much to cut at HES because Tegna did their fair share of cuts as owners.

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Yeah, that's true. Um that was their last owner. So and then we're also watching a deal uh with our partners over at WDRB, they're in the middle, uh involved in an acquisition deal. Well what's going on there?

SPEAKER_02 14:40

I think this is way more interesting. So uh if this goes through Gray Media, which owns Wave, uh is looking to acquire DRB, which is owned by Block. That would create a big four duopoly in the market.

SPEAKER_05 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Which in previous administrations that was unheard of. There were very strict rules about one ownership group per station. Uh, but a recent federal court ruling struck down those rules, and that made this possible. So we don't I it's interesting that the next star deal uh was fast tracked pretty much. While this is pretty much this is taking its time. Yeah, this is taking its time. This was announced before the next star deal was.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

So yeah, and it seems like a smaller deal, right? It is a much smaller deal. Yeah, so I wonder why it's going slower. Um yeah, I look I did some quick research on TV media consolidation. This has happened in a lot of markets, the duo duopolies that you mentioned. Um, you know, I think the main reason is that TV viewing habits have changed. People don't turn on their TV and just flip channels like they used to, because um the the way TV's delivered, a lot of people, you know, they want to watch a show on Netflix or a show on Hulu or whatever. They turn that show on. You know, they don't they don't just turn on the TV and surf the channels.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Right. TV news used to be appointment television, and you would turn on whatever uh channel you were loyal to every night at 11 to catch the you know latest updates or whatever, and stations would aggressively promote new uh content airing at whatever hour, and they still do that, but it doesn't matter because those uh stories are available for streaming whenever you want to see them.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Yeah, and they would get those free transmission fees from cable, yep, and people aren't really subscribing to cable much anymore.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, and the advertiser advertising dollars have you know flown to a million different outlets, right? Like you can spend your advertising dollars in so many different places these days and so many challenges for for television broadcasts.

SPEAKER_04 16:49

Yeah, and it used I mean, and we're print journalists primarily talking about this because you know that's it's changed our industry too, you know, just the way the way there is now way more competition and for advertising dollars between social media, streaming services, and way more attention for people's attention. You're way more competition for people's attention because you know, there's just so much out there you could consume.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah, and there's this podcast. Pretty much every TV newsroom is going for a piece of that digital pie, pretty much. They're all setting up uh you know smaller in newsroom streaming studios aimed at you know smaller form broadcasts that don't require a huge production crew, but then you can uh just stream directly on whatever social media platform that require minimal resources and you can sell it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Yeah, interesting to watch. Uh the media landscape is always changing. I got in the media in 2003, I think, and it was pretty weird when I got in, and it stayed weird the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Um I think the big question with that uh Wave DRB deal is what's gonna happen. Uh the rumors have been that uh the stations are gonna consolidate in Wave's building. Yeah. Uh who knows? I do know that the Wave news director job has been vacant for nearly half a year.

SPEAKER_04 18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

So they're probably I would imagine they're waiting for the deal to close before they name uh a successor.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Yeah. Wrapping it all together, Lisa, you and I had lunch with uh Bill Lamb at Vincenzo's. And uh and you know, he he wasn't able to tell us what what the next chapter was, but you know, I think got the sense that a lot's still getting figured out.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

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SPEAKER_04 19:01

All right. So coming back, I figured we'd wrap things up with a little uh little sports talk just to uh to finish up the show. Happily, the University of Louisville women's basketball team is off to the suite 16. That's very exciting. We had uh our photographer Chris Fryer was out there doing some shots. Um the last he wasn't actually shooting any baskets. He wasn't doing any shots or shooting any baskets. But he was out there shooting uh the uh the round previous because it was in Louisville. They had you know the Louisville women's team was fortunate to be able to play a March Madness game in their hometown. So uh he shot that. We had a story up about it, I'll link to it. But uh UK and U of L, the men's basketball teams, are both out. And I just thought I'd check in to see how everybody's brackets looking.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Um so in our business first pool, um, winning is our newest employee right now, Jessica Davis, although I understand it's actually her husband's bracket.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

So she cheated.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Her name is labeled on here, but it's I think it's her husband. And then yours truly is in second place. You're in second place, yep, yep, yep. And then Joel Stinnett is in third place, and then the bottom of the barrel, poor Steve Schmidt.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Steve Schmidt, the sports reporter. Yeah. He talks about sports.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, but you know what? This is his bracket number three.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

He turned in a lot of brackets.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

And I think this is the one where he selected um his picks based on the aggressiveness of their mascots.

SPEAKER_04 20:34

He picked one based on dog of like dogs and cats.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, dogs and cats, right.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

And it was he actually said it was his dog's bracket.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Okay, well, that one's losing. That's our lowest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

It's a dog for you.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Second to last place is my daughter, Annabelle. And then um, I hate to call her out on this, but the um also in in the lower third of the bracket is Ann Kenworthy, president of Spaulding University.

SPEAKER_04 20:58

Oh man, I didn't know she was in our office pool.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

She's in our office pool. Um, I talked her into it, and now I'm shaming her about her poor performance.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Remember when uh you tried to talk me into it? And this is I had this in mind, and I didn't want to be in this segment.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

I guess I used all my good moves on Ann Kenworthy to get her into our poem.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah. I've been filled out of braggets since 2013. I just finally saw U of L win it all, and that was enough.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Boo to you. How do you enjoy March Madness without a bracket? I don't understand it.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

It's just the spirit of the game that I have been rooting for St.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

John's. Oh, really? Yeah. St. John's, if you don't know, is coached by Rick Patino.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

I I just haven't enjoyed college basketball since Katina Powell's name entered my head.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

You gotta move on from that.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

I've moved on from that. It's the it's the gambling that has ruined college. Well, yeah, college sports in general. So you're taking a warm road on this issue. Yeah, more moral high game. This is like the one vice I'm against. No, I'm not against it, actually. I'm against like how every commercial when I Watch a a a sports game is about gambling.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

It's kind of disgusting.

SPEAKER_04 22:03

It's like, okay, I'm never doing this because mostly out of annoying, you know, because I'm annoyed, you know, that that I have to listen to these commercials. So that's why I never do it. But uh, I used to before it got cool. So but now I'm kind of like. Did you really? No. I never know what to believe with you. Anyway, I think that is our show this week. Before we go, let's uh sign off the way we always do. Uh we'll go around the room here. You guys can share your social media handles and let folks know where they can find you to give you gambling advice online. Uh, Zach, I'll start with you.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah, you can find me on uh LinkedIn and on Instagram, Zach.owens1.

SPEAKER_04 22:47

All right, Lisa, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Uh LinkedIn, Lisa Benson.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

All right. And how about you, Michael? I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook as Michael L. Jones.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

All right, and you can find me also on the LinkedIn there under my name, David A Man. If you like this podcast, you can find it on lots of popular podcast services, including Apple and Spotify. Thank you very much, Zach. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Michael. And thank you guys for listening to us at home. And we will see you next time. Bye.