Popular eatery will change owners
The decision to let the live music live will most likely be someone else’s to make as the Patisserie Café in downtown Lexington changes ownership.
Kayla Finlay, proprietor of the café, has arranged to sell the café to an unnamed buyer. But Finlay said not to expect too many changes.
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Steve Hoke (left) and Dave Eakin are considered the Patisserie's "house band." They have played together for more than 20 years, and have been performing at the Patisserie since it opened. (CAMERON STEELE/ Rockbridge Report.)
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“The Patisserie will be up and running, and will have a new owner who will run it similar to the way it is [run now,]” said Finlay, who has been in charge of the restaurant for the past two years.
In addition to providing lunch, dinner and Sunday brunches, The Patisserie, on North Main Street, is one of the only live music venues in the city.
McCoy’s Deli on the other end of Main also features live music.
Finlay said she is selling the café to spend more time at home with her family, not because of slow business. She said she would not provide details about the sale until the deal is closed.
For the past few years, the café has been a hotspot for local musicians. Burr Datz, director of leadership development at Washington and Lee University and a member of several groups who play what he calls country blues, has performed at the Patisserie four times.
“It’s a great venue,” said Datz, who is a friend of the building’s owner, Mickey Ham.
Datz said he hopes Ham, who graduated from W&L in 1978 and now lives in Hawaii, will eventually approve renovations to the basement of the Patisserie. Those renovations would give local musicians the chance to play in a larger space all year long.
For now, the Patisserie has live music nights in the parking lot on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. When the weather gets cold, the café moves the music indoors, where the atmosphere is cozy but cramped.
Dave Eakin, one half of the blues duo that Patisserie employees consider the house band, said that he and musician Steve Hoke began playing regularly at the café when it first opened.
“It is a good local place to play,” said Eakin, who has been playing with Hoke for more than 20 years. “There were really good crowds in here last winter and over the summer. For quite a few years there wasn’t any place in a town that had a lot of top notch musicians. Here, [at the Patisserie] there is such a chance.”
But neither Eakin nor Datz had heard of the café being for sale.
Ashton Sullivan, a Washington and Lee student who showcases his music at the café, said he was surprised to hear about the sale as well.
“I thought they were trying to renovate the basement downstairs,” said Sullivan, who worked part-time at the Patisserie last summer. “I didn’t know that they were going to be for sale.”
Sullivan said that the café had big crowds all summer, and he attributed some of the business to the good food and unique operation hours. Unlike comparable Lexington cafés that close at 5 p.m., Finlay keeps the Patisserie open until 10 or 10:30 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays. For the rest of the week, the restaurant closes at 3 p.m.
Like Eakin and Datz, Sullivan gives the Patisserie’s live music selection most of the credit for the café’s success.
“The music brings a lot of really good business. There is a big music scene in Lexington, and a lot of people are glad to have it [the Patisserie],” he said.
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