Last week we drove up to Kentucky to check out the Revival at Asbury University that had been going on about a week when we arrived. It was kind of a surreal experience seeing thousands of people lined up to get into a chapel in Wilmore, KY. Wilmore has a population of about 6,000 people and to have more than double that number of people visiting all at once was wild. 

It wasn’t completely random for us to check this out. My dad went to seminary across the street at Asbury Theological Seminary. We lived in Wilmore when my middle brother and I were in elementary school (grades 3-5), and our youngest brother was born while we lived there. Wilmore is a special place for our family. So when this revival started, we kept an eye on the news about it. After a few days when it looked like it might go on long enough for us to make it up there, a 4.5 hour drive, we booked some hotel rooms and packed our bags.

At one point over the weekend the police had to close the streets into town because the town was full. No more room at the inn. Cars were parked EVERYWHERE, people were lined up for half a mile to get into the main chapel and they had to set up FOUR overflow chapels where they live streamed what was happening in the main chapel. It was BANANAS.

It was cool to see the town where we lived when I was little as an adult. This was my first time going back. We saw the old school, which is now the city municipal building, drove by our old house, watched some trains go through town, and wandered around the Asbury University and Asbury Seminary campuses. 

I’ll write more about the actual revival later. That’s going to take some time for me to wrap my mind around before I hit publish. So check back later for that.

Now, let’s talk about the food and drinks.

While we were in Wilmore I had coffee at Drinklings with my brother one day and Christopher another. It was so cute and cozy and nerdy. I loved it. Plus, the coffee was good.

Dad, my brother and I ate lunch at Solomon’s Porch Cafe one day. I had the broccoli cheddar soup with grilled cheese, my dad had the Reuben sandwich with fruit, and my brother had the Cuban sandwich with chips. It was such a cute and cozy cafe. Definitely a place we’d go regularly if we lived there. 

We stayed in Lexington while we were in Kentucky, about 20 minutes from Wilmore, so a lot of the food we ate was there. 

One morning we had breakfast at Southland Bagels. It was so good to have bagels. We don’t have bagels anywhere near us in VA, we have round bread circles that people try to pass off as bagels, and they are trash. 

We both had an everything bagel, toasted, with plain cream cheese, as usual. I had an oat milk latte and Christopher had a black drip coffee. SO GOOD. Damn, I miss bagels.

I made a trip to McLeod’s Coffee House to drink coffee and write for a bit while Christopher had some meetings. It’s got a cool, funky, vibe, and I love it. If you’re from Orlando and have been to The Imperial, it’s like that but with coffee instead of cocktails. 

For our first dinner in Lexington, we went to J. Render’s Southern Table & Bar. To start, we shared:

OH NO! BALLS: Everything you love about the “Oh No You Didn’t” Pulled Pork, Sweet BBQ, Smoked Mac & Cheese deep fried to a golden brown.

NACHOS: Brisket, Tortilla Chips, Sweet BBQ, Queso Cheese Sauce, Grated Cheddar Cheese, Green Onion

Both of the appetizers were good, and it’s a good thing we got appetizers, because our server took our order, and then forgot to put it in so it took like 45 minutes to get our dinner.

My brother had the “Oh No You Didn’t” Grilled Cheese (Pulled Pork with a touch of Sweet BBQ Sauce and Smoked Mac & Cheese nestled between American Cheese Slices and Texas Toast then grilled to perfection) with fries. He said it was fine.

My dad and Christopher both got a BBQ Sampler. Dad had pulled pork and ribs, with collard greens and potato salad. Christopher had smoked sausage and ribs with fries and green beans. The BBQ sampler also came with jalapeno cornbread. The collards were really good, the potato salad was too salty, the meats were ok, the green beans weren’t great and the fries were fries. 

I had buttermilk fried chicken and gravy, with mashed potatoes and gravy, and sweet molasses baked beans. The chicken and potatoes were both so salty, and the beans were so bland. Like straight out of the can and warmed up bland. 

Overall, it was a pretty pricey, mediocre, bbq place. 

Lexington has a Peach Cobbler Factory, which we tried in Jacksonville and really enjoyed, so I decided we all needed to go get cobbler. This was a really sad visit to a place I really liked the first time I had it. They were out of ice cream, couldn’t take cash, and had no receipt paper. It was a rough night for them. I got a blackberry cobbler like I did the first time, Christopher had the peach cobbler, and my dad got the OG banana pudding. Christopher didn’t love his regular peach cobbler, and I was sad we had to go to Kroger to buy our own ice cream. My dad said the pudding was good, so It was kind of a mixed bag on this visit. 

My brother and I got Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii on our way to Wilmore one morning. This location was in a small strip mall, so it didn’t really have its own charm, but the coffee was good.

We had Wild Eggs for breakfast, and I forgot to take pics, but I had the Zax I am Fried Eggs (eggs, bacon, potatoes, blueberry muffin), Christopher had the Wild Western Omelette (ham, jalapeno, onion, cheddar jack cheese. topped with pico and green onions), Dad had the old fashioned oatmeal, because he’s an old fashioned guy, and my brother had the eggs bennie. 

Christopher really likes Skyline Chili and I had never had it, so he convinced me we needed to go there for lunch so I could try it. I did not like it at all. Not even a little bit. I don’t need to ever go back. 

Pasta Garage in Lexington is AMAZING. It’s fresh pasta made in house, and the sauces are good. They have reasonable portions so you don’t end up taking 3 meals home, and the price is great, especially for such a high quality product. We shared the chicken florentine and spaghetti and meatball, both came with a focaccia breadstick. If you are near Lexington at any point, I highly recommend checking this place out. 

I miss homemade ice cream, and Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream really hit the spot. Christopher had the strawberry butter cake sundae (Fresh Strawberry ice cream, Gooey Butter Cake Chunks, Topped with House made Local Strawberry Sauce, Graham crumbs) and DAMNNNNN that strawberry ice cream is SO GOOD. I had a waffle cone with pistachio cake ice cream, which was also delightful and paired really nicely with the bites of strawberry I stole from Christopher. 

Christopher and I tried to get brunch at Tudor’s Biscuit World but got there after the dining room closed, so we went through the drive thru and just got blackberry biscuits as a snack. They were surprisingly good. We’re going to need to find another biscuit world location so we can give it a proper try.

Third Street Stuff & Coffee is one of the funkiest coffee shops I’ve ever been to, and I mean that as the highest praise. I loved the vibe of this place and the coffee was good. They sell stationery my love language), little cute things, stickers, etc. They have lots of seating options, tables and chairs, sofas, armchairs, bright lighting, dim lighting, outdoor seating. It’s a coffee shop for any day and any mood. 

We wanted to give Kentucky a chance to redeem itself in bbq, so Christopher and I hit up City Barbeque for dinner. They were out of two things I wanted to try, smoked turkey and hush puppies, but we told the man taking our order it was our first visit and asked him to recommend some things to replace what I was planning on ordering. He was so kind and helpful and didn’t charge us for our drinks or our chocolate cake as a “sorry we’re out of what you wanted” gesture.

Christopher got the two meat sampler with smoked bone-in chicken thigh/leg, and brisket, with collard greens and fries, it also came with texas toast. I got the smoked bone-in chicken breast/wing with brisket baked beans and corn pudding. And of course the chocolate cake. It was really good. Christopher is a brisket lover, and said it was in his top 5 briskets. The chicken was so well cooked, juicy and smokey, perfect in their sauces, and the sides were all delicious. I wish we had decent bbq near us in VA. This helped fill a tiny bit of the bbq shaped hole in our hearts. The cake was super tasty too. Take me back!

A lot of the touristy things we wanted to do weren’t available either because it’s still winter and they don’t open until Spring, or because it was such a last minute trip and tours were sold out.

We drove by the Mary Todd Lincoln House. I wish we could have gone inside. I love old houses and First Ladies.

We drove down to the Boone Tunnel which is near the Kentucky River, it’s not a tunnel you can drive through, so we just looked at it from the side of the road. I guess you could climb up and walk through it, but it was so muddy and wet that we decided not to do that. It was really cool looking though and the drive down to the river was really pretty. We saw tons of horses, cows, donkeys, goats, deer, and wild turkeys. Plus tons of rocky cliffs and we even saw some icicles, which I love.

On the drive home we made two stops, the first one was at Sanders Cafe & Museum. This is the original location of what would become KFC. It was really cool to see the parts of the original cafe that were still there, including original paneling on the walls, a model of the motel rooms in Sanders’ motel that was next door, the layout of the original kitchen, and of course all kinds of memorabilia throughout the years. I loved seeing the evolution of the KFC bucket, especially the special Christmas season buckets. 

And last, you know if there is a Buc-ee’s anywhere near my road trip route, I’ll be stopping there to use their award winning bathrooms and get a giant beverage. We stopped at Buc-ee’s Richmond, KY and they had fountain Sundrop!! It was a magical trip to my favorite gas station. 

We had a fun five days of adventures in Kentucky. I forgot how beautiful it is and how far you can see the rolling hills and surrounding mountains when you get up high. And driving by beautiful horses for miles pretty much never gets old. 

Have you been to Kentucky? What are some of your favorite things in the Bluegrass State?