LEM’S CAFE TO OPEN BRICK-AND-MORTAR IN DOWNTOWN BARDSTOWN, JUNE 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM EST

[LEM’S CAFE TO OPEN BRICK-AND-MORTAR IN DOWNTOWN BARDSTOWN, JUNE 2025] 

Great-granddaughter of My Old Kentucky Home banjo player, Lem Reed, and Kentucky Black Trailblazer, Annie Reed, will kick off partnership with Bourbon City Kitchen & Trade Company this summer. 

[Bardstown, Ky., May 2025]—Lem’s Cafe to open brick-and-mortar in partnership with Bardstown caterer, meal prep provider, and retail market, Bourbon City Kitchen & Trade Company, June 2025. 

Amanda Reed Ogilvie, great-granddaughter to My Old Kentucky Home banjo player, Lem Reed, and Kentucky Black Trailblazer, Annie Reed, opened this family-named cafe in June 2024 as a mobile operation to build a customer case, perfect its menu, and reconnect with her childhood home after living in St. Louis for the last five years. 

Ogilvie says, “After graduating with an MBA from Saint Louis University and leaving my corporate job in September of 2023, I needed to find something to pour my soul into. Within that search, I found community—I founded Lem’s Cafe. With the support of family, friends, and with an average monthly revenue growth of 86% in the first six months of business, we are ready to open our first location in the heart of Downtown Bardstown with our new business partners and friends at Bourbon City Kitchen. 

Owners of Bourbon City Kitchen, DJ and Jene Herndon, first partnered with Lem’s Cafe during The Today Show’s recording of the Merriest Main Street in America celebration in December 2024. The small business owners hit it off immediately. Not just in business, but more.

Jene Herndon says, “From values to strategy to friendship, Bourbon City Kitchen and Lem’s Cafe are aligned and excited about the possibilities this partnership will bring—not just to our businesses, but to the community and tourist populations as a whole.” 

With the addition of Lem’s Cafe to the Bourbon City Kitchen location at 105 E. Flaget Avenue, the businesses are adding a commercial kitchen, expansive breakfast menu to couple the ethically sourced and single origin coffee beans from around the world, and a premium lunch bar to provide Bardstown, commuters, and tourists alike more lunch options to suit both tastebuds and dietary restrictions. 

Construction began at Bourbon City Kitchen on May 12, 2025, and the two businesses hope to launch the new menu and open the coffee shop mid-June. 

Bourbon City Kitchen will maintain its normal business operations during construction. Updates about the opening can be found on their social media accounts.

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