Wagner's Pharmacy marks 100th year hosting horse racing fans, celebrities

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Wagner's Pharmacy is marking a huge milestone this year.

Sterling Riggs and Candyce Clifft had breakfast with owner Lee Wagner to talk about the Louisville landmark's 100th birthday. You can read their conversation below:

Lee Wagner: It's crazy to think that it's been here 100 years. And I think back to the stories that my father told me, and my grandfather starting off as a delivery boy for Hagen's Pharmacy and then how the whole ownership came about. He fell in love with medicine and working for Mr. Hagen. And then when Mr. Hagen passed away in 1922, my grandfather took a loan from my great aunt and borrowed the money to buy what's now Wagner's pharmacy. And here we are 100 years later.

Candyce Clifft: Has it always been a pharmacy and the restaurant, or did the restaurant come later?

Lee Wagner: It started off as just the pharmacy. And then they had a soda fountain, and it had two stools, so two seats, then it went to 4-6-8. And then eventually the counter, I think it was in the 60s when they expanded it to the 20-seat fountain. Currently, when we moved over, we have 10 now, but we kept all the same tables, same Formica countertop and, of course, the same grill. We've got all a lot of the soda fountain, things that were there from that last renovation in their late, late-50s, early-60s.

Sterling Riggs: But what do you say to people who say you need to build bigger, you need to make these changes, you need to update this?

Lee Wagner: You know, you do have to do subtle updates and do little things. But the most important thing here is the nostalgia. And that's what people that's what people come here to see. So, you know, you walk a fine line with it.

Candyce Clifft: I do think it's interesting that this place is sort of a tourist attraction and just the regular restaurant for so many people who work over there. Those two things sort of collide, I guess, every day here.

Lee Wagner: We're kind of the home away from home for a lot of the horsemen. So, they all come in here and eat and then the regulars and the horsemen combined, and they talk. It's almost like cheers, where I mean really, everybody I know it sounds like a cliche, but everybody really does know each other's name after you know couple of times eating in here.

Sterling Riggs: What have you learned from your father ... something that really sticks out in my mind?

Lee Wagner: Just, you know, being an honest and fair person and the community, you know, and trying to be somebody that the people here, our team can depend on and know that even though you got difficult times and difficult situations that we're going to be here.

Sterling Riggs: A lot of characters walk through these doors. What's the craziest thing that's ever happened at Wagner’s? Or maybe the tallest tale.

Lee Wagner: I'll tell you one that I thought was hilarious. And of course, it's Kaiser with the racehorse liniment, and Keith continued to rub it into his camera man's foot, and he kept going on and on.

That cracked me up, and it had all the customers in here laughing. But I’ve got to give Keith credit. The sales of the racehorse liniment went through the roof the following week. I'm serious. They went through the roof. So, we owe him for that.