LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An empty, old church in NuLu is being resurrected into a Cajun restaurant and sports bar. The Refuge in Kentucky Church on Hancock and Market Streets will be transformed into Churchkey.
“We will have two indoor bocce ball courts on either side, center aisle with pub tables, that kind of thing,” Churchkey owner Scott Smith said. “TV screens all around underneath, maybe even find a big jumbotron on Ebay to put in, then we'll open all this up. There will be bar space, seating, foosball tables, that type of thing.”
Smith is a former Marine and big-time night club owner on both the east and west coasts.
“This is where they kept the tithes. This is about a 1,000-pound door,” Smith said, showing off the vault inside the church. “This is where we found the key. We found the church key in here, so it works.”
Weyland Ventures bought the building, and Smith came up with the concept.
“Historic preservation is in our DNA," said Lee Weyland, Weyland Venture’s director of leasing. “We've been preserving and restoring buildings in Louisville for the past 25 years.”
It will be a restaurant with coffee and pastries in the morning and Cajun food at night.
“We'll open that up at 7 a.m. for coffee and beignets and croissant," Smith said. "And then happy hour later on it, will transition after toward dinner time as a bar operation."
But why Cajun food in Louisville? Smith said there are strong ties.
“We've got this connection that's almost sister city-ish with New Orleans,” he said. “If you think about, in the 1850s and 1840s, there was a huge reverse migration from norther Louisiana of the German community, which populated this church. They came up river with the steam boats, and that makes sense to me.”
There will be an outdoor patio for performances, and an indoor event space for weddings and parties The gymnasium will transform into a sports bar with bocce ball and games. A new building will be built next door.
Churchkey will open in phases.
“Let's open the main restaurant downstairs with the patio and the new building,” Smith said. “Then the following year, let’s do the sports bar in the back, as well as this room that we're in now, which is the event room banquet room.”
The first phase should be open by fall of next year.
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