Hayden's Stockyard Eatery - Lexington, KY

Hey guys! It’s been a while since we’ve been around on the blog but you know how life can be…and for us it’s definitely been crazy lately! But while we were away we did get to drop in on one of our new favorite places to eat for lunch, and you’ll never guess where it is. Well, I suppose you will because I’m about to tell you all about it! Hayden’s Stockyard Eatery is located inside of the Bluegrass Stockyards Regional Marketplace off of I-75 in Fayette County, and although it’s not a conventional place for a restaurant it offers some of the freshest cuisine around! All of their menu items are prepared fresh every morning; from the ridiculously tasty burgers to the made-from-scratch biscuits and everything in-between, you’d be hard-pressed to find a place that puts more work into their meals than the awesome people at Hayden’s. A few weeks ago Renee, Nathan and I got the opportunity to sit down with Butch and Sam, the managers of Hayden’s Stockyard Eatery, and they were kind enough to tell us all about how they got started and what you can expect when you stop in for a bite to eat!

We met up with Butch and Sam early one morning to talk about Hayden’s and how it came to exist inside of the Bluegrass Stockyards Regional Marketplace, and they were super nice to take the time out of their busy schedules to answer all of our questions. The owner of Hayden’s, DaRae Marcum, runs a full-time catering business so she leaves the day-to-day operations of the restaurant to these two very wonderful and knowledgable gentleman. You would think that an eatery operating inside of a stockyard would exclusively cater to the fine people who are in the building to buy and sell livestock, but our new friends told us that most of their clientele actually consists of locals from both Lexington and Georgetown. They also routinely get customers from up to 50 miles away, and have seen travelers from all over the country who have stopped in after visiting either the stockyard or their neighbors at the Kentucky Horse Park. It’s also important to note that this isn’t your daddy’s stockyard of years past; this is a state-of-the-art facility unlike any in the country, and it’s definitely one of the nicest ones you’ll see. What I really think is cool about the whole place is that it’s classified as a green facility - you won’t find any waste here because it’s all hauled off in trucks and transported to another location! All of this came about because of a terrible fire that happened 3 years ago at the original stockyard in downtown Lexington; you may remember seeing all of that smoke for hours hanging in the air all over town, I know I do! The owners of the stockyard already owned a huge piece of land outside of Lexington, so they decided to move out there and the new place has been open since September 2017. They loved DaRae’s food so much that they asked her to open a farm-to-table restaurant as a part of the new digs! She was more than happy to oblige, and dedicated the name of the eatery to her late father, Hayden, who passed away a few months after the restaurant opened.

The food that is served at Hayden’s Stockyard Eatery is truly some of the freshest food you’ll eat in a given day. A fun fact about Hayden’s is that they do not have any refrigeration on site, which means all of the meals are not only made to order, but also made from scratch. For example, they make between 100-150 biscuits per day, and those are made early in the morning and last throughout breakfast and lunch. Hayden’s works with a local Lexington company to get their ground beef supply, and their burgers are made of a chuck, sirloin, and brisket mix. These burgers are definitely their best seller (having had one in the past I can attest to their tastiness!), but they also sell a fair amount of chicken as well. They love supporting local farms and pride themselves on their farm-to-table atmosphere. We’ve dined at Hayden’s several times now, and you can always expect to find some farmers stopping by for lunch, as well as local fireman and police officers, plus all kinds of people from different walks of life. Like Butch and Sam said before, you never know who you’ll see dropping in for a bite to eat! The mayor of Georgetown even stops by for a meal once or twice a month!

After we finished talking with Butch and Sam, Butch treated us to a very delicious lunch. Because they have such an eclectic menu, we were each able to get something completely different than each other. Renee had the Yard Bird Basket with fried chicken strips, honey mustard, fries, and a biscuit with blackberry jam. Nathan had the Lisle Road Burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles and cheese and some fries. And I had Hayden’s Hot Brown, which of course is an open-faced turkey and ham sandwich with bacon, tomato, cheese and mornay sauce with a side of fancy fritters (jalapeno corn fritters with a sweet orange marmalade). Renee and I have already confessed our love for Hayden’s fine home-cooked cuisine but this was Nathan’s first time being here, so we were excited to hear his opinion about the burger. He said it was legitimately one of the best-tasting burgers he’s ever eaten, and that he would love to come back and try the other menu items as well. We also asked Butch and Sam about their favorite Hayden’s staples; Butch loves the Hot Brown, while Sam really enjoys the shrimp and grits (I know what I’m getting the next time - I love shrimp and grits!). Of course, we can’t forget about the myriad baked goods for sale at Hayden’s as well; all of their cakes and gourmet cupcakes are made in-house every day, and we can safely say that you won’t regret getting one of these bad boys because they are delicious!

I know that it seems kind of wild to head on over to the stockyard for a nice bite to eat, but after reading this post I feel pretty confident that you’ll be making the drive up I-75 to try some of these awesome dishes! One of these days we’ll make it up there for Sunday brunch (the best meal of the day, obviously), and I personally want to go to Fish Fry Fridays, the one day of the week when Hayden’s is open for dinner. Growing up Catholic I sure do love a good old-fashioned fish fry, and now that I have a more flexible schedule I’ll definitely be hitting it up this spring! Plus the stockyard is definitely worth checking out; not only do they house livestock, they also have a gift shop, a butcher shop, and a museum that showcases the history of stockyards in Kentucky. Another fun fact about the Bluegrass Stockyards Regional Marketplace is that the entrance walkway is made of bricks that were salvaged from the original stockyard, so there’s a little bit of the old mixed in with the new. The gift shop even sells items from local artists, including work-working pieces by the police chief of Bourbon County - you can’t get much more local than that! So jump in the car and take the whole family up to the Bluegrass Stockyards Regional Marketplace and check out the fantastic food at Hayden’s Stockyard Eatery, and tell them that your friends at Bluegrass Bourbon and Eats sent ya!