After refusing to kowtow to preservationists and the city requesting repairs be made to a decaying house on Frankfort Avenue, Frank Faris is selling the house and his neighboring Genny’s Diner property to Comfy Cow owners Tim and Roy Koons-McGee. News of the pending sale broke on Whas11 and Fox41 Monday night.
From Whas:
It’s a deal that’s been in the works for two months, but Genny’s Diner owner Frank Faris says on Monday he signed the contract to sell the diner and the Queen Anne historic home next door… If the sale goes through, Tim Koons-McGee will be putting the second location of the Comfy Cow, a locally owned, successful ice cream store, right where Genny’s Diner has been selling the Sweet Daddy Burger.
Now, after 27 years, the frickled pickle will be no more, but at least the century-old Queen Anne style house next door won’t become a strip club. Instead, the house will be fixed up and converted into office and retail space. Metro Louisville will provide some financial assistance for the renovation of the house. The new Comfy Cow Ice Cream and Dessert Shot could be open as soon as Valentine’s Day 2011.
Quite a few people believed the house couldn’t be saved and even the most optimistic preservationists were beginning to feel a little uneasy about the Victorian House’s future, but with a deal in the works to save the property and open up a new business next door, the owners of the Comfy Cow could quickly become neighborhood heroes.
ice cream! yay! i’ve been hearing about comfy cow from friends out in westport world but hadn’t ventured out there yet. glad to see we’ll have one in the city. best of luck to the koons-mcgees!
This is the best news of the month. Comfy Cow was voted best ice cream shop in the city by LEO readers. Add to that the removal of two eyesores (and by the way, there’s a new Cuban restaurant across the street) and you have a delicious new chunk of a long delicious street. Yum!
Thank you Tim and Roy! Comfy Cow’s a great store and will fit right in on Frankfort Avenue. Hope you’re able to save that house, it could be a beautiful landmark.
This is amazing news! Thank you Comfy Cow!!!!
Great news! I expect that the Comfy Cow’s presence will be a great fit for Frankfort Avenue, and I applaud the owner’s willingness to take on the restoration of the adjacent Victorian. Their efforts will be much appreciated by their soon-to-be neighbors in Clifton and Crescent Hill.
Patience is indeed a virtue.
Please god, let their third location be where Masterson’s was at U of L, the people of the Southend have no ice cream and Jim Tedesco is too much of a bonehead to put a Graters here.
Are they going to have frickled pickle ice cream as a memorial?
@garyguss – They have comfy cow ice cream across from Iroqouis Park (at the new sister beans coffee place).
@Chuck – @Chuck –
yeah I know, We need a Graeters at Woodlawn or Central Center
I wish news and media outlets would stop mindlessly repeating the “strip club” statement because there never was any basis to it. There never was any bona fide discussion or offer from anyone except Frank Faris about establishing a “strip” club in the Queen Anne. The statement was pure bluff & bluster from Faris, trying to instigate hysteria and simultaneously poke everyone in the eye. All of that said, The Comfy Cow will be a welcome addition to FF Ave & I, for one, can hardly wait.
Gary’s right about Woodlawn. I wonder if Frank would consider re-opening in the old Key Market? I love those fried pickles. He would be next to 2 Leo ranked Best of Coffee (Sunergos) and Vietnamese diner (Annie’s, which should have been #1n instead of #2) so it is a great spot.
@Tom –
Thanks anyway.. Frank can go elsewhere, we don’t need him in Beechmont
The Victorian house with a big outdoor/indoor expansion would make a spectactular ice cream store. The dumpy set back concrete block diner building is a waste of valuable real estate.