In Our View: Doors close, doors open

Good news: Two opening announcements in Ashland. First was the announcement that Drake’s will be opening a newly built restaurant in early 2025. Drake’s offers a broad menu with steaks, burgers, sushi, craft beer and cocktails. It will be build on Armco Road near LongHorn Steakhouse. Drake’s has several locations including Lexington and Pikeville.

Sawstone Brewing Co., which is a craft beer pub in Morehead, will be opening an Ashland location on 15th Street between Winchester and Greenup Avenues called Sawstone River Room. There is no opening date yet announced, but it will likely be open before the first touchdown is scored this fall.

The building on 15th Street is owned by downtown building developer Paul Castle. Castle is a physical therapist by training. He has been developing downtown properties for about 10 years. He’s a graduate of Morehead State and played a role in recruiting Sawstone to Ashland.

Craft beer has been an attraction for local folks in recent years. Interest was stirred during the first Firkin Fest nearly 10 years ago. This year, Firkin Fest will be Oct. 5, with advanced tickets on sale in late July. Visit AKY will have more details in the weeks ahead.

Two restaurants abruptly closed last week: Sal’s on Carter Avenue and Bombshells and Ales the following day — both opened and operated by Bill and Christy Bare. They told our reporter they wished to sell and travel more. They also closed The Union. That was a church on Carter Avenue they converted into an event venue and local gathering place.

Is Ashland getting too many restaurants? We hear that often. That’s not our place to say. We prefer market forces to determine the number of eateries.

While we’re pleased to see two new openings, we like to see economic development officials focus hard on former AK Steel properties and the former tannery property, too.