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Carrie and CJ Gabrielson live in Nicholasville and are bringing what they call soul to Main Street through their new restaurant idea: Soul on Main. 

CJ’s background had been working in restaurants for 31 years. He’s done everything, from working as a dishwasher to being the General Manager at J. Alexanders in Lexington. 

“I have worked in a kitchen where we serve 24 people, and I’ve worked at a 15 million dollar restaurant,” CJ said at a Nicholasville City Commission meeting. 

“One thing I know as a member of this community is that I would like to have a great sit-down restaurant where I can eat with my family on any day or night of the week. So our vision is to open that on 111 North Main and have some soul in the middle of downtown Nicholasville,” CJ said.

Gerald and Gertie Deeken’s iconic Nicholasville Cafe was the last restaurant at 111 North Main Street. It was a casual joint serving diner food and pies. Due to health issues of one of the owners, the cafe was closed for a few months. But now, the property, owned by the Jessamine County Fiscal Court, is being leased to the Gabrielsons. 

The county is helping to rejuvenate the space as part of the lease agreement with the Gabrielsons. According to Deputy Magistrate Justin Ray, the county is responsible for the building’s HVAC, exterior, a broken window from a recent vehicle collision, and all general upkeep. CJ and Carrie have also been involved in cleaning the inside of the building, hauling out boxes, packaging, and items from decades ago when the building was a department store and, before that, a pharmacy. 

The couple wants to incorporate historical paintings, photos, and some of the things they’ve found from the building’s history into the restaurant’s decor, putting part of Nicholasville’s Soul into Soul on Main. The restaurant will be a full-service sit-down eatery.

In addition to the assistance the Gabrielsons receive from the county with the building’s upkeep, the Gabrielsons attended the last Nicholasville City Commission meeting of January to ask for financial assistance. 

CJ and Carrie have been working with Steve Pracht, the city’s grants administrator. The last commission meeting of January was the first time the new restaurant owners met the city commissioners and Mayor Alex Carter. 

Commissioner Patty Teater told the couple, “I for one am thrilled that we’re gonna have a new restaurant, especially downtown,” and asked “What are you wanting from us?”

CJ responded that the two are looking for a grant to assist with paying for labor as well as “equipment to be able to execute the full menu.” CJ added that this financial help from the city would help them “be able to bring in high-quality cooks as well as management and servers to be able to provide the best experience for our guests and for the community. With equipment, you can’t do this with a shotty, run-down equipment. We’ve already started to put in some of our own money, but a little bit of help never hurts, especially in this industry.”

 

Commissioners expressed excitement over the planning of the new restaurant, but the window for allocating previously available American Rescue Plan Act funds that in part help to support local businesses has closed.

According to Mayor Alex Carter, he would like for the city to help this couple in any way that it can, but has to do research on what’s available to donate first. 

“We’re gonna look into other opportunities and see what grants are available through different resources and see if we can assist them,” Mayor Carter said.

On top of this, CJ and Carrie were asked to bring more information about their business plan to the city’s grants administrator before the commission agrees to assist them. 

“For every contribution that we have within our fiscal budget, there’s a whole lot of hoops that we have to jump through. We have to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement, which is basically a contract on how those funds are gonna be utilized, and then just make sure that they are utilized in the way that we intended,” Mayor Carter said. “There’s an independent financial audit we have to have on how their funds are collected, how their income is generated, and how they spend their funds. On our part, we have to ensure that all public money is utilized to support the community as a whole and not a special interest group or one particular area or group of people.”