Ten Years of Smithtown
A Puerto Rican chef, a former Iowa farm kid, and a local artist walk into a bar. Oh wait, make that a brewery. Actually it’s a seafood restaurant. And there’s an indoor farm on the other side of the wall. And the building housing them all used to be a bakery. Confused yet?
Smithtown Seafood, routinely named one of Lexington’s best seafood restaurants, is turning 10 years old! And as we celebrate its birthday, we’re also taking a moment to savor all the ingredients that make Smithtown such a special place.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Smithtown the community was founded in 1867 by formerly enslaved African Americans. After the Civil War, Lexington’s African American population increased by over 100% as neighborhoods were established in and around the city.
According to the Lexington Times, University of Kentucky professor Rich Schein explained the growth of post-Civil War neighborhoods like Smithtown by describing how “recently freed slaves sought opportunity, communal security and anonymity in urban enclaves.”
In addition to an African American school and a baseball team called the Smithtown Reds, Smithtown was also home to the Holsum Bakery, eventually renamed the Rainbo Bread factory. The building housing the bakery was sold in 1995 and became vacant in 2008. But not for long.
As Ben Self and his co-investors were building out the West 6th Brewery in 2011, Ben’s wife Rebecca Self, and a board of directors that included Holly Hill founder Chef Ouita Michel, were hatching plans for an indoor aquaponics farm called FoodChain.
FoodChain needed a retail partner, as Rebecca put it – a “link to the outside world; a way to connect people living in an urban environment with fresh seafood and greens, and a dependable outlet for FoodChain’s harvest.” A sort of storefront window into a landlocked FoodChain.
And so along came Smithtown Seafood, FoodChain’s slightly younger and inseparable sibling, which, like other Holly Hill restaurants, was named for its neighborhood.
The family ties are strong. Leandra Forman, FoodChain’s co-executive director, says the siblings “have grown step by step with each other, providing support, fresh foods, and collaboration since day one.”
“We love to borrow each other’s stuff, argue about little things, and always 100% back each other up on everything that really matters! FoodChain would absolutely not be where we are today without the Smithtown team, from Chef Ouita’s foundation, to Chef Agnes’s fresh ideas, inspiration to excel, and just love for the farm and everything FoodChain.”
“Smithtown meals sustain our work – Singapore Salad is a staff favorite, but slowly getting eclipsed by the Singapore Shrimp Wrap (blackened!), the Buffalo Catfish Bites, Salad Supper, Chicken Fingers, and currently (for me) THE LOBSTAH!”
Agnes Marrero at FEAST, 2023
Remember the Puerto Rican chef? That’s Agnes Teresa Marrero Rosa, who’s been at Smithtown almost from the very start; she started the second week of operation. Chef Agnes melds the sensuous tropical flavors of her native Puerto Rico with Kentucky Proud ingredients into Smithtown’s weekly specials.
“My cuisine and the Caribbean are my inspiration. I grab it with all my heart. And this is such a privileged place; I have a farm behind my kitchen.” A farm which supplies her year round with salad lettuces, microgreens, fresh herbs and tilapia.
Chef Agnes isn’t the only long-timer at Smithtown Seafood. The new general manager is Persephone Harper, who’s worked there for eight years. Persephone, who grew up on an Iowa pig farm, is excited to take her turn as GM.
“I hadn’t worked in a restaurant before Smithtown. When I moved here, I had the hardest time finding a job but (former GM) Dante (Galtieri) gave me a chance and I appreciate that.”
“There’s this spirit to Smithtown. We’re super privileged to be in this neighborhood, taking care of our co-workers and looking out for people. It’s important to make connections. They’re just friends you haven’t met yet.”
“I like to collect graphic t-shirts. It’s a way to start a conversation with our customers and that’s really fun. Today I’m wearing a lion king/black panther mashup. Our customers know me by my t-shirts and will come in to see which one I have on.”
Tandra – TT for short – Robertson moved to the Smithtown neighborhood four years ago but she’s been at Smithtown Seafood for nine. TT works as a prep cook and kitchen supervisor.
“I like that I don’t have to travel far to get to work. Our neighbors like to know what Smithtown Seafood is like inside so I give them the menu, tell them about it, tell them to come check us out.”
“We don’t have a store close by so this is like the nearest place they can come to get a drink or chips or something for the kids. And they see all kinds of employees – Black, white, Hispanic. They can come in and be comfortable.”
Morgan Wells Cain is one of Smithtown’s newest employees and another nearby resident. She’s also a local artist who’s worked with Art on the Move, a mobile art education resource for area schoolchildren. One of her pieces hangs in the window of Smithtown Seafood.
“I’ve been a customer ever since I moved to Lexington. It’s my spot to bring out-of-town visitors. Last year I moved into the Coolavin apartments and thought, this is cool, I can eat here more often. Then I brought my aunt for lunch and realized it would be really awesome if I could work here because it’s literally five minutes from my front door.”
“A lot of my neighbors come here. Smithtown Seafood is like their doorway, where they can feel like they’re a part of something that’s not overlooked. I’m known as the Smithtown lady and it’s a positive image in a community that needs more of that.
And I have interesting and eclectic co-workers. We have conversations throughout the day that inspire me. I’ve never worked in an environment that was so modern, so inclusive, so free of prejudice.”
Morgan’s Smithtown artwork depicts a boat on the waves, filled with city buildings and watched over by a colorful fish, itself supporting a tree with a swing suspended from its leafy branches.
It’s a message that we’re all in it together. That we all need water and shelter and food and trees for shade and play. That a seafood restaurant can share space with an indoor farm and an old neighborhood can attract new residents. And that we can all find reasons to celebrate ten years of Smithtown Seafood.
10 years of FoodChain and Smithtown Seafood by the numbers:
$121,371.07 in Smithtown Seafood purchases from FoodChain
10,926.56 lbs of lettuce = 58,275 servings of salad
2730.38 lbs of fish = 14,562 servings of locally raised aquatic protein
Related Content
FoodChain: Chats on the Porch and Fish in the Basement?!
Take a couple of visionaries and a derelict hulk of a factory, add a burning desire to make the world a better place, toss in a stick of dynamite in the form of a passion for food and making connections and you get ~ fish in the basement? Well not quite….but when Ouita Michel and Becca Self were sitting on Holly Hill Inn’s front porch over a decade ago, trying to improve their little corner of the world, they kept coming back to the one unbreakable link between them. And ten years later that message and goal resonates strongly with Chaquenta Neal as she takes the reigns.
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