Deed restriction is hurting potential sale of Frankfort’s oldest restaurant

Frankfort’s oldest restaurant has been looking for a new owner but has run into a speed bump on the bourbon trail.

Rick Paul, owner of Rick’s White Light Diner at 114 Bridge St., has been trying to sell his diner near the city’s “singing bridge” for more than a year. But potential buyers get hung up on one thing: A prohibition on alcohol sales put in place decades before the current bourbon boom.

Paul said when he bought the property from the Frankfort Independent School District about 25 years ago it came with a deed restriction that no alcohol could be sold on the premises.

According to the school district, a later agreement allows for beer and wine sales after 3:30 p.m. but everything else is still off limits, which means no bourbon and no cocktails.

Paul said he’s attempted to get the school board to consider lifting the restriction without much success.

“They said, ‘Why don’t you let the person buying it deal with us,’” Paul said. “And no one’s going to buy it with the question mark. ... It’s not going to sell like this.”

The restaurant is currently closed.

What buyers say about the deed restriction

Frankfort real estate agent Brent Simpson, who has been listing the White Light property, said he’s had a lot of people look at it with an eye to capitalizing on Kentucky’s thriving bourbon tourism.

“There’s no way they can do that without the restriction being taken off … that is what we’re seeing. They’re just not interested,” Simpson said. “The deed restriction has been a big factor.”

What the school district says

Paul said he was told the school board wanted the alcohol restrictions on the property “for the safety of the kids.”

The Second Street School playground wraps around the property on the basement level; the restaurant is on the street level, not accessible from the school property.

“The board has not made a decision on the restriction as of now and is still considering the proposal. The rationale for the restriction and any other similar issue is and will always be, the safety of our students,” said superintendent Sheri Satterly in an email.

Other alcohol in the Frankfort downtown area

Paul pointed that there is another bar, Pourter’s, across the street from the school, that serves beer, wine and cocktails.

Simpson, the real estate agent, said that most of the downtown area already is part of a special district that allows patrons to buy a special cup and carry alcoholic beverages around.

“The sidewalk up to the front door is in that district, but (Paul’s) property is not,” Simpson said.

Frankfort’s White Light Diner history

Even with the prohibition on bourbon and cocktails, the tiny White Light Diner has drawn a cult following for its burgers, Cajun and Creole specialties. The restaurant was featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” with Guy Fieri in 2010.

There’s been a White Light Diner on Bridge Street since 1929 and it’s been in its existing building since 1943.

Paul bought the White Light building, where he’d been operating his diner since 1991, at auction in 1997. A trained chef who had owned many restaurants and clubs, Paul built a following for his menu of breakfast specials, handmade burgers and pulled pork as well as his po’ boys and crawfish pie.

He announced in June 2022 that he feels like he’s “cooked enough” and is ready to retire and travel.