Several businesses have come and left Lexington in the past several decades.

But there sits Kearney's Drive-In — same structure and all — still standing at 505 Southbound St., just off of West Fifth Avenue.

The drive-in has been a mainstay in Lexington for 50 years. Barbara Conrad, who co-owns Kearney's with her husband, Gregg, believes she knows the truth as to why the restaurant has been successful for so long.

"Keep it simple, keep it consistent and keep it fresh — that's the secret," Barbara said. "And your customer service, of course, always has to be at the forefront. Good service and good food — it's the best combination you could have."

Dot and Kearney Koontz opened Kearney's in 1967, a few weeks before Christmas. Before settling in with the drive-in restaurant, Kearney owned other food service businesses across town, including Green Door Cafe and a restaurant in the building that used to house John Wayne's Barbecue. 

Steve Koontz, Kearney's nephew, said the idea for the drive-in began with Kearney having a request for O.T. Nicholson, who owned a grocery store and a coal yard in the area.

In front of Nicholson's grocery store was a trailer park, but according to Steve, Kearney envisioned a better use of the space.

"Kearney asked him one day, 'Why don't you get rid of those trailers and build me a hot dog stand over there?'" Steve said. "So eventually he did. He cleaned that lot off and built it."

The restaurant was built by Kearney's brother, according to Steve. The outside structure is the same as it was in 1967. The only things added have been a can wash and a stock room that was previously a bathroom.

Initially, Kearney's only sold hot dogs — six for $1. Through the years, the menu has expanded to included french fries, hamburgers, corn dogs, sandwiches and breakfast items. 

Steve said that as Dot and Kearney grew older, they moved out of the restaurant across the street and began working at Kearney's. After serving 23 years in the military, Steve started working at Kearney's in 1985, in a stint that would last 28 years.

"Kearney would open up and Dot would come in," Steve said. "That's the way they worked together. It was always a family business."

Long Island native Pete Mininni purchased the restaurant in February 2000 after Kearney died in 1998. The Conrads purchased Kearney's in 2006, a year before Dot passed away.

Barbara said their motive was to keep Kearney's nostalgia alive. She also had ties to the business — Kearney knew her father, who always ate at the Green Door Cafe.  

 Her daughter, niece and son have all worked at Kearney's.

"There are so few things in our hometown that are the same with the current passing of the furniture factory," Barbara said. "Those veins run deep because it's the lineage of different families who have lived here for so long. I had childhood memories of being at Kearney's. So when we found out that it could potentially might work out for our family to buy Kearney's, we were thrilled. It's the kind of business that you have to want to do. You can't just decide, well I might want to do it. You have to go all in."

Barbara said Kearney's provides fresh ingredients and makes its own patties, chili and slaw. On average, three people work at the drive-in at one time.

Although the restaurant currently does not accept debit or credit cards, Barbara noted that they were in the process of updating equipment.

 All of the food tickets are handwritten, which provides a personal touch, according to Steve.

"You have a conversation with each individual customer that comes to the window," Steve said. "So you can't come inside — you have to come to the window. You're talking to the person and writing their orders down and asking them how they want it fixed and all that. You've got that personal contact all the time."

Steve said there are people who have been coming to Kearney's for years, and those who never knew it existed.

Since five or six employees consistently work at the window, Barbara said they can usually identify customers before they pull into the parking lot and have their order ready for them.

While Kearney's welcomes returning customers with their food orders ready, the new ones sometimes receive a surprise greeting.

"Those who come for the first time and we can identify them, sometimes we just ask them, 'Have you ever been here before?'" Barbara said. "And they'll say no, and of course we have this huge thing where we say 'Rookie at the window!', and so we embarrass them quite well and we just try to break the ice with them because it is a different creature. It's not going to Sheetz and hitting a button. It's not Sonic and looking at a screen. It's a human and so you have to interact."

Barbara noted that in the 1970s, the area became congested at lunch time because all the workers from the Dixie Furniture plant would come take a lunch break or their spouse would come pick up the food for them. 

In some cases, one person would call Kearney and order around 50 hot dogs at one time, and then someone would pick them up and take it to the workers for their half-hour lunch.

According to Steve, many children looked forward to the end of the week when their parents received a paycheck because it was their chance to eat food from Kearney's.

"It was like when I was growing up as a kid, you didn't get anything Monday through Friday cause momma would cook," Steve said. "But when daddy when out there and brought hot dogs that was a Christmas treat."

Barbara said she and her husband plan to celebrate the 50th anniversary throughout 2018. Nothing is concrete yet, though Barbara did hint that T-shirts may be involved.

The restaurant co-owner said she's heard the place described as a hot-dog joint, hamburger stand and even as a hole-in-the-wall.

But the locals know Kearney's and recognize the family atmosphere as they walk to the window.

There's nothing corporate about Kearney's, according to Barbara — and that's how she and her husband plan to keep it.

"Kearney's is something that you take care of," Barbara said. "It's not something that you try to cookie cutter.

"There's only one Kearney's, and we like it that way."
