Subscribe
Community
Lexington restaurant takes over Roost's old spot
Greers latest to take on legendary location
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
Head specialty chef Terri Welling and waiter Tyler Tyler serve a couple during the lunch hour at the new Lexington Restaurant and Lounge in Lexington Park. David and Krissy Greer of Colton's Point opened the restaurant, which was the location of the historic Roost restaurant, on Oct. 7.
|
E-Mail This Article
A couple with a long history as restaurateurs in Southern Maryland has branched out, taking over and transforming a historic location in Lexington Park.
The new Lexington Restaurant and Lounge, which opened near Patuxent River Naval Air Station early last month, is named in honor of the town's aircraft carrier namesake, said owners David and Krissy Greer.
The Greers, who live in Colton's Point, have owned Lunch Box Diner in Bryans Road for 15 years, and while the cuisines at the two establishments are similar in some ways, Lexington is one step up from the Charles County mainstay, they said.
"Some of it's different. We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at the diner but this place is, like, the finer steaks, seafood. Of course, the bar business is different than at the diner … people can sit up at the bar seating area at the bar and it has a TV, and all sorts of sports, and whatever's on at the time," David Greer said.
The place offers "good old American stuff" like soups, chicken salad and cole slaw, with items for breakfast, lunch and dinner, he said. It also boasts homemade desserts.
Krissy Greer, who does a bit of the cooking for the Lexington, said the business is enduring the normal opening-time chaos but that things are going well.
"It's really good. It started out slow but each day it's progressing," Krissy Greer said. "The customers have been really supportive. My husband likes to go out and talk to our customers, make sure everything is OK."
Their ambition is to fill the shoes of The Roost, which opened in 1948 as hangout for aviators at Pax River and lasted until 2008. After the venerable place, founded by Jack Rue, closed, the location was the home of Bombay Garden, an Indian restaurant that survived for less than two years. Then the Greers decided to give it a go.
Some of the Lexington's customers remember the old days and tell stories, the Greers said. One patron told Krissy about the time Rue and six companions lugged the Roost's bar down the street when settling into the current location in 1950.
Musician Gary Rue, Jack Rue's son, declined to comment for this article.
Krissy Greer redecorated to make the establishment more welcoming.
"It's kind of very homey. I don't have commercial draperies. We just brightened it up." She said. "I do have little seashells on the tables; I was trying to go for a nautical theme, but then the Lexington was an aircraft carrier. … We wanted something to gear toward that base so we thought, we said, ‘Hey, we're going to name it that.'"
The theme is also evident in "Natalie's Nest," the banquet room. Profits from that room will be set aside as a "nest egg" for their daughter Natalie, 19. "Anything I generate in that room will be here for her down the road," David Greer said.
The restaurant is located at 21736 Great Mills Road in Lexington Park. It is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday and is closed on Monday.
