Owner explains why Lexington restaurant known for over-the-top milkshakes is closed

A Lexington restaurant that launched as a bakery and became internet-famous for over-the-top milkshakes has closed.

Cattywampus Station at Lexington Green, located under Joseph-Beth Booksellers and near Palmer’s Fresh Grill and Comedy Off Broadway, has been closed over the winter and will not be coming back after all, owner Tia Chancellor posted on the restaurant’s social media.

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“The plan when we closed for Winter was to reopen this Spring but life is pointing us in a different direction. It will definitely include lots of sunshine and being outside! Oh and lots of time with my kids ... soccer, recitals, basketball, fishing without anyone missing those moments to cover the shop,” she wrote in the post. “On behalf of myself and my family I would like to thank y’all for everything and your understanding.”

Chancellor said that she has been in discussions with someone who might take over the concept and keep it going. But it won’t be in Lexington Green; her lease there ended in April.

The restaurant opened three years ago at 161 Lexington Green Circle, in the part of the shopping center facing the lake, as part diner, part bakery. It served hamburgers and hand-cut fries as well as specialty sandwiches and hot dogs.

But the big draw: Over-the-top milkshakes that Chancellor began serving at her first shop in Georgetown.

“I loved the milkshakes, they got me through the pandemic, and they made people smile,” Chancellor said Monday. “But I didn’t go into this to make milkshakes. ... I went into this to share the food I was taught to make.”

She began her business custom baking cakes from home while she worked as a police dispatcher in Georgetown. In 2013 she opened her bakery, Sweet Matriarch.

Then in 2020 she added amazing milkshakes, made with premium ice cream in mason jars and topped with her made-from-scratch sauces, real whipped cream and baked desserts. She could serve them from a walk-up window even as the coronavirus pandemic was closing down many other dining spaces.

And people in Central Kentucky loved them. So much that they would wait in line for hours to get one or two or three.

Eventually, she decided to expand, adding the Lexington Green location and adding the diner menu. But there was only so much of Chancellor to go around; last year she closed the Georgetown location and now she’s decided to step back entirely to have more time to spend with her children.

“I’ve been inside for 22 years. I’m ready to be outside,” she said. “I loved what I did. I think that’s the thing people don’t realize. Small businesses and restaurants, we don’t do it for the money. You do it because you have that passion for food and you want to do it the right way. It just gets hard.”

She said she will miss getting to know people and celebrating special moments with them, but she is looking forward to having more special moments with her 22-year-old son and her 8-year-old twins.

“I love the restaurant industry, but for me it was time to step back and be with my family,” she said. “I just want to say thank you to all the people who patronized me, helped to support me and my family.”

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