Engine House says goodbye . . . for now

Walkers are presented with award for their leadership

One of Winchester’s most his­toric and beloved restau­rants, The Engine House Pizza Pub, served up its last pies and bev­er­ages on Saturday, May 10. At least, for the “fore­see­able future.”

A vic­tim of staffing issues, down­town con­struc­tion, and a “loss of mojo,” the own­ers, Jill and Chad Walker, made the dif­fi­cult deci­sion to sus­pend oper­a­tions, but left open the pos­si­bil­i­ty that the pop­u­lar down­town estab­lish­ment may one day reopen.

Friends and patrons gath­ered Saturday evening for the usu­al mix of good food, drinks, live music, and fel­low­ship. There were sto­ries, laughs, and a few tears among the folks who gath­ered to send off the Walkers in style.

Fittingly, the last act fea­tured the vir­tu­oso tal­ent of Central Kentucky’s world-renowned gui­tarist, Ben Lacy.

The restau­rant, which had been in oper­a­tion since the 1950s, takes its name from the orig­i­nal use of the build­ing at 9 W. Lexington Ave: a fire sta­tion. Constructed in 1886, the build­ing was left vacant just 22 years lat­er when the fire depart­ment moved out. For much of the rest of its his­to­ry, the build­ing has housed var­i­ous restaurants.

Most locals will remem­ber it as a deli run by Bob Tabor for near­ly 40 years. It changed hands a cou­ple of times before the Walkers took over. They pur­chased the busi­ness in July 2020 and reopened it dur­ing what Jill said at the time was  “the worst time in the his­to­ry of mankind because of the coronavirus.”

Despite Jill’s reser­va­tions, the busi­ness flour­ished, draw­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of fans to its cozy and quaint location.

“A small token of deep gratitude”

Although the Walkers had planned Saturday’s cel­e­bra­tion as a clos­ing act, they were unaware that some of their friends and fel­low down­town busi­ness­peo­ple had a sur­prise in store for them.

Led by Adam Kidd and Jon Paul Martin, the group Adam referred to as “the Downtown Club” pre­sent­ed a beau­ti­ful fire­house-inspired plaque, assem­bled with assis­tance from Winchester fire­fight­ers, to Jill and Chad Walker as the inau­gur­al recip­i­ents of the “Civic Leadership Award.”

Adam praised the Walkers as “two indi­vid­u­als whose effort, self­less­ness, wis­dom, and unfail­ing integri­ty have empow­ered a com­mu­ni­ty and charged us all to make Winchester a place we can be proud to call home.”

He con­tin­ued, “A great leader inspires con­fi­dence in oth­er peo­ple and moves them to action.”

The award was pre­sent­ed by Jon Paul, who also had some remarks to share.

Calling the Walkers “the heart behind Engine House Pizza Pub,” he described their impact on Winchester, which extends far beyond oper­at­ing a pop­u­lar eatery and gath­er­ing spot.

“[The Walkers] have shown unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to our com­mu­ni­ty through their gen­eros­i­ty, ser­vice, and lead­er­ship,” Jon Paul said. “Whether it was qui­et­ly donat­ing to those in need, step­ping up to sup­port down­town revi­tal­iza­tion, or men­tor­ing fel­low small busi­ness own­ers, the Walkers have con­sis­tent­ly put oth­ers first.

“They stood up for local entre­pre­neurs, vol­un­teered count­less hours on civic projects, and led with integri­ty, even when the fight wasn’t theirs to fight. As they pre­pare to pause this chap­ter, we hon­or them not just for what they’ve built, but for how they’ve lift­ed all of us along the way.”

As the award was pre­sent­ed and pho­tos tak­en, it was pret­ty evi­dent that both Chad and Jill were deeply touched by the appre­ci­a­tion and love freely bestowed upon them by the throng of friends and patrons of their establishment.

“I’m not dead...”

In speak­ing with Chad, I was struck by the notion that, while he and his wife were done with the has­sles and headaches of run­ning a restau­rant and they have oth­er projects to work on, they would very much like to see some­one reopen and take charge of the busi­ness eventually.

“We start­ed this because we want­ed to see the Engine House con­tin­ue its long tra­di­tion,” he told me, “and we’d very much like to see that live on in some form or fashion.”

Later, Chad addressed the crowd with his usu­al mix­ture of good-natured humor and elo­quence. He opened by dis­pelling rumors cir­cu­lat­ing around town con­cern­ing the closure. 

“I’m not dead . . .  Jill and I aren’t get­ting a divorce . . .  I’m not bank­rupt, inca­pac­i­tat­ed, or incar­cer­at­ed, although I am work­ing on all three. There’s also a rumor that I am mak­ing a slow attempt to drain all the kegs and bourbon—and that one is actu­al­ly true.”

Walker closed his speech with the fol­low­ing words.

“The one tru­ly unex­pect­ed thing [when we opened the Engine House] was the amount of love and friend­ship we gained from you guys over the years. We don’t know what the future holds for the Engine House, but right now, tonight, this is the very rea­son why we kept this place going.  So, on behalf of the staff, Jill and myself, and every­one who’s ever passed through those doors . . .  thank you guys for everything.”

Thank you, Jill Walker and Chad Walker, for all you have done for the com­mu­ni­ty you love—and that loves you.

This is not good­bye. This is “see ya soon.”

Gallery

Some of the his­tor­i­cal details for this sto­ry were tak­en from a July 2020 arti­cle in The Winchester Sun, writ­ten by Randy Patrick.