Fat Luey’s open for business in downtown New Albany

Hungry residents and visitors have a new restaurant to dig into in downtown New Albany. Fat Luey’s opened for business with a soft opening the weekend of June 30 and the restaurant was swamped with standing room-only customers.

Angie Barmer

Suzanne Roberts places the fat Luey’s sign outside the restaurant letting people know that the restaurant is open. The restaurant is located next to The Coffee Addict in downtown New Albany.

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The Roberts’ family decided to open this business and will run it together as a family. The family members include Blake and Alyson Roberts, Glendora Roberts, and Suzanne Roberts. The family’s dog, Luey, is what the restaurant is named after. He is a blonde and white Boston Terrier.

The Roberts’ family is discussing letting customers bring in framed photos of their dogs for the décor inside the restaurant to hang on the exposed brick.

Glendora Roberts said, “When we opened up the first weekend, we had an overwhelming response from customers and had a steady flow of traffic both days.”

Plans for the restaurant are to be open for lunch and dinner, but the hours are not set yet and the menu will be on a trial run basis until the owners know exactly what the customers like the best.

Nevertheless, customers have tried and loved the rib eye steaks and the rib eye steak sandwiches. The steaks are being cooked by former Angus Steakhouse chef Hubbard Willard. The ribeyes that are offered are 6-ounce, 8-ounce, 10-ounce, and 12-ounce, and New York strip and filets will be available when the restaurant offers specials.

Some of the other menu items are catfish that can be prepared blackened, cajun, lemon pepper seasoned, grilled, or fried, as well as chicken strips, hamburgers, hamburger steaks, banana pudding, various cakes, and there is a children’s menu as well.

Glendora Roberts said, “It was hard having to adjust to buying groceries for a whole restaurant, because you are not sure how much you will need of everything.”

Suzanne Roberts said that they plan to use as many local vendors as possible and talked about going to the Biscuits and Jam Farmers’ market to pick up fresh produce.

She said, “I have always liked cooking for people and seeing what they liked. Both of my grandmothers are great cooks and I learned from them.”

Alyson Roberts said, “This is something that Suzanne had been wanting to do for a long time, so we went for it.”

The definite hours of Fat Luey’s will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 5-9 p.m. Lunch hours and additional days and times will be decided on soon.

Fat Luey’s is in the former Butcher Block location at 106 W. Bankhead Street, next to The Coffee Addict. The restaurant’s phone number is 662-539-7005. The restaurant does accept cash, debit cards, and credit cards. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be scheduled at a later date.