BARBECUE AND BEYOND: PLANS FOR A DOWNTOWN CULTURAL DISTRICT AND A MAJOR INVESTMENT BY AN INTERNATIONAL FURNITURE COMPANY LIFT LEXINGTONS SPIRITS.

• Author: Mims, Bryan
• Position: TOWNSQUARE: Lexington

To spend a day in Lexington without sampling the barbecue is to tour Napa Valley without tasting the wine. It's Calabash without the fried shrimp, New Orleans without the gumbo, Buffalo without the wings. Saucy metaphors aside, 'cue cuisine is a must-consume around here.

For the last century, much of Lexington's identity has glowed with oak and hickory coals, smelled of pit smoke, and dripped with sauce as red as a Piedmont dirt road. A least a dozen barbecue restaurants keep the flames burning in and around Lexington, a city of about 19,000 people just off Interstate 85 in Davidson County.

At Smiley's Lexington Barbecue, Grayland Kennel and his wife, Lorene, are finishing their lunch when they are asked a familiar question: What is the best barbecue establishment in Lexington?

"What I'm saying is all barbecue in Lexington is good," Grayland says. "It's just under different names."

Barbecue may be Lexington's main entree in marketing itself to the multitudes, but the city brings much more to the table. Central to Lexington's growth plans is an area along the railroad that is being transformed into an entertainment, cultural and retail hub.

Dubbed the Depot District, the project is centered around the old Dixie Furniture Co. plant. Back in its heyday, Dixie employed more than 1,000 people in 15 buildings across nine city blocks, its property straddling the Southern Railway. The factory, which was absorbed into Lexington Home Brands beginning in the late 1980s, closed in 2006 and the city bought the site the following year. About 80% of the plant's structures will remain standing, says Tammy Absher, the city's business and community development director.

Eventually, the sprawling complex will house restaurants, retail and residential space. Durham-based Bull City Ciderworks already has its taps filling mugs of hard cider. Another brewery, Goose and the Monkey Brew House, expects to open later this year. And in 2017, aided by funds provided by Breeden Insurance Services Inc., a local agency, the city built an amphitheater and launched an annual music festival. After a one-year hiatus due to a fire at the plant, the second Depot District Music Fest will be held in April.

A key facet of the Depot District effort is the city's plan for an Amtrak passenger stop in Lexington. "We've been working on the passenger-rail stop since 2004," Absher says, adding that she expects the project to be in "full swing" in about five years. The city is in the...