Kaelin's Restaurant's last night tonight.

[Will Crawford]

I heard a rumor that Kaelin's was closing so I called and they said it was their last night.

[Marsha L.]

I can't stop, so I'm waving. *tears*

[Catherine Davidson]

.... CD

[Will Crawford]

Got to stop the bleeding. I know I am preaching to the choir but we have to keep eating out. What a tough half year for the industry. Hurricane Ike caused power outages that are hard to recover from financially. Then the bottom drops out of the market, followed closely by the great ice storm which caused more power outages.

[Lois Mauk]

That's so sad! Another local institution gone.

[Robin Garr]

That's so sad! Another local institution gone.

Preceded by the loss of Mazzoni's, we're getting down to a very few true old-timers. Who holds the longevity title now? Cottage Inn goes back to the '30s, I believe. Cunningham's more than a century, but I'm not sure if the move from the original (burned) historic house to modern urban-renewal property doesn't add an asterisk. Mike Linnig's is also claiming a 1920s origin now, but that seems to be based on the family's produce stand on Cane Run Road ... the restaurant, until recently, billed itself as open since 1947.

Any other old institutions still around that I'm missing?

[Beth K.]

This is just so sad. Of course I hate to see any restaurant have to close, but for such an establishment to close is a real shame.

Robin, hasn't John E's been around for some time too?

[annemarie m]

John E's circa 1958.

[Robin Garr]

John E's circa 1958.

Good one, Annemarie! I assume you're including the period when it was known as Bill Boland's. This definitely pushes us back past the middle '70s, when the Louisville restaurant explosion really got started.

How about The Old House in Simpsonville? Is it currently open? I guess changing hands and decor periodically makes it kind of an asterisk situation, too, but in some form it's been around since at least our parents' time. I wonder if Science Hill in Shelbyville doesn't go back quite a way, too.

On the Sunny Side, didn't Steinert's in New Albany just recently close? It was another sad loss of an old-timer. Ditto the Southside Cafe(teria?).

[Wes P]

Steinert's had a fire last year. Don't know if they had reopened?

Kaelin's had changed hands sometime in the not to distant past.

[PatrickWhelan]

I just ate there Thursday night. I had a fantastic burger as usual. I am sad to hear this. My grandfather would take me there after I cut their grass a long, long time ago.

[Doogy R]

NOOOOOO, never. The birthplace of the cheeseburger. This place needs to be saved until the end of the planet.

[Mark Head]

NOOOOOO, never. The birthplace of the cheeseburger. This place needs to be saved until the end of the planet.

This is the end of the planet.

[John Greenup]

NOOOOOO, never. The birthplace of the cheeseburger. This place needs to be saved until the end of the planet.

This is the end of the planet.

Doesn't the Mayan calendar give us until December 2012?
Evidently, they envisioned some life beyond Kaelins....

[Scott Hack]

Where is that? I see Speed? Maybe in the picture there.