The backside kitchen at Churchill Downs opens daily at 6 a.m. when stadium lights still cut through the dark to illuminate horses on the mile-long track.
It's quiet at the restaurant that early, though the track itself has been busy for hours.
At gray tables with maroon vinyl chairs, just three customers sat silently around 6:30 a.m. on a Tuesday — the only sounds coming from behind the cafeteria-style counter, where employees Collin Sharp and Hanna Alesachra were prepping food for service.
For decades, the Post Time Kitchen has served track workers from its building behind a fence on South Fourth Street, slinging cheap, convenient meals to jockeys, grooms and everyone in between.
The restaurant is a place to take a break, hold business meetings and digest the events of the day.
But despite its deep-seated place in the Churchill Downs community, it's remained relatively secret to most outside the track's walls.
"There's a nostalgic aspect to it because it's where the real workers of the track come to eat," said Martin Klotz, a part-time tour guide at the Kentucky Derby Museum.
"Transactions take place here, gossip takes place here and, of course as you can see over there, you can always place a bet," Klotz added, pointing to four wagering machines.
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Klotz has worked at the Kentucky Derby Museum since 2011 and leads two tours that take guests to the backside of the track, where trainers and owners rent barns to house their horses before races.
One of the outings, a four-hour Around the Track golf cart tour, ends with lunch at the Post Time Kitchen — one of the few ways people without direct access to the backside can visit the restaurant.
"(The backside) is the heartbeat of the track," Klotz said. "It’s the greatest place to be of all, in my opinion. The tours I enjoy giving most are the tours that bring our guests onto the backside. That’s really where it happens, as far as I’m concerned."
Klotz would have begun working at the track sooner, had his parents let him forgo higher education for life on the racing circuit.
Growing up in the 1940s, Klotz lived just six blocks from Churchill Downs and would ride his bike to the backside, where admittance wasn't yet quite so strict.
Klotz dreamed of being a jockey, but he ended up becoming a high school teacher, then a special assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice.
"I'm not a bettor; I like the sport," Klotz said of horse racing. "The athleticism and elegance of the horses. I just like the competitiveness of it."
The horses are what keep most track workers coming back for 4 a.m. shifts, where they complete back-breaking tasks with little time to rest.
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Darin Huff, a groom for trainer Ron Moquett, has worked in the racing industry for 29 years. He took a six-year break to get a degree in psychology and work in a substance abuse treatment center near his hometown in Arkansas. But the pull of the horses brought him back to the track.
"My first memory is on a horse," Huff said in between bites of biscuits and gravy at Post Time Kitchen. "... I spend more time on my horses than I do any of the people at the barn."
Huff expects to see a lot of new faces around the kitchen and the backside in general over the next two weeks, as the Kentucky Derby season winds to its peak.
The outside visitors could be cumbersome, but Huff said he welcomes them.
"I'm glad they're back here, it keeps us going," he said. "They pay the bills."
For now, the restaurant stays quiet. Huff gets to eat in peace.
"It's kind of a slow time right now," Huff said. "We're all taking a deep breath, getting ready for the big rush that's going to start (opening night)."
At around 7:30 a.m., three frontside maintenance workers entered the kitchen after picking up a trailer.
They usually don't get to stop by the restaurant until lunch, but the errand took them back there early, allowing them to trade tacos and burgers for eggs and biscuits.
The Post Time Kitchen's menu is split into sections of American and Mexican fare, catering to the large Hispanic population that now calls the backside home.
The workers agreed they liked the options at the restaurant, the home-style cooking, the friendliness of the staff. But what they really come for is the view of the track — so close to the restaurant that mud splatters on its windows as horses gallop on the dirt.
"From here, you can see the whole scope of the place," said Jon Bushart, expanding his arms toward the wall of windows that faces the track's "third turn."
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The view is also what brought Melanie Defler and her guests to the kitchen a couple of hours later.
Defler is the owner of West Meadow Farm in Eminence, Kentucky, where she breeds thoroughbreds. On Tuesday, she brought a group of Colorado farm owners to Churchill Downs, where she walked them through everything the thoroughbred industry entails.
"They're interested in the thoroughbred business, so here we are," Defler said, sitting at a table that faced the twin spires.
"A lot of different people come through here. It's just interesting — the culture of the track and all the people coming through here. If you're bringing new people into the industry, getting them interested in the industry, this restaurant is really great because everyone thinks it's a lot of fun to sit here, look through the windows and watch the horses train."
Dan Adams, of Denver, Colorado, said until the visit, he'd only seen Churchill Downs on TV.
"I think the excitement of watching what goes on, how it goes on — it's just unreal," Adams said.
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Bailey Loosemore: 502-582-4646; bloosemore@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @bloosemore. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/baileyl.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/events/kentucky-derby/2019/04/25/churchill-downs-backside-restaurant-post-time-kitchen-is-a-hidden-gem/3538356002/ 2019-04-25 13:36:00Z
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