By Saffie Mccallister

“Nobody is ugly at 2 a.m.”

That’s the bumpersticker that greets you when you step into the Twig and Leaf, a kind of ’50s meets ’90s diner on Bardstown Road that is a well-known secret among Louisvillians. With a barstool counter reminiscent of the soda fountains of the fifties, and a handful of advertisements from the same time period, one can easily imagine that it’s been around for 45 or so years, which it has.

According to the waiter, in 1957, Benjamin Kelley got out of the Army and decided he wanted to open a restauraunt. Another restaurant in town was closing, so he bought some of their supplies, including an old sign that was found in the back room of the building. The sign is still hanging outside the store. In researching the original Twig and Leaf, it was discovered that it had been a lunch counter in the ’20s serving breakfast and lunch, and in the evening it had been a fan dancing bar, with a headliner with the stage name of Twig, who used leaves to cover herself, thus the name Twig and Leaf.

My mother took me to lunch last week and asked where we should go, and I suggested the Twig and Leaf. She hadn’t ever been, so she agreed. We got inside and squeezed into the booth (and it is a squeeze, as there is no seating that is accessible if you are either larger-than-average, in a wheelchair or on crutches.) With no separate smoking section, my non-smoking mom was unhappy, but got over it quickly, realizing that the ventilation was good.

My mother ordered a bowl of vegetable soup and a BLT, and I ordered the Original Twig, a quarter pound burger, and added cheddar cheese and grilled mushrooms and onions. We also shared a basket of fries.

The soup was rich, thick and spicy, with lots of pepper, and my burger was one of the best I’ve ever had, really juicy and full of flavor. They also grilled the onions well, which many places can’t seem to do. The basket of fries was still half full when we couldn’t eat any more. We had to take some of the food home, so when we got the bill — $14.70 for both of us – we were both shocked by how inexpensive it was.

TWIG & LEAF is located at 2122 Bardstown Road, in Louisville, and the phone number is 451-8944.