All right, you can stop asking.
Cliffside is open again.
Despite the rain and cold, Saturday’s strictly word-of-mouth lunch crowd reached more than 200.
“We didn’t advertise because we knew we would get slammed already,” said Sandy McGaughey, who started cooking at 3:30 Saturday morning. “It’s been nonstop.”
Sandy and her husband, Keith, purchased the land and restaurant on Old Lawrenceburg Road over looking the Kentucky River.
The Frankfort icon has been closed for more than a year after a couple tried to reopen it in 2010 but only remained in business for nine months.
Cliffside by the River officially opens Monday, and will serve customers from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day of the week.
“The only complaint today was when a lady said the coffee was weak,” Sandy McGaughey said Saturday afternoon. “Maybe her taste buds don’t work … no I’m joking, really, if customers want us to change anything up, we’ll do it.”
For now, Sandy McGaughey is the cook. Saturday they served open-faced roast beef, burgers and “lots of shakes, chocolate sundaes and banana splits.”
Keith McGaughey owns Arnold’s Grill and Sports Bar in Lawrenceburg, and the couple started Mac-A-Doo’s Bar & Grill in Frankfort before selling it to new owners.
“We’re kind of on our way out of the bar business,” Sandy McGaughey said.
Cliffside is much more the speed they’re looking for these days.
“I think it’s cute, it’s cozy, it’s homey,” she said while sitting at a booth and looking out the window toward the Kentucky River.
“The atmosphere here is great, too,” Keith McGaughey said. “We’re going to bring it back. It used to be a great place, you know, way back. Maybe we can make it even better than it was at its best.”
“We came here when we were dating,” added Sandy McGaughey.
“That’s right,” her husband reminisced. “We came down here and got you a roast beef.”
Today, open-faced roast beef, hamburgers, mini burgers, coney dogs, meatloaf, homemade gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans will be among the specialties.
The breakfast menu includes country ham, pork tenderloin, waffles, bacon, sausage and biscuits and gravy.
Since the McGaugheys bought the property 3 weeks ago, they and employees Angie and Trevor Tingle have spent hours remodeling and cleaning.
They were frequently interrupted by eager Cliffside regulars stopping to ask about its future.
That’s when they decided not to advertise the reopening.
“I said we’d get slammed, and we did,” Sandy McGaughey said. “But we’re really happy, we’re happy it’s back open, and everyone else is too.”
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