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Tolly Ho

Mar 30, 2010
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Never been there before. I know it's a UK staple. We live in Eastern Kentucky and usually eat at "nicer" places when we are down there. Anyway, is it worth a trip to eat there or is it not? Thanks
 
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Never been there before. I know it's a UK staple. We live in Eastern Kentucky and usually eat at "nicer" places when we are down there. Anyway, is it worth a trip to eat there or is it not? Thanks
It is a greasy spoon type burger joint that is great after a night of drinking. I would recommend the HO.

Order a HO at 2:00 AM and you will fall to sleep like a baby.

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It used to be a really fun icon at its old location on south limestone when it was by Pazzos and across from Kennedy Bookstore on late nights as a UK student. That whole area has changed and the new location is on its own and it’s just an average greasy spoon at this point. Only reason I eat there when I’m in town now is nostalgia from the old location.
 
Never been there before. I know it's a UK staple. We live in Eastern Kentucky and usually eat at "nicer" places when we are down there. Anyway, is it worth a trip to eat there or is it not? Thanks
Dude, don't do it. So gross. You'd have better food at your diner in Eastern Kentucky.
 
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It is a greasy spoon type burger joint that is great after a night of drinking. I would recommend the HO.

Order a HO at 2:00 AM and you will fall to sleep like a baby.

o.jpg
Great burgers and a great all-day breakfast menu too. Campus legend. worth a trip. I try to get there a couple of times a year when I go to campus to visit my sons.
 
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Great burgers and a great all-day breakfast menu too. Campus legend. worth a trip. I try to get there a couple of times a year when I go to campus to visit my sons.

When I was a sophomore I got breakfast there at least twice a weak. Bacon, eggs, and a huge pile of hashbrowns and it’d be around $5
 
Original Ho was on Euclid, around the corner from Wallaces, literally a hole in the wall. Stood outside in the rain once waiting for a table, alcohol may have been involved.
Remember it well during my UK years and yes, alcohol was almost always involved. Original Ho- 1971-1987.
 
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You should go even if it’s just once. Make sure and tell them it’s your first time there, trust me it’s worth it.
 
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I lost my Ho V-Card there on a Saturday afternoon Labor Day weekend freshman year when I walked in and tried to pay with my student ID. I don’t think I ever ate there again before 1 AM. I was always a Big Tolly fan, which is a Big Mac knockoff. Not sure if I’ll ever go again because it was a pure nostalgia play.
 
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Tolly Ho is great, but far from the same at the 'new' shiny location...actually visited earlier this year at 2am for the first time in I'd guess 15-20 years.

Super Ho w/ Egg or Big Tolly + cheese fries ftw.
 
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What I never understood was The Varsity down in Atlanta. Went down there when my brother got married and everyone there that was native was saying how it’s just the best and I can’t miss it. So I went with some of my family members and we were all just like ‘ok?’

I love Tolly Ho but unless someone specifically asks for that type of restaurant I’d never recommend it.
 
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Some of you guys/gals (I don't want to use the incorrect pronouns) surely remember the old 803 South, where the railroad underpass is now on South Broadway? I lost at least as many IQ points at that joint as anywhere, including Two Keys, which is closed, but at least the building is still there.
 
Doesn't count unless you ate there at 2 AM, that was the true Ho experience

Hi Ho. Hi Ho. A Ho-ing we will go . . .
I thought that was chi o.




When I lived on that side of campus, I was too poor to eat at tolly ho. The house I shared with at least six other guys is now a parking lot. When I got a part time job and moved out to the typical new circle road apts, it was never thought of again. I missed my window.



My UK frosh son currently enjoys. 😍
I stopped in on my son(soph) two weeks ago. I was there just long enough for lunch and he suggested this place, tolly ho, that he had stumbled upon. We had never before talked about it.


I also submit that Lynaghs ORound equally pulls on the ol heartstrings.
We spy on our kids through Life360. Last year I noticed Lynaghs was in his regular rotation. With the older son, we(wife included) don't use the 360 to check up on, but more so to live vicariously through.
 
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Never been there before. I know it's a UK staple. We live in Eastern Kentucky and usually eat at "nicer" places when we are down there. Anyway, is it worth a trip to eat there or is it not? Thanks
Ate there after midnight 100 times in college. Ate there at 8:00 pm one time the week of finals my senior year and thought it was awful.

Eat it when drunk.

Burger with sunny side up egg on top and hash browns w/ cheese.
 
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It’s ok for some traditions to die off. This is one of them. If you’re not a broke ass college student it will probably just tear your stomach up.
Hell to the no. That Campus has changed so damn much since I went there from ‘89-‘93. I want this last bit of my history there to stay put.
 
It’s ok for some traditions to die off. This is one of them. If you’re not a broke ass college student it will probably just tear your stomach up.
20 years ago I could handle the ho but now I’d probably have to run uk med center for an angioplasty or at least a high colonic
 
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I had a job one year when I was at UK that required me to get up very early, like 5:00 AM. I’d go there sometimes for breakfast and watch people go in and out, some never having slowed down all night. Some funny, crazy stuff sometimes. It was a lot of decent food for cheap for a broke college kid. Since it moved I haven’t had much interest in going. That campus has changed so much, it’s hard to recapture those feelings anyway. Time is undefeated.
 
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I remember the one armed cook who was spectacular along Radioman. Loved that place. 2 eggs toast and coffee .59 cents. Add hash browns .99. Used a set of their cutlery throughout 4 years. Big Tolly was it.
 
A cheese omelet there is $8.69 now. I’m pretty sure it was $1.05 back in the day. Nasty. But good nasty. But cheap af. $8.69 feels like a violation of some unwritten law to me.
 
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Learn patina… like a seasoned cast iron skillet. Clean it with soap, and it’s ruined…. That said…It’s gone. Closed.
 
Any old timers remember this dive? On the corner of ....East High and Rose. What a shock. Had decent chili. I think they filmed a scene from the movie Steel here. The same movie where the stuntman died when his airbag busted in Lexington during filming of the movie.

810610HighonRosecp.jpg
 
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