Liebman's Second Act: Great Food

They say life is what happens while you're making other plans, and for one of a generation's highest-profile and most well-respected industry journalists in Kentucky, it must often seem just that way.

Dan Liebman worked in various roles at the Daily Racing Form and Racing Times, but was best known for his 17 years at the Blood-Horse, where he rose to the position of editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine before being abruptly let go in 2010.

While he currently continues his contributions to industry journalism through periodic and popular Op-Ed submissions to the TDN, he has rebuilt his career and his life along a distinctively different path, which ironically, now sees him back at the sales grounds on a regular basis.

Liebman is the owner of the wildly popular Staxx BBQ restaurant in Frankfort, Kentucky, where he works alongside his son, Joe, and has grown the restaurant's catering business to include sales consignments at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton, where he is an increasingly popular choice for consignors.

“Someone once said to me, `you used to be the editor of the Blood-Horse and now you're delivering food to the barns,'” said Liebman. “Life takes twists and turns. I enjoyed my time at the Racing Form, the Racing Times, the Blood-Horse. This is a totally different career, but it's really cool and the fact that my oldest son is with me is great. Just like the horses, you've got to have a passion for it. I'm there cutting up the stuff at 1:30 a.m. for that pasta salad myself, because I like the cooking, I like the food. If they enjoy it, then I'm happy.”

Tuesday at the sales grounds found the 57-year-old Liebman already arriving for his second delivery of the day at 11:15 a.m at the Four Star Sales consignment at Barn 18, where he dropped off dozens of lunches which were quickly devoured by a grateful staff.

“I've known Dan from the get-go,” said Four Star's Kerry Cauthen, “and we've used Dan here every year and it's been great. Everybody likes it, there's a lot of variety and a lot of flavor. My favorite is the barbecued hamburger. Good stuff.”

Six years after leaving the Blood-Horse, Liebman is an unqualified success, but change can be difficult and the progression to successful restauranteur was not always linear.

“I left the Blood-Horse in 2010,” said Liebman outside the Keeneland back ring earlier this week. “And I guess for about a year, I just didn't do a lot of anything. I did some fishing, hung out at the farm and tried to figure out what was next. I had some offers but I would have had to move. Susan [Knoll, Liebman's life partner] and I have a farm, my kids are around here and anyway, I didn't want to move.”

Liebman said he had always loved to cook, and had always been “that kid standing on the chair at the kitchen stove near near my mother and grandmother trying to learn how to cook.”

“I actually thought when I went to UK that if journalism didn't work out, maybe I'd do catering. Journalism worked out great for a long time, but I kind of fell back to that other passion.”

Liebman has 12 full-time employees and takes on one additional staff member during the sales, which require long days, little downtime and no days off. While it varies from sale to sale, at Keeneland September, Liebman is providing catering for around 15 consignments, large and small, including Taylor Made, Hermitage, Gainesway, Mill Ridge, Mulholland Springs, Grovendale, Shawhan and around 10 others.

“As the sales have evolved over the years, so has the catering for the workers,” said Liebman. “Some people might have originally used me because they knew me, but if the food isn't good, with good customer service and delivery time, I don't care who you are, they're not going to stick with you just because they know you.”

Liebman said that the business ranged from providing food for a few people in small consignments to hundreds on some days in larger ones.

“It's all over the map. I've got three or four consignors who use us every day of the sale. I've got some that will do one day. Some tell me before the sale, I want you these four days. Some text me that morning. And some people, they let me pick the menu. `Just send us something different every day.' We are one of two that does Taylor Made, and they could have hundreds of people to feed. Yesterday, we did Hidden Brook, and they had three. But, hey, it's the same food, we give it the same customer service, we deliver it the same.”

Both the restaurant and the catering business have grown every year since Liebman opened Staxx in 2011. After a record year last year, business is up another 35% this year. He must be doing something right.

Notorious foodie Sid Fernando, president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, said he knew what that something was: the guy can cook.

“I've known Dan for years, but when Dan transitioned to food, he surprised me,” said Fernando outside the Four Star consignment. “I never expected it because I had never talked to Dan about food. But over the years, at barns here, I'd be eating something, and I'd say, `where's this from?' and they'd say `Dan Liebman's.' And it's like, `wow, this guy has got some of the best barbecue I've had.'”

Four Star's pedigree advisor Frances Karon wandered by, and confirmed the sentiment. “I don't eat hamburgers, but when Dan brings his barbecued hamburgers? I eat them.”

In addition to the smoked burgers, Staxx also delivers a lot of pulled pork and chicken sandwiches, cold cut sandwiches and burritos, as well as other popular foods.

Next week, Liebman will turn from sales vendor to seller, when he and Knoll, along with trainer Larry Jones and his wife, Cindy, offer hip number 2991 with Valkyre Stud, another catering customer. He keeps his finger in the breeding business, and his involvement in the industry can only be helpful to business.

“Susan and I have a filly in training, and we still have a couple of mares,” said Liebman, who lives on a 280-farm near the Franklin County/Scott County border. “Somebody asked me once if the people who use me care that I'm in the industry. And you know, they want the food to be good. But when I go home at night, I look at the results with an eye toward how they sold because I know I'm going to see them the next day, and say, `hey, that More Than Ready colt did great.' I don't think that somebody from Domino's or Subway is going to personalize it that way. ”

Duncan Taylor has been using Liebman (whose uncle, an obstetrician, delivered Taylor, ironically) for the past few sales after the staff expressed dissatisfaction with the prior caterer.

“All I knew is the last two or three sales, everyone has been telling us this food is a lot better, so the staff has been a lot happier,” said Taylor. “They're out here long days and the worst thing is if you're working that long and that hard and you don't have something to look forward to at mealtime. It's great to see a guy like Dan starting his own business, doing a great job and being able to help him.”

Liebman said he enjoys owning a restaurant in his hometown, which allows him to serve the community in which he grew up, and provide charitable aid to those in need, like the local women's shelter for which he donates his services at their annual fundraiser.

But it's clear that racing will always be in his blood, and the area in the overlap between the two might just prove to be his sweet spot, as his appreciation for the lifestyle and the hard work it requires helps him do the job the way it needs to be done.

“I have been on a lot of backstretches and been in a lot of barn areas and I know how damned hard they work, and they deserve a good meal,” said Liebman. “I'm not saying that it's not okay to get them Subway or Domino's from time to time, but at least I know that what I bring over here, it's homemade and we've worked hard on it, and we've done it ourselves. I hope they appreciate what we put into it.”