Come together: Abbey Road Eatery and Ales builds community with classic pub food

This story was originally published on the Local Profile of Collin County Magazine website on June 26, 2019.

One of Lee Herdman’s earliest experiences with food comes from a summer stay with his grandfather, who was a captain in the British army.

The family would stay over for weeks at a time, which meant that every Sunday the whole family would sit together for a traditional meal that included brussels sprouts.

Lee, then a child, hated brussels sprouts.

“We would have this battle of wills every Sunday and I would eat everything else and sit there,” he remembers. “I would literally fall asleep at the dining table like 8 or 9 o’clock that night and he’d carry me up to bed and we’d go Monday to Saturday, and the next Sunday it would start again.”

One Sunday, the family sat down for dinner—a dinner without brussels sprouts. Instead, there were fresh potato pancakes on everyone’s plate.

“I was like, ‘I’ve won,’ ” Lee tells me. As he “tucked in”, his grandfather looked on, smiling.

The next week his grandfather asked Lee to help him cook the Sunday dinner. Lee was elated. He walked into the kitchen ready to give a hand. On the counter were a bowl of mashed potatoes and a bowl of shredded brussels sprouts. His grandfather took the potatoes, stuck brussels sprouts inside and began to fry as Lee looked on.

Lee had been eating brussels sprouts.

Abbey Road Eatery and Ales now serves a bubble and squeak meal complete with brussels sprouts inside the potato cakes. It’s served with poached eggs, bacon and Hollandaise sauce, and it’s Lee’s favorite meal on the menu.

The walls of Abbey Road are painted the color of owner and general manager Lee’s favorite soccer team. Those walls surround deep wooden tables and chairs, and a fireplace with a sepia-toned photo of a smiling boy. A Union Jack in the shape of Texas rests on the wall next to signs depicting the day’s specials. It’s all meant to echo the look and vibe of a British pub. According to Lee, it takes the right combination of quality and heart to make a good restaurant.

“It’s science. It’s absolutely science,” he tells me at the restaurant in late May.

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