Dan Borsch has owned Juanita’s for two weeks and one day and all the patrons already know his name.

In 2004 Dan received almost 25% of the votes in the Sixth District when he ran for a Metro Council seat, and some people remember him from knocking on their door during his campaign. Some are just regulars at Juanita’s. Then some of us are discovering all of this for the first time.

When asked about his plans for the business, Dan says with seriousness and jest, “Update the equipment . . . and maybe clean it.”

But there is more. Maybe more outdoor seating; more healthy choices on the menu when Dan starts growing his garden in the lot he also bought across the street; and more customers as he expands into the attached building that extends down Burnett Avenue from the corner of South Brook Street where Juanita’s has sat for nearly eight decades.

Open 24-hours a day, there is plenty of time to stop in and get to know Dan. He was born in Louisville, went away to college in Michigan, and then attended law school at IU. He says he always thought he’d move to Chicago but really fell for the “Bring the young professionals back” marketing that Louisville has going on.

He came home and practiced workman’s comp law for a while, and then was John Yarmuth’s campaign manager before running on his own ticket for Metro Council. “The most important lesson I learned running for an office,” says Dan, “is that there are people out there so in tune with what’s going on that it will blow your mind . . . and that is a small percentage. Then there are people who vote consistently and consider themselves politically tuned in but government hasn’t connected with them on an individual level at all.”

In addition to Juanita’s, Dan also owns several other real estate properties downtown and wants to start an advocacy group to bring street cars back to Louisville to connect downtown to Churchill Downs, the Convention Center, and other points along the way. “Our peer cities are pushing forward with progressive plans,” says Dan, “and we have to do the same.”