Dinnertime in Paducah
If you haven’t heard Paducah referred to as an emerging culinary destination, just give it time; you will. This two-river town tucked into a far-flung corner of Western Kentucky is officially a place where hunger and thirst intersect at satiety.
The foundation for great grub was set decades ago at legendary stops like Kirchhoff’s Bakery & Deli, Starnes Bar-B-Q, Leigh’s BBQ, Harned’s Drive In, Artisan Kitchen, Cynthia’s California Tuscan Ristorante, Red’s Donut Shop, G&O Pharmacy and others. But the current crop of restaurants and watering holes represent a new wave of opportunities for diners and drinkers.
A mini-boom of openings began in 2015 with ribbon cuttings at Freight House (an ambitious farm-to-table spot that’s earning national media attention), Dry Ground Brewing, Paducah Beer Works and Pipers Tea and Coffee. Silent Brigade Distillery’s opening followed in 2016, and not far behind were Branch Out (a vegan restaurant), Highwater Fresh Bar (healthful juices and vegetable dishes) and Sushi on Broadway, just to name a few.
Seeing the growth under way, West Kentucky Community and Technical College got into the game by launching a culinary program to fill the increasing demand at the city’s stoves and tables.
“No, I can’t say we really saw this coming, but we’re incredibly excited that it’s happening,” said Laura Oswald, director of marketing for the Paducah Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Pointing to its UNESCO designation as a “Creative City in Crafts & Folk Art” — one of only seven on the planet — Oswald views the city’s thriving restaurant community as an outgrowth of its historic arts roots.
“I think restaurants have become an extension of that — another form of creative and artistic thinking here,” she said.
Big-City Ambitions, Small-Town Reality
Many regard the opening of Freight House as the current high-water mark in the evolution of Paducah restaurants. Its chef and owner, Sara Bradley, earned her culinary cred at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C., and followed that with years of cooking in restaurants in New York City (Dovetail, which garnered a Michelin star during her stay) and in Chicago (under famed chef-restaurateur Paul Kahan at Publican Quality Meats, Avec, Blackbird and others). Like many young chefs, Bradley’s vision centered on restaurant ownership, yet she knew “the cost of a place in Chicago or New York was out of my reach.”
Discussions with her parents convinced the trio to bring “a big-city restaurant experience to my hometown, an untapped market.” So, with her parents’ financial backing “and a business plan in hand, we started looking for a building.”
Seeking a place in the city’s historic and downtown business district overlooking the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, Bradley settled on an abandoned rail depot a few blocks from the water’s edge. Along with her parents, she designed the space, turned the particulars over to an architect and then “went there every day to sweep, mop and hammer and make it happen.”
At the outset, finding purveyors of local meat, fish and vegetables that represented Western Kentucky was a tougher challenge. During Freight House’s first year, local farmers “were weirded out when I asked them, ‘Can you grow this for me?’” Bradley recalled. “Most of what we got then was a ton of green and yellow squash, tomatoes and green beans.”
Now a favorite Amish farmer provides fresh-ground cornmeal, eggs and lamb, while another supplies a wide array of beans and shell peas. A local hog farmer keeps a drove of “the most amazing dirt-raised pigs in the woods. And when you cut into their meat, it smells like toasted nuts.”
Bradley buys loads of bison in hopes ranchers will bring the species back to where it grazed for centuries. But perhaps her boldest move, and arguably her loudest statement about her commitment to local ingredients, is the addition of Asian carp to the menu. The non-native species is harvested from nearby lakes and the Mississippi River, and while not everyone is initially charmed by the fish, Bradley said most are hooked on it after the first bite.
“Even when people beg for other fish — and we do give them other types of seafood — I still feel that, as a chef, I have an obligation to do more than just give people foods they’re used to having,” she said.
Bourbon is Booming Here
When Brian Shemwell co-founded the Paducah Bourbon Society (PBS) in 2015, “I thought it would become 30 of my closest friends drinking bourbon together every once in a while.” He never expected there would be 375 members after two years.
Initial meetings at Kirchhoff’s saw standing-room-only turnouts, leading Bradley to host its swelling ranks at Freight House. Some PBS members drive from Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee for monthly meetings where, depending on that evening’s special guest or theme, as many as 175 attend.
“What we’ve done without even intending to, really, is expose an untapped market for bourbon in Western Kentucky,” Shemwell said. PBS members are now helping start a new chapter in nearby Murray, Kentucky. “Our goal is to create a sense of fellowship, help shape people’s perception of what bourbon means to this state, and, yeah, help raise the area’s bourbon I.Q.”
Craft beer lovers were equally underserved when Paducah Beer Works and Dry Ground Brewing opened about two years ago. Dry Ground Head Brewer Andy Wiggins said there was little doubt crowds would come if the beers were unique and well made. But just as important, Wiggins said, is seeing the city’s newly elevated food and drink scenes impact on the city in other ways.
“The addition of places like ours and other businesses is helping slow down the brain drain in the community,” Wiggins said. “It makes Paducah a more enticing place to move to, to visit and to stay if you’re from here. These help it emulate a much larger city, and that’s really exciting to see.” Investment in food and drink businesses have also boosted real estate investors’ confidence to repurpose some of the city’s historic structures. Paducah Beer Works opened in the rejuvenated and sleek Greyhound Bus terminal, and the long-ago-shuttered art deco Coca-Cola Bottling Plant now houses Dry Ground, Mellow Mushroom Pizza, The Ice Cream Factory and Pipers Tea & Coffee.
That business is operated by Peter Barnett, an Englishman and barista who spent years in the coffee and tea trades in Spain and Australia. Pipers roasts all its single-origin coffee beans and custom blends its extensive lineup of loose-leaf teas on site.
While shopping for concrete countertops, a serendipitous encounter with Ed Musselman, owner of the Coca-Cola building, helped decide Pipers’ location.
“I asked him why he was interested in concrete countertops, and Ed said, ‘I’m thinking about putting them into the old Coca-Coca building,’” Barnett recalled. When Musselman told Barnett he was bringing a brewery and pizzeria to the building, Barnett said, “‘I don’t suppose you’d want a coffee shop in there?’ and he said, ‘Indeed I would.’”
Convincing Paducahns to buy serious coffee and tea hasn’t been a challenge, Barnett said, because many Pipers customers, particularly those from the arts community, are eager to experience different beverages.
“There’s a real openness to creating new things here,” he said. “It’s a very forward-thinking community because of that arts culture.”
Daniel and Gabrielle Dodd’s vegan food wasn’t welcomed as warmly when the couple sold it at local farmers’ markets a few years ago. Yet despite some open confrontations with cattle industry loyalists, the Dodds sold lots of their meat-free offerings.
“We’d tell them all we wanted to do was to serve people who’ve decided to not eat meat,” said Gabrielle Dodd, who, with her husband, opened Branch Out, a vegan restaurant in 2017. “We definitely knew it was a risk to do a business like this in Western Kentucky, but when the closest vegetarian restaurant was an hour away, we believed there had to be a market for our food.” They were right. Unable to keep up with demand at farmers’ markets, they opened the restaurant in March, and business has been brisk ever since.
“The people who were really needing this have supported us,” said Dodd. Branch Out’s core customers are typically younger or transplants from communities “where vegetarian cuisine is just another option like Vietnamese food or pizza. The older generation now hearing about plant-based eating for their health are very hard core.”
In 1997, when Ginny Kirchhoff reopened her family’s legendary bakery (founded in 1873, closed in 1958), the city sold her a long-abandoned downtown building for $1. In the 20 years since, multiple restaurants, bars and hotels have opened around her location and helped turn the area into a quaint village within Paducah’s historic business district. She said the growth has given locals a strong sense of pride in what’s available to them and the increasing tourism traffic to the city.
“Downtown businesses now want to show visitors what we’re about, and everyone wants to put their best foot forward,” Kirchhoff said. The more independent businesses that can be drawn here, the better, she said, even when they’re competitors. “More competition will make us stand up a little taller and make all we do better. When you’ve got the passion to do that like Sara [Bradley] has and my partner, Josh [Ryan] has, it’s amazing what can happen.”
Paducah Earns Distinction as a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts & Folk Art
Billed as Quilt City USA, Paducah has played an important role in the connectivity of cultures, particularly through quilting, receiving worldwide renown as a mecca for quilters and fiber artists.
Through multiple educational opportunities and community events, Paducah has earned international attention over the past 30 years. The city hosts an annual American Quilters Society Quilt Show, is home to the National Quilt Museum and along with The Paducah School of Art & Design, offers hands-on quilt making workshops by various artists.
Festivals also play a key role, including QuiltWeek, Lower Town Arts & Music Festival and River’s Edge International Film Festival.
Created in 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network comprises 180 member cities in 72 countries that value culture, creativity and innovation as tools to foster sustainable urban renewal and development. To foster partnerships and synergy, Creative Cities are designated in seven creative fields: crafts & folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, media arts and music.
The UNESCO Creative Cities Network works to meet the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda. The network provides a platform for cities to demonstrate culture’s role as an enabler for building sustainable cities.
www.EN.UNESCO.org
www.Paducah.travel
Eat Your Way to Paducah
En route to Paducah, the bulk of your drive will include the Western Kentucky Parkway (or “the WK,” as locals refer to it). By the time the road turns into I-69, you’ll be hungry, but near some delicious food and Kentucky culinary history. Consider stopping at these places along the way and just off the main road.
Newsom’s Old Mill Store
208 E. Main St., Princeton, KY 42445
Within these walls are sold Col. Bill Newsom’s Aged Kentucky Country Hams, some of the finest cured pig quarters found anywhere in the U.S. and even the world. And while you shop for ham, make sure to get a sandwich at the little counter inside the historic store. The Preacher Ham (brined and smoked) on white bread is fantastic.
Broadbent’s
257 Mary Blue Rd., Kuttawa, KY 42055
Yep, another country ham stop, and like Newsom’s this one has a large shop with all sorts of cured meat and a great sandwich counter. Broadbent’s, it should be noted, has won more Kentucky State Fair Grand Prizes for its hams than any other Bluegrass ham curer.
* If you’re a whiskey hunter, check out Exit 40 Liquors, directly across from Broadbent’s, for some unexpected finds. And if you’re not opposed to driving a few miles to Eddyville, visit Eddyville Wine & Spirits.
Knoth’s Bar-B-Cue
728 US-62, Grand Rivers, KY 42045
Both Kuttawa and Eddyville are on Hwy. 62, so stay with that road and drive about three miles west from Broadbent’s to visit Knoth’s. Not only is it legendary barbecue, it’s run by Andy Wiggins, quoted in this story as the head brewer at Dry Ground Brewing Co. in Paducah. The food is fantastic and the facility is a step back in time.
*And since you started driving west anyway, continue on Hwy. 62 and stop at the overlook of Kentucky Lake, just a few miles beyond Knoth’s. Park, go see the dam, and take a gander at one of North America’s largest manmade lakes. You can stay on Hwy. 62, to get back onto the interstate, or follow it all the way into Paducah.
Harned’s Drive In
4421 Clarks River Rd., Paducah, KY 42003
The address says Clarks River, but it’s still Hwy. 62. If you didn’t get your ’cue fix at Knoth’s, stop here.
Wagner’s Wine & Spirits
2700 New Holt Rd # B, Paducah, KY 42001
This excellent liquor store has not only a huge selection of great Kentucky nectar, some of the bottles are from single-barrel picks made by members of the Paducah Bourbon Society. As bourbon hunters know, these are the modern-day whiskey unicorns.
