Delicious Destinations
From east to west, dining alfresco-style in Kentucky

It’s summertime, and the livin’ is…outdoors. Barbecue grills rev up, and the smell of charring beef hangs heavy in the evening air. You salivate involuntarily, wishing that either you knew that backyard chef or you’d thought to grab steaks on the way home. Instead, just grab the car keys and zip off to an outdoor dining spot. It’s a win-win – you get the fresh air and yummy aroma, plus a great meal you didn’t have to cook.

In the Lakes Area of West Kentucky and Central Kentucky’s Bluegrass, you have choices galore of where to tuck in your bib.

In downtown Paducah, Whaler’s Catch is the fresh seafood place for dinner and has been a Purchase District institution since 1977.

Belly up to the 1863 hand-carved mahogany bar that was floated up the Mississippi from New Orleans on a barge to serve libations to General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. Then take a seat on a deck high above the Ohio River and choose from a net full of fishy fare that includes all-you-can-eat crab legs on Tuesdays, all-you-can-eat shrimp’n’ribs on Thursdays and live whole Maine lobster every Friday.

Located in a converted Market House Square warehouse in Paducah, Max’s Brick Oven Café embraces the outdoors with a cozy courtyard that’s a weekend bar with a bevy of imported beers and occasional live music and a patio that proffers “casual dining with an accent.” Though very European, its amazingly broad menu can still appeal to picky palates. From a brick, wood-burning oven emerge perfectly crisped gourmet pizzas and roasted salmon. Patrons prattle on about the Greek chicken, shrimp de province, baked lasagna, crab cakes and pasta dishes. After dinner, stroll off your crème brulee while soaking up Paducah history from the floodwall murals that are just a block away along the mighty Ohio.

Parcell’s Deli & Grille feeds the Kentucky Lake crowd luscious lunches outside on café tables from noon into the early evening hours. Located in Draffenville Plaza near Benton, this lively little restaurant was chosen “Best Place to Eat” in the 2004 “Best of the Lakes” contest and “Best Lunch Place” in the “Best of the Best of Marshall County” in 2005. You’ve got to love a deli that serves its lip-smacking hamburgers and famous double cheeseburgers on fresh homemade buns, batters its French fries and hand-dips its ice cream for milk shakes, floats, sundaes and real old-fashioned banana splits. Daily specials run the gamut from panini grills to California chicken salad. Parcells also has soups and salads and, of course, peanut butter and jelly for the kids.

Halfway across the state in the Bluegrass, well-manicured Thoroughbred farms lie tucked among the rolling hills of Woodford County. On a lane winding through this rural acreage stands an 1890-era bourbon distillery built of native limestone. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Woodford Reserve serves “Picnic on the Porch” all summer long.

Chef-in-Residence David Larson says he drove here 10 years ago “to deliver two boxed lunches and never left.” Come for lunch, and you’ll be glad he didn’t. Think loin-of-Washington County (Kentucky) pork marinated in Woodford Reserve brine and stuffed with roasted peppers and Shitake mushrooms, with sides of crisp tender French green beans and corn pudding as good as your grandma’s. While you’re at it, take a tour and taste the Kentucky Derby’s “official bourbon.”

Just down the pike near Midway, sip sweet tea and chow down on iron skillet-fried chicken every Monday night at Wallace Station, a café and bakery in an old train station, where the country deck view comes complete with a plywood Holstein. Chef Jared Richardson, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), serves up home-cooked heaven in the form of two legs and a thigh, cheese grits, black-eyed peas, cornbread and the best greens south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Top it all off with a scoop of locally made Valentine’s Bourbon Ball ice cream.

At Lexington’s upscale downtown Portofino, another CIA-trained chef, Nat Tate, rustles up cuisine he describes as having “an Italian flair with a California accent, with some Pacific Rim, Mediterranean and Southwest” thrown in. Add to that local lamb and shrimp and veggies from the Farmer’s Market in season, and you get a dinner to die for.

Just imagine supping under the stars on yellow fin tuna with jasmine almond rice and tender baby bok choy, or grilled beef tenderloin on Yukon Gold mashers with steamed asparagus and bleu cheese butter. Linger a little longer for tiramisu.

Stop salivating. Find locations and hours for these outdoor eateries at either the Lexington Convention & Visitors Bureau www.visitlex.com or (800) 848-1224, or the Paducah Convention & Visitors Bureau www.paducahtourism.org or (800) PADUCAH.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

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