C.C. Cohen Restaurant & Bar
101-105 Market House Square
Paducah, KY 42001
(270) 442-6391

The Cohen Building in downtown Paducah dates to the 1860s, and over the years it has housed a clothing store, a dry goods store, a liquor dealer and a distilling company. Nowadays it’s known for the restaurant named for the family, the Cohens, who owned the distinctive corner structure from the early 1920s until 1980. Musician Alan Raidt currently owns the building and his band frequently headlines at the C.C. Cohen Restaurant and Bar, which has become an important stop for both locals and tourists in western Kentucky.

The menu at Cohen’s features a wide selection of steaks, seafood, ribs, salads and sandwiches and the atmosphere could best be described as laid back and unassuming. The appetizer section of the current menu has items such as oysters Rockefeller, fried hand-battered mushrooms, shrimp cocktail, fried crab claws, and julienne onion rings, and house specialties include king cut prime rib and New York strip with jumbo shrimp. The rest of the menu has some fifty pasta, chicken, salad and sandwich options and guests can end their meals with one of a daily selection of desserts or a drink at the well-stocked bar.

Read the rest after the jump…

But, beware… spirits of a different nature are said to be afoot at C.C. Cohen’s. Bartenders have seen glasses mysteriously slide along the bar when no one was there, and many employees have become convinced that a ghost wanders the restaurant at odd hours. Workers have come into an empty restaurant to find chairs moved around or opened salt and pepper shakers tipped over on the tables, and others report that electric signs and lights often flicker to life while the cord lies – unplugged – on the floor. Ask employees for the ghost’s name, and they will all tell you the same thing: Her name is Stella.

Stella Cohen Peine, the last member of the Cohen family, lived upstairs after her husband was killed in a nearby alley and died in her apartment in 1980, and since then her restless spirit has roamed the halls of her family’s former property. Today, the upstairs parlor has been designed in the image of the Cohen sisters’ living room, complete with their portrait still hanging on the wall, and Stella has been featured on several television shows about haunted locations.

The Oakroom at the Seelbach Hilton
500 South Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
(502) 585-3200

Built in 1905, the Seelbach Hotel opened to much fanfare in downtown Louisville and soon entrenched itself as the grand dame of the city’s top hotels. Over the years, it would play host to presidents, celebrity writers and the most infamous gangster of all time – Al Capone. Today, the former gentlemen’s lounge and billiard room has been converted into the Oakroom, the state’s only AAA Five-Diamond restaurant. The culinary team of Todd Richards, Jerry Slater, Duane Nutter and Ethan Ray provide a colorful menu featuring classic ethnic cuisine with a contemporary twist that uses natural, local ingredients infused with Mediterranean, Asian and European influences. Despite the modern take on dining, the Oakroom revels in its history and strives to keep its local legends alive and well.

Diners at the Oakroom often receive impromptu tours from friendly servers who show off the private dining alcove – the blackjack room – where Capone would drink and gamble during his visits to the Oakroom. The beautiful room has secret doors leading to hidden passageways through which the notorious mobster would make his escape when police raided the place; one way led down to Fourth Street, while the other led to tunnels under the hotel. The room supposedly even had pedal-operated spring-loaded doors that could be shut in an instant by an outside guard who kept watch for the police. A large mirror that Capone had sent from Chicago so he could watch his back still hangs in the room today. It’s hardly surprising that the shadowy form of a squat man in 1920s attire has been seen emerging from the blackjack room, only to vanish into thin air seconds later.

Although numerous ghosts are said to haunt the Seelbach Hotel and its award-winning Oakroom restaurant, none has gained the degree of fame as that of the mysterious Lady in Blue. For years, guests and employees alike have reported eerie encounters with an ethereal woman in a blue dress who appears now and then around the elevators on the mezzanine level outside the restaurant. According to a newspaper article from 1936, a local girl, Patricia Wilson, fell to her death in an open service elevator after word of the tragic death of her estranged husband reached her. Whether the death was accident or suicide remains a mystery today, known only by the tragic figure of the Lady in Blue.

The English Grill at the Brown Hotel
3202 South Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
(502) 585-3200

For more than 80 years, the Brown Hotel has towered at the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway in downtown Louisville. The majestic Georgian-Revival style exterior is trimmed in stone and terra cotta, and the grand interior features classic English Renaissance architecture with an opulent two-story vestibule with intricate hand-painted, coffered ceilings, marble floors, finely carved mahogany furnishings and Palladian-style windows. Off of this elegant lobby sits the English Grill, the hotel’s nationally recognized, AAA Four-Diamond fine dining restaurant where executive chef Laurent Geroli – assisted by chef Kyle Wilson and restaurant manager Neil Ward – treats guests to signature Continental cuisine with a Kentucky flair.

The English Grill boasts an extensive wine list with over 200 selections and has a signature dessert known as the Chocolate Striptease, a decadent ganache-covered chocolate cake with milk chocolate mousse that is coated in chocolate shavings, flambéed and served with mixed berries and chocolate sauce. Entrées include coffee-rubbed Angus filet mignon, Amish free-range chicken stuffed with mushroom mousse, and pan-seared red grouper, but the most popular of all the dining room’s creations continues to be the Hot Brown, the open-faced sandwich with roast turkey and toast points smothered in cheesy Mornay sauce that was invented by chef Fred K. Schmidt in 1926, not too long after the hotel first opened.

Since the hotel was built in 1923 at a cost of $4 million, it has been a magnet for many prominent guests and celebrities, and some of these early patrons have apparently stayed on to enjoy the luxurious surroundings – even though they died years ago. One of these is none other than the hotel’s builder, J. Graham Brown, himself, whose ghostly apparition has been seen strolling the grand lobby in the wee hours of the morning. Even paranormal pooches have made appearances at the Brown, their phantom barks causing diners in the English Grill to raise an eyebrow in perplexed amusement. Most agree that the dog is Woozem, Mr. Brown’s beloved poodle that accompanied him wherever he went. Today, a statue of J. Graham Brown and Woozem stands outside the Brown Hotel, a reminder of the man and his adored pet.

Claudia Sanders Dinner House
3202 Shelbyville Road, U.S. 60
Shelbyville, Kentucky 40065
(502) 633-5600

In 1959, Claudia Sanders accompanied her husband, the Colonel, from Corbin, Kentucky to Shelbyville, where they took up residence in a one-hundred-twenty-five-year-old dwelling known as Blackwood Hall. The stately home would also serve as the base of operations for Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the booming business soon resulted in the construction of an adjacent building, which later became the famed dinner house where Claudia Sanders would showcase her own brand of southern cooking. Although she and the Colonel have long since vacated the premises, their spirit of hospitality still lives on at the renowned eatery…in more ways than one. Busboys have seen chairs slide across the room of their own volition, and receptions have spied vague, shadowy figures ascending the grand staircase near the main entrance. Some guests and employees have even reportedly spotted apparitions of both Claudia and Colonel Sanders in Blackwood Hall and the neighboring dinner house.

Although the Sanders’ welcoming spirits still live on in Blackwood Hall, it’s the down-home style of southern cooking that keeps hungry guests coming back to the Claudia Sanders restaurant. Hardly a surprise, fried chicken enjoys a place of prominence on the menu at Claudia Sanders, but there are plenty of options for those looking for something different. Popular dinner selections include fried sugar-cured country ham with red-eye gravy, grilled center-cut butterflied pork chop, and baked Kentucky trout. Claudia’s Kentucky hot brown sandwich and the eight vegetable platter are favorites as well. Those with a sweet tooth enjoy homemade desserts such as Mom Blakeman’s chess pie, fruit cobbers and Claudia’s chocolate pecan pie.

Jonathan at Gratz Park
120 West Second Street
Lexington, KY 40507
(859) 252-4949

Known for its Bluegrass favorites such as burgoo with beef, bison and pork, and country ham potstickers with bourbon-soy dipping sauce, Jonathan Lundy‘s Lexington restaurant has consistently scored rave reviews from topnotch food publications around the country since its inception in 2001. Other popular appetizers include cracker fried oysters over Tabasco maque choux and sea scallop hot browns, and supper standards feature dishes such as bacon-wrapped filet of beef, shrimp and grits, and Kentucky bison brisket braised in cola and served with a salad of sweet potatoes and roasted corn.

Whatever you order at this upscale downtown eatery, chances are you might see a ghost or two at Jonathan at Gratz Park or the quaint boutique hotel that shares the building with it at 120 West Second Street. Overnight guests have reported waking up to find strange men staring at them in their rooms, and intoxicated apparitions have been seen cavorting in the hallway. Patrons exiting the restaurant have had unsettling encounters with a diaphanous lady in a white dress and hat, and others have spotted a little girl in Victorian dress playing with her dolls near the elevator. Although no one knows who the ghosts are, most believe the hauntings tie into the structure’s history: Dating to the early 1900s, the building was originally used as a medical clinic and had a morgue on the lower level. Most sightings have occurred during the day, so visitors needn’t worry about ghosts disturbing their leisurely dinner or overnight stay. In fact, when horror writer Stephen King stayed at the hotel he complained that the ghosts didn’t make an appearance during his stay at Gratz Park Inn.

The Mansion at Griffin Gate
1800 Newtown Pike
Lexington, KY 40511
(859) 288-6142

Situated atop a beautiful grassy knoll, The Mansion at Griffin Gate offers its guests exceptional continental cuisine served in a historic 19th-century setting with crystal chandeliers and rare antiques that create a gracious ambiance. Since it was first built over 150 years ago, the two-story antebellum mansion has seen many distinguished owners and architectural improvements, yet the charm and tranquility of a bygone era has managed to survive. Despite its relaxing atmosphere, visitors to this Lexington landmark have gotten a jolt by unnerving supernatural encounters there.

In the elegant dining rooms with their polished fireplace mantels and gleaming paneling, lights have a tendency to go on and off all by themselves. A ghost named Gretta has been known to slam doors, rattle the chandeliers, tug on dresses and pinch people on the front stairs. At times, the playful spook has even locked individuals in an upstairs bathroom and rapped out a series of rhythmic knocks on the door before opening it to reveal a completely empty room. Thought to be the young daughter of David Coleman, the house’s original owner, legend has it that the child died in 1872 when a fire destroyed the original mansion that had been built in the 1850s. Since then, her sad spirit has haunted the mansion she once knew as home, trying to relive the childhood that was denied her.

Most recently, Chef Nicholas Trueblood has been leaving his own mark on the kitchen at the Mansion, using seasonal ingredients and exotic spices to create innovative dishes that showcase the best of local flavors. Dinner guests at the Mansion can start with first courses such as rabbit soup, marinated beet salad, and shrimp tempura with spicy aioli and fried sage. Entrées include bacon-wrapped rack of lamb with flageolet beans and horseradish cream, smoked king salmon with fingerling potato confit and pickled ramps, whole roasted poussin with morel fricassee and fava beans, and grilled Kobe steak accompanied by Spanish cheese fondue, marinated red peppers and caper berries. A ten-page wine list put together by cellarmaster Aaron Jutte offers patrons the chance to complement their dining experience with spirits of a different kind at the Mansion at Griffin Gate.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

But most interesting in the story was the mention that El Nopal’s Sellersburg restaurant seats 225 people and employs just 12 to 14 workers. For those who’ve not worked in a restaurant, that’s amazing to have that many seats and that small a staff. Typically you’d have three to four times the troops. But as fans of such bean-and-burrito houses (count me among them) know, you often see the same faces working there every day and night. Per usual, these guys and gals hustle.

Wingin’ it in Clarksville: A Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant is scheduled to perch in Clarksville’s Coyle Commons development on Veterans Parkway later this fall—good timing, right in the heart of football season. The family sports pub has about 500 U.S. outlets and is among the fastest-growing wing concepts in the country. Published reports say construction is scheduled to begin in this spring as soon as the rain stops falling. With 2-5 inches of wetness predicted for this Thursday and Friday, I’d say the hard hats will have the rest of the week off.

Morton’s rolls pre-theater menu: Morton’s in Louisville is offering a $49.95 per person (tax and gratuity not included) pre-theater menu from 5:30 to 6:30. (That’s still more than a hundred bucks a couple, which is out of my league for a non-wedding-anniversary dinner out, but it’s better than regular prices.) Menu choices include: choice of Morton’s salad or Caesar Salad; entrée choice of single cut filet mignon, shrimp Alexander, filet Diane, or jumbo lump crab cake; side choice of vegetable or potato; and a choice of dessert tray selections. Coffee and hot tea are complimentary, while alcohol is extra.

Located at 626 West Main Street, the restaurant is just two blocks’ walk from the Arts Center and about a half dozen blocks from Actors. Call 584-0421 for reservations.

Update: Claudia Sanders reopens in wake of food poisoning: At last count, 133 customers of Claudia Sanders Dinner House were poisoned after dining there on Easter Sunday. The restaurant closed for about half of the last week in March before reopening on the 29th. Shelby County health officials still don’t know for certain what food may have harbored the virus that caused patrons to suffer abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea after their March 23 meals. Earlier it was suspected that ham served that day was the culprit.

Sanders general manager Louise Riley told Fox-41 News the culprit may be ham supplied by an Indianapolis food distributor. “They said the way we handled, it prepared the ham, didn’t make a difference, that the organism itself was heat resistant. We’re confident Claudia Sanders isn’t responsible for this and we’re relieved we’re going to be vindicated.” (The C-J just filed a good online report as well.)

This potentially gets worse: A man who ate dinner at Sanders on Sunday died on Tuesday. Officials say there’s no conclusive evidence that his death and the dinner he at there are connected, but for the moment, all possibilities are under examination.

What’s flat-out frightening is the pathogen was that heat resistant and that standard cooking procedure didn’t render the product safe. (Of course, I’m trusting that the restaurant did follow correct procedure, and given that a little more than 2% of the 3,000 folks who ate there got sick, it’s likely the staff did its job. Nevertheless, 70 sickened is considered a significant outbreak.) Here’s literal living proof that bacteria—about as simple as organisms get—can, sometimes, make fools of the masters of the food chain.

Understand as well that this kind of poisoning is just as possible in your own home—even more likely, really—than at a restaurant, where food supplies come and go more frequently.

Since such a small segment of the large number of diners was poisoned, Sanders management believes an infected diner may have been the source of the illness rather than its food.

According to general manager Louise Riley, the state health department, which is testing food samples from Sanders, has not yet determined the cause. She also said the health department is considering whether the virus was airborne due to the small number of guests infected—the staff served a whopping 3,000 people that day.

However you look at it, 28 people sickened in one place on the same day is a frightening amount.

Incidentally, the restaurant has a posted “A” grade for its most recent health board inspection.