1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (55 page)

Fifteen miles south in Corbin, Colonel Sanders’ original restaurant has been restored to look much as it did in 1940. Vintage cook-ware, mixers, and appliances, along with photographs and a life-size statue of the kindly colonel, are on display within a modern-day KFC. Sitting inside among the antiques and memorabilia, customers can order up buckets of Original Recipe or Extra Crispy chicken along with the requisite mashed potatoes, gravy, and coleslaw. Some things never change.

Today, Louisville-based Yum! Brands Inc., which includes KFC as well as Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, is the world’s largest restaurant company. KFC alone is America’s top fast-food chicken chain, with more than 13,000 outlets in 90 countries. Colonel Sanders died in 1980, but it’s estimated that a billion of his famous chicken dinners are served annually worldwide. A Kentucky picnic wouldn’t be complete without the Colonel.

W
HERE
: 70 miles south of Lexington.
W
ORLD
C
HICKEN
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 800-348-0095 or 606-878-6900;
www.chickenfestival.com
.
When:
4 days in late Sept.
C
OL
. H
ARLAND
S
ANDERS
M
USEUM
: Corbin. Tel 606-528-2163.

Pulitzer Prize Winners Premiere Here

Louisville, Kentucky

“The festival, year after year, has been a broad, unpredictable, noisy colloquium on the nature of dramatic art,” wrote Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Tony Kushner (
Angels in America
). He was
referring to the Humana Festival of New American Plays, which galvanizes audiences, actors, critics, and playwrights alike each March at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The praise has been universal over the past three decades. “The Humana Festival has evolved into the Kentucky Derby of the American Theater,” hailed
The Los Angeles Times,
while
Time
magazine proclaimed: “The Humana Festival is the center of the theater world.”

Founded in 1964, Actors Theatre of Louisville is an internationally renowned, Tony Award–winning professional theater that annually produces some 600 performances, from comedies and dramas to musicals, in its multilevel facility on downtown’s historic Main Street. Praised for the overall excellence of its programming and performances—as well as for its nurturing relationship with new and established playwrights—Actors Theatre also produces an annual National Ten-Minute Play Contest.

But its crowning achievement is the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays. Named for the Humana Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Louisville-based health care company Humana Inc., which sponsored the event’s debut in 1979–80, the Humana Festival is a highly anticipated annual event. Among the more than 300 plays by 200-plus playwrights that have been
produced here over the past three decades are the select few that went from relative obscurity to universal acclaim: modern-day American masterworks and Pulitzer Prize winners Beth Henley’s
Crimes of the Heart
and D. L. Coburn’s
The Gin Game
, as well as works by award winners including Kushner, Marsha Norman, and Regina Taylor.

W
HERE
: Actors Theatre of Louisville; 316 W. Main St. Tel 800-428-5849 or 502-584-1205;
www.actorstheatre.org
.
C
OST
: tickets from $20.
W
HEN
: every Mar.

Run for the Roses

Louisville, Kentucky

“This Kentucky Derby, whatever it is—a race, an emotion, a turbulence, an explosion—is one of the most beautiful and violent and satisfying things I have ever experienced,” wrote novelist John Steinbeck
.

Billed with little exaggeration as “the greatest two minutes in sports,” the Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held sporting event in America and one of the most prestigious races in the world. Although horse racing in Kentucky goes back to 1789, Louisville’s Churchill Downs didn’t officially open as the home of the Derby until almost 100 years later. A $121 million renovation on the facility was completed in 2005, when the overall Derby purse stood at $2 million. By tradition, each year the winning horse is draped with a blanket of red roses.

The two-week Kentucky Derby Festival that precedes the race is the nicest time of year in the Bluegrass State, when the dogwoods are in magnificent bloom. Thunder Over Louisville, the largest annual fireworks display in the country, kicks things off as spectators flood the banks of the Ohio River, where the extravaganza takes center stage. Other festivities include hot-air balloons, a marathon, the Pegasus Parade, and an old-fashioned steamboat race that pits the hometown
Belle of Louisville
(toting party-loving passengers and Derby dignitaries) against the
Delta Queen of New Orleans.

About 1.25 miles in length and 2 minutes in duration, the Kentucky Derby is the first race in the Triple Crown series.

Horse fans not attending “The Run for the Roses” may enjoy “Dawn at the Downs,” beginning the Saturday before the Derby and continuing through Thursday of Derby Week. Visitors can enjoy a Kentucky-style buffet breakfast while watching celebrity equines go through their training. Finally, Oaks Day, held the day before Derby, is when crowds pack the paddocks, grandstands, and infield to celebrate the races of 3-year-old fillies.

If you happen to miss Derby season, relive the excitement of past races at the Kentucky Derby Museum, where the inspiring careers of its many champions are documented.

For lodging during these events, well-heeled Derby veterans have checked into the
Seelbach Hotel since its 1905 opening. Its comfortable grandeur so impressed hotel guest F. Scott Fitzgerald that he set a scene from
The Great Gatsby
here. The hotel’s opulent fine dining restaurant, the Oakroom, was once a billiards room that hosted the likes of Al Capone.

W
HERE
: Churchill Downs; 700 Central Ave. Tel 502-636-4400;
www.churchilldowns.com
.
Cost:
standing-room-only general admission tickets sold the day of the race, $40 (written requests for other tickets must be received between May and Sept of previous year).
When:
1st Sat in May.
K
ENTUCKY
D
ERBY
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 502-584-6383;
www.kdf.org
.
K
ENTUCKY
D
ERBY
M
USEUM
: Tel 502-637-7097;
www.derbymuseum.org
.
S
EELBACH
H
OTEL
: Tel 800-333-3399 or 502-585-3200;
www.seelbachhilton.com
.
Cost:
from $149; Derby weekend prices upon request; dinner in Oakroom $60.
B
EST TIMES
: late Apr–early May for Derby events; late Apr–early July for racing; final week of Oct and Nov for fall meet.

Home of the Hot Brown—and More

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville Slugger baseball bats, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, bourbon-infused mint juleps, and the Kentucky Derby are all synonymous with this grand old city on the Ohio River. But one of its best-kept secrets is its
dynamic restaurant scene (there are reportedly more per capita than in any other American city) and unique culinary history. Who knew that the first cheeseburger was invented in Louisville? It happened in 1934, when restaurant owner Charles Kaelin added sliced cheese to his 15-cent hamburgers. Still in business, Kaelin’s timeworn corner eatery bears a weathered sign out front that beckons motorists: “If you can’t stop, please wave.”

Another Depression-era concoction, the Kentucky Hot Brown, took root at the posh Camberley-Brown Hotel. Essentially an open-faced turkey sandwich, it’s topped with a sliced tomato, crisp bacon, and a creamy, cheese sauce before being broiled until golden. Hot Browns remain favorites at the Camberley-Brown’s upper-crust English Grill, where longtime chef Joe Castro creates unpretentious gourmet fare.

Among Louisville’s other beloved restaurants is funky Lynn’s Paradise Café, where bacon and eggs, banana-split pancakes, and thick waffles draw weekend crowds, while the kitschy decor, ugly table-lamp collection, and plentiful portions keep things interesting at lunch and dinner, besides. Then there’s renowned chef Kathy Cary, whose restaurant Lilly’s has become a landmark for foodies far and wide. Cary champions fresh, locally farmed produce and artisanal cheeses.

Meanwhile, the nostalgic Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen is a sugar-shocked bakery and ice-cream parlor that churns out a mind-boggling array of homemade ice creams, cookies, and decadent cakes and pies (the gooey Dutch apple–caramel defies description). Yet Louisville’s most famous pie of all is Derby-Pie—a chocolate nut pie topped with whipped cream or a spoonful of Kentucky bourbon. After originating more than 50 years ago at a local inn, the recipe’s name was patented in 1968 by Kern’s Kitchen Inc., a family-owned business that still bakes and distributes Derby-Pie (a registered trademark) at restaurants and supermarkets throughout Kentucky and beyond.

KAELIN’S
: Tel 502-451-1801.
Cost:
lunch $6.
T
HE
E
NGLISH
G
RILL
: Tel 502-736-2996;
www.brownhotel.com
.
Cost:
dinner $28.
L
YNN’S
P
ARADISE
C
AFÉ
: Tel 502-583-3447;
www.lynnsparadisecafe.com
.
Cost:
breakfast $12.
L
ILLY’S
: Tel 502-451-0447;
www.lillyslapeche.com
.
Cost:
prix fixe lunch $15.
H
OMEMADE
I
CE
C
REAM AND
P
IE
K
ITCHEN
: Tel 502-459-8184;
www.piekitchen.com
.
Cost:
pie à la mode $5.
K
ERN’S
K
ITCHEN
: Tel 502-499-0285;
www.derbypie.com
.

World’s Biggest Baseball Bat

Louisville, Kentucky

You can’t miss this place: It’s the redbrick compound downtown with the giant bat leaning against the building. The world’s biggest, the carbon-steel replica of Babe Ruth’s own 1920s-era bat stands 120 feet tall by
6.5 feet wide—and weighs 34 tons. Inside the museum, families can view exhibits on the history of America’s national pastime and revel at the signed bats of Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Ken Griffey Jr., and countless others. Though its current location, which houses the museum, working factory, and corporate headquarters, opened in 1996, the company dates back to 1884, when it produced its first bat for Pete “The Old Gladiator” Browning, of the old Louisville Eclipse baseball team. Today, more than 200,000 visitors per year watch as wood from maple and white ash trees is crafted into bats (the factory produces 1,500 a day). Free mini-bat souvenirs are given to each guest who tours, though you might not resist the urge to order your own full-size bat, personalized with your name or actual signature.

In the main exhibition hall of the Louisville Slugger Museum, dozens of bats and balls are suspended in midair.