Lynn's is a paradise of Kentucky Proud foods

The Louisville restaurant, known for its quirky décor, also serves great dishes from Kentucky producers

By CHRIS ALDRIDGE, Kentucky Agricultural News

Lynn’s Paradise Café has a unique Kentucky flavor for the tongue and the eyes.

Native Kentuckian Lynn Winter’s eclectic Louisville restaurant serves delicious, Southern-style food, with as much of it as possible grown and produced in Kentucky. But what sets Lynn’s apart from other eateries is its quirky décor, much of it created by local artists.

In the book “Roadfood,” authors Jane and Michael Stern described Lynn’s like this: “Decide for yourself: Is this a great restaurant with amazing art … or an amazing art gallery with a great restaurant?”

“I’ll tell you what Lynn’s is,” Winter answered. “It’s one gigantic community art project. People feel like they own a piece of it.”

The atmosphere isn’t the only reason customers keep coming back to Lynn’s, located in Louisville’s historic Highlands neighborhood. “Most everything in the restaurant is Kentucky-bred,” including the food, said Patty Schnatter, the restaurant’s chief operating officer.

Since opening the restaurant 18 years ago, Winter has strived to use locally-grown food in her restaurant’s dishes. She is a big proponent of farmers’ markets, one of which she used to operate in Louisville; CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud marketing program.

“I think it’s really important to back that program,” Winter said of Kentucky Proud, noting that her sister used to raise organic chickens, eggs and turkeys in Lawrenceburg. “Kentucky has more family farms than any state other than Texas.”

National talk show host Oprah Winfrey has shared Winter’s macaroni and cheese recipe with her viewers. One of its main ingredients is a Kentucky Proud product, white cheddar from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese in Barren County.

Two weeks ago, The Travel Channel shot seven hours of video at the restaurant as part of a program called “101 Great Cafés Across America,” which will air Thanksgiving weekend. Winter was proud of the dish that she concocted for the show – Paw Paw French Toast. It used a sauce similar to one in Bananas Foster, except it substituted the bananas for fresh, Kentucky-grown pawpaws right off the tree.

Esquire magazine named Lynn’s Paradise Café one of the four most fun restaurants in America. Bon Appetit magazine called it one of the 100 best neighborhood restaurants in the United States.

The restaurant’s Bourbon Ball Milkshake was featured in the August issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine. Southern Living magazine recently named Lynn’s one of the top 20 restaurants in Louisville and southern Indiana, and Schnatter has been contacted to appear soon on “Oprah.”

“We’ve gotten a lot of national press,” Winter said. “We’re trying to put a face on the wonderful foods Kentucky brings to the table. The more positive news, the better for our farmers. That’s something that’s extremely near and dear to my heart.”

The restaurant’s purchasing manager, David McDonley, said he buys Kentucky Proud products whenever possible. Most all of cheese comes from Kenny’s. Other Kentucky Proud products used include sorghum from Scott Hams in Greenville, baking ingredients from Weisenberger Mills in Midway, and Kentucky Ale beer from Lexington Brewing Co.

McDonley gets the restaurant’s produce and meat from two local suppliers, some of which is Kentucky Proud. “Sysco knows to ship Kentucky Proud produce to us whenever it’s available,” he said.

Lynn’s bills itself as a place for wild celebrations. It boasts on its Web site that it “can even make a funeral gathering momentous.” The restaurant hosts an annual New Year’s Eve Pajama Party, with gifts to those who wear their PJs, and the Frenzy at the Finish party the day after the Kentucky Derby. A “Lynntoberfest” party is in the works for next fall, featuring a micro beer brewed especially for the event.

Much of Lynn’s ever-changing décor comes from Louisville-area flea markets and some past entries in the Ugly Lamp Contest that the restaurant sponsors annually at the Kentucky State Fair. There are donated dinette tables named after their former owners, such as “Mabel’s Table.”

“I like getting really wild and constantly changing,” Winter said of the décor.

The restaurant is as interesting as the owner herself, a winner of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award who sells her own line of clothing in the restaurant’s retail store, World of Swirl. Winter lives part-time in Los Angeles while studying design and writing at UCLA. She is also a custom woodworker, artist, author and even a happiness coach in the new field of positive psychology. So it’s no surprise that her restaurant’s motto is: “Eat and be happy.”

Learn more about Lynn’s Paradise Café at its Web site, www.lynnsparadisecafe.com.

Above left: Lynn's Paradise Café lights up the neighborhood at night. (Photo courtesy Patty Schnatter)

Above right: The décor inside Lynn's is always lively and colorful. (Chris Aldridge photo)