Whiskey By The Drink

I love these old "Whiskey by the Drink" signs, from those bygone Don Draper days when women and television sets wore bunny ears. This one was sighted in Butchertown, at the corner of Mellwood and Brownsboro where it becomes Story Avenue.

Freddie's Bar & Lounge

One from our Transylvania Gentlemen blog:


Imagine a bar that hasn't changed its decor in half a century. One where Frank Sinatra's picture hangs proudly without a trace of irony or "retro" consciousness. Where the music on the jukebox plays tunes from a bygone era, and the owner still runs the place at the age of 90, yet is in better shape than me and could probably kick my ass (you probably think I'm exaggerating. Let me assure you, I am not.)

If you have trouble imagining such a paradise, go no further than Freddie's Bar & Lounge at 220 West Broadway, downtown Louie-land. It is truly a haven for the true and discriminating Transylvania Gentleman, and deserves a historical plaque for its weighty value to society, past and present. They're currently celebrating 48 years in business, and it is my fondest hope they go for at least 48 more.


Freddie himself is an amazing Jerry Lee Lewis-like character with a million stories that define the century we just came out of. He can still be found in the place most days, and if you're a boxing fan then you and Freddie will get along just fine. His bar is filled from end to end with classic boxing memorabilia, and was actually a go-to place for all serious pugilists during boxing's golden years.


Among the boxers who have graced the bar stools at Freddie's: Ezzard Charles, Muhammad Ali, Greg Page and Jimmy Ellis, whose gloves adorn the bar. Get thyself a shot of whiskey, friend, sit at the bar, stare into those historic gloves, be still and know.


So famous was Freddie's as a patron of the boxing community that even Rudell Stitch visited the place even though he was a strict teetotaller.

There aren't many places like this left, and you need to stop what you are doing right now and go out and experience them while you still can, before they're all just extinct places you read about on the internet.

Rogers Restaurant

One from our Transylvania Gentlemen blog:


Doff your hats and bow your heads, in memory of Lexington's great old Rogers Restaurant which was torn down a few years ago to make room for a boring and neighborhood-wrecking apartment complex.


I remember reading a Lexington Herald-Leader article about the place that said it must have been a bookie joint at some point in its checkered past, because when the last owner did some renovations, he discovered a secret panel that had concealed a secret room filled with telephone-line connections. Oh, to have been here in its glory days.


Support your local 50s-retro old-man saloon, folks, wherever you are. Enjoy 'em while they're here, because they'll all be pulled down sooner or later by the forces of postmodernism so they can put up a bank or a tanning salon or a quickie-mart. It's no country for old bars.

Willow Lake Tavern

Willow Lake Tavern has existed for decaded near the corner of Lakeland and LaGrange in Anchorage, is on property formerly near the Central State Asylum's 19th century grounds, and not surprisingly, has been the source of many hauntings, sightings, and ethereal disturbances.

I dropped into the place last summer while researching the Weird Kentucky book. I tossed back a few brews and grilled the locals about whether they'd seen anything spooky around the joint. One patron of the bar, without my prompting, even went so far as to compare it to Bobby Mackey's, and noted: "I never believed in ghosts until I moved to Kentucky".

In its early years, the asylum operated a trolley car on its own private railroad tracks that existed where Lakeland Road sits today (you can still see the paved-over railroad ties peeking out from under the asphalt in some places). The Willow Lake Tavern's location back then was on the border of the Huston and Whipps farms. This is quite near where the "switching yard" would have been, for transferring the patients being shuttled in on their bleak journey from the incoming train car on the main tracks.

Recently the Willow Lake Tavern has become Selena's Restaurant but thankfully, the new owners have left the old neon sign intact. The mood there is considerably more upscale and the food is great, check 'em out!

Bobby Mackey's Music World

In Wilder, KY, just across the Kentucky border from Cincinnati, lies Bobby Mackey’s Music World, a nightclub that some have called Kentucky's most haunted location.

The building was built in the 1850s as a slaughterhouse and meat packing plant. The well in the basement, where blood from the animals was drained, still can be found there. After the slaughterhouse closed, the building became a ritual site for occultists who supposedly sacrificed animals there. In 1896, the discovery of a naked and headless female corpse ended up leading police investigators to the occult group. The subsequent Pearl Bryan murder case made national headlines and reportedly spawned a brief craze of Pearl Bryan commemorative souvenirs and merchandise. I have yet to see any examples, but would love to.



During the 1920s to the 1970s, the place was inhabited by a number of sleazy nightclubs, and several murders took place here over the years, including a pregnant stripper named Johana who committed suicide on the premises in the late 1930s.

In 1978, it became Bobby Mackey's Music World. People have had every type of ghost experience here, from hearing noises and screams, to objects being moved, to actual sightings. One person even tried to sue after claiming to have been attacked by a ghost or demon in the bar's restroom. And in 1991, an attempted exorcism was held, to no avail.

There are reports of the building's caretaker actually being possessed by the ghost of Alonzo Walling (one of Pearl Bryan's murderers), although some reports call him Claude and others call him Carl.

Although the hauntings at his bar have brought throngs of curiosity seekers into his establishment, Mackey himself has mixed feelings about the whole thing. For many years he refused to discuss or even acknowledge the hauntings to reporters, and definitely didn't seek any publicity about it - the publicity sought him. In the 1970s the talented Mackey was on his way to becoming a major Nashville country music star, and it's unfortunate that his fame has been eclipsed by that of his club's notoriety. Perhaps this, too, is part of the curse of Pearl Bryan's head.


Bobby Mackey's Music World is located at 44 Licking Pike, Wilder, KY. Visit Bobby's website here.

The Maverick Club

The Maverick Club is a country-and-western nightclub on the outskirts of Richmond, KY, well known to locals as a local nightlife institution.

Many, many years ago, the Maverick was a pretty rough place by all accounts. When Jerry Lee Lewis played here in the late 1960s, he placed a wall of chickenwire between himself and the audience to protect himself from flying beer bottles, just like The Blues Brothers.

We've heard from a former employee that the place is haunted and that is it's not a happy haunting. We've also heard a story that in the 70s, someone was murdered in the club after closing time by someone he knew named Clarence, and that this Clarence left the stabbed man in the walk-in freezer to die as he went about robbing the place. But, as the story has it, the poor unfortunate fellow managed to write his murderer's name in his own blood on the wall inside the freezer. As the story goes, this, along with circumstantial evidence, was enough to convict the murderer. We'd love to get more details and verification on this story if anyone's got the scoop.

The Maverick of today, however, has been under new ownership since 2005 and is a much safer, comfier and cooler place to be, with national acts such as Confederate Railroad, David Allan Coe and T. Graham Brown. Check out their website and drop on in next time you're in Richmond. They're on 1507 East Main Street as you're headed out of town towards the Depot.

Photo above: The Maverick today. Below: The Maverick, back in the day.