If ever in or near Paducah, make a point to get to the Freight House. We went this week to celebrate a very good report on a friend’s cancer. Since it was a group of seven, ordered the tasting menu with wine pairing for all. This worked well and allowed us all to just relax and go with the flow.
The meal is six courses but the amuse-bouche might as well have been a course and came with a wine pairing as well. Every course was good but three were lights out great. I loved the deviled egg, cantaloupe soup, and the sticky ribs. Everything about them were perfect, texture, flavor, & balance. I think everyone agreed that these were the strongest dishes.
Price was very reasonable at $110 for the meal and $65 for the wine pairing. I have paid a lot more for less exciting meals. If this restaurant was in a major city, expect the price would be 2X-3X higher, if not more. This was in my top five meals and maybe as high as second only behind The French Laundry.
I grew up in Paducah and go back every year for a reunion w my sisters.
The Freight House is a ‘must stop’. I’ve probably been eight times beginning w the year it opened. Chef Sarah does not disappoint. Simple food expertly prepared! She has done very well in some of the Food Network culinary competitions. Don’t hold that against her - a Paducah girl has to make a living!
The other ‘must stop’ is Starnes BBQ. It’s been there forever and doesn’t change. West KY BBQ at its simplest and finest. A BBQ sandwich on toasted Wonder Bread is a touch under $3.00 if I’m remembering correctly from last spring.
That was the only time that I have hugged the chef after the meal, with her permissions as well as the permission of my wife. I know it sounds over the top but I was that impressed. Looking forward to a return trip and maybe two if possible when back in t the summer.
My husband reminds me that we have eaten at the Freight House and liked it a lot. Bourbon flight. That bridge is something else. We’ve stayed overnight in Paducah on multiple occasions over the years. Once even getting flooded in at our hotel but we did manage to escape by the skin of our teeth.
The Ironbound bridge in Newark NJ is like that, only with ice. The Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal is like that, only longer, with variable lanes that are not honored by trucks coming in the opposite direction. Also, ice.
Not really trying to boast — that bridge does seem to have its own …. idiosyncrasies…
The town looks gorgeous though. Shame you won’t survive the return trip to Missouri.
As long as the I-24 bridge isn’t closed for construction, the return trip to STL is a piece of cake. But I have no intention of ever crossing the Cobb again.
