Voice-Tribune review by Robin Garr
"Born in a log cabin." In not-so-distant American history, this status - a symbol of humble, honest origins, was just about mandatory for those who wanted to run for president.
It's likely that seven of America's chief executives, and possibly as many as 10 drew their first breath in a rustic log abode. Which ones? Cabin-born prexies certainly included Abraham Lincoln, whose birthplace is now a National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Ky. Zachary Taylor, born in a log cabin in Virginia, grew up in Louisville in decidedly more elegant quarters at Locust Grove.
Others, some subject to debate among historians, included Andrew Jackson, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur.
And then there's John E's Restaurant & Lounge. It never ran for president, although if it ever did, there are surely hungry folks in Louisville who would consider voting for it. But it was indisputably born in a log cabin, and what's more, no mere rude shack of felled trees but a log structure of significant historic worth, now designated a Kentucky Landmark.
It was the home of the Hikes family, descendants of the pioneer Louisville settler George Hikes, who received land grants in Kentucky for his Revolutionary War service. The existing four-room, two-story structure that still forms the core of John E's was built around 1851 on the site of an earlier house. Hikes Lane and the Hikes Point neighborhood still keep the family's historic name alive.
The building has been a popular restaurant for half a century - originally Bill Boland's, and since the 1980s John E's. ...
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes.com:
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/john- ... -log-cabin
and in the Voice-Tribune:
http://www.voice-tribune.com/life-style ... log-cabin/
John E's Restaurant & Lounge
3708 Bardstown Road
456-1111
JohnEsRestaurant.com