Louisville Contest Entries (17)

If there is one kitsch thing every Louisville native, transplant, and visitor should have, it’s a photo of themselves and friends poking their faces through the running fork and spoon plywood cut-outs at Lynn’s Paradise Café. This colorful (that’s putting it mildly) restaurant where tackiness has gone to die is the place where fun is alive and well. From the Ugly Lamp Contest champions to the Thoroughbread Toaster statue, Lynn’s zany, over-the-top décor gives patrons of all ages permission to be kids again. If your waitress is wearing a giant Mad Hatter top hat and you see adults playing with the toys on their table, consider it de rigueur. And as if the atmosphere weren’t enough, the Kentucky-influenced cuisine is absolutely divine. So order up a bourbon ball milkshake, try out some quirky sunglasses, and allow yourself to be dazzled!

Shake off those heebie-jeebies; nothing here can harm you. After all, when have human casualties been linked to a locale that’s certified by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places? Exactly. If you can think of a more soothing place for this experience you can have my homemade Derby-Pie® from Lynn’s Paradise Café… Exactly. You smell fried chicken? Say, isn’t Colonel Sanders buried around here? Anyway, so where do we lay down the blanket? The duck pond is too distracting, you say? Look, this place has 296+ acres to choose from; certainly there’s a spot we both can agree on. What’s that, somewhere shady? There are 500 species of trees and scrubs, so take your pick. This massive oak looks perfect. Who ever said good times and cemeteries couldn’t go together has obviously never been to Cave Hill Cemetery.