Old Owl TAVERN Restaurant
Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
Food & Drink at Beaumont Inn: Main Dining Room | Old Owl TAVERN | Owl's Nest
Casual Food. Casual Prices. Casual Atmosphere.
Tavern Lunch Menu | Tavern Dinner Menu
Catering Menu | Innkeeper’s Bourbon Tasting with Dixon
The Old Owl TAVERN is named for the Dedman family’s Kentucky Owl Bourbon Whiskey distilled along the Kentucky River prior to Prohibition. This southern wing, ground floor area originally provided housing for the horse carriages transporting the young ladies to this prestigious girls’ school. Dirt floors and “Kentucky marble” stone walls have been transformed into a popular casual bar and restaurant complete with porch dining cooled by ceiling fans and century old shade trees. The original hand-hewn beams, fireplace mantel, hand-cut stone walls and splendid old photographs depicting many of Mercer County’s pre-Prohibition distilleries provide a glimpse back into Harrodsburg’s colorful past. The TAVERN boasts casual fare, great wine and spirits available from the Kentucky-crafted twenty-three foot mahogany bar. It merrily beckons the weary traveler, as did the early Harrodsburg taverns of the 18th and 19th century. Read about our Kentucky Country Ham!
Find out how to make the perfect Mint Julep (including a video!).
NEW! The Owl’s Nest features a cozy pub atmosphere. Read more. See our Classic Cocktail Menu, only at the Nest!
Enjoy a Kentucky Martini, Cosmo or Chocolate Martini!Historic Kentucky Inn Adds Tavern, Cincinnati Enquirer
Something old. Something new. The fourth generation innkeepers at the nationally known Beaumont Inn added the Owl Tavern last month, following last year's voter approval of liquor sales in Mercer County.
"The tavern idea was something we had been thinking about for a long time," said owner Chuck Dedman. "My grandfather, C.M. Dedman, was a pharmacist who... also owned a distillery on the Kentucky River."
Guests from around the world have been coming to Beaumont since 1919. Regional cooking is a specialty, and the Tavern menu is no exception.
"Of course, we had to have the traditional Kentucky Hot Brown and a pulled pork barbecue sandwich," Dedman said. "Then we took a good old idea, the Hot Brown, and made it our own. The new Hot Beaumont starts off with toast points, is piled on with roasted pork loin and tomatoe slices, and then covered in a Dijon cream sauce."
To decorate the walls, Beaumont staff worked with local historians to find old photos of Mercer County distilleries.
"We still had one of the C.M. Distillery bottles, with the 1879 date showing on the label," said Dedman. "The enlarged 3-by-4 foot image of that bottle is one of my favorites."
The Tavern is a space that stored carriages when the 1845 main building was a school for young women and later Beaumont College.
Wooden tables and Windsor-style chairs were selected to evoke earlier times in central Kentucky when Harrodsburg was an important hub for the settling of the frontier.
Iron gates from the Greystone House, a nearby mansion that was acquired for suite-size accommodations, protect the wine cage. Behind the bar you can see original limestone foundation walls.
"The mason we worked with called that limestone "Kentucky Marble," a very traditional building material for the 19th century," said Dedman.
Tradition is important in central Kentucky and at the Beaumont Inn. So when steel beams were needed for structural support in the tavern, they were encased in wood made to match the original hand-hewn beams.
Beaumont Inn
Old Owl Tavern Bar and Grill Restaurant
638 Beaumont Inn Drive / PO Box 158
Harrodsburg, Kentucky 40330
Near Lexington & Frankfort
Call for reservations, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST: 1-800-352-3992 or 859-734-3381
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