Maiden Alley Oktoberfest: Paducah’s Celebration of All Things Fun
Day drinking?
Live music outdoors during the peak of amazing fall weather?
Food prepared by very capable hands, including an array of sausages, tons of pretzels, cheeses, strudels, kraut, potato salad, beef tongue (maybe), homemade buns, and so much more?
Five craft breweries?
An art fair?
A German car show?
Dirndls?
Lederhosen?!?
If you can’t help but exclaim a resounding “HELL YES!” to all these questions, then you are truly ready for the Paducah event that is Maiden Alley Oktoberfest!!!
It is our 5th year, which means it is time to add more fun stuff to the agenda. Up until now we have only highlighted the beer from our amazing friends at Schlafly Beer. They have been the signature beer of Maiden Alley Cinema from the beginning and they have been with us through it all. A big hats off to this amazing company!!!
BUT it is time to expand the event as we have more people to please! Starting in 2011 we were over the moon to have around 130 attendees. In 2014 we had over 600. The word is spreading!
So... we needed MORE beer. It was a no-brainer to reach out to our two new breweries located right here in Paducah, KY - Dry Ground Brewing Company and Paducah Beer Werks!
Dry Ground even took it a step further and partnered with Schlafly to make a collaboration beer that will be revealed at this year’s event. Done in the Kentucky Common style and aptly named Common Ground, this beer will offer a blast from the past.
Kentucky Common Beer is a once-popular style of ale from the area in and around Louisville, Kentucky from the 1850s until Prohibition. This style is rarely brewed commercially today. In addition, we will also have the amazing beer of West Sixth out of Lexington, KY and Tin Man out of Evansville, IN.
This event really is about 4 things; great beer, great music, great food, and a great cause.
By joining with the amazing crew at Kirchhoff’s Bakery & Deli you know the food will be top notch and of the highest caliber. Louie doesn’t mess around when it comes to a Bavarian spread.
Just as Kirchhoff’s is a Paducah tradition, we like to think that Maiden Alley Cinema is one as well. Through expanding our programming to include live music as well as film, we have found that our audience has become more diverse and broad. This event helps us to raise much needed operating support for the non-profit cinematic art house. Our mission is film, which allows us to bring a new independent/foreign film or documentary to the big screen every weekend, offer several films series (i.e. Faith in Film, Movies for Me and Film Brew), host rotating art exhibits in our lobby and keep amazing music on our stage through Music@MAC.
Photo by MAMC Photography
Speaking of music, we have a stellar line-up this year and as well as one additional hour to enjoy the festivities. Starting the day with local favorites Chris Black & the Eagles of Unemployment and then on to the Paducah Jazz Ensemble Polka Band for some traditional music to match the theme of the day.
Then, we have the Solid Rock’it Boosters - who always bring down the house. After that, we venture outside our great city to bring in Curio of Chicago, IL, and then the Loot Rock Gang of St. Louis, MO. To headline the day, we have Paducah’s own Jessica Lee Wilkes.
There will also be an after party at JP’s Bar & Grill, featuring live music by The Swamp Tigers, Commander Keen, and a few others to be announced.
And if you are feeling frisky and want to kick off the weekend in style, don’t miss our Maiden Alley Oktoberfest Beer Dinner Friday, October 16 at 7 pm. With food being prepared by German chef we can’t wait for a truly authentic meal. There will be 4 courses with a beer pairing for each course. Anita White of Gold Rush Café is even bringing her mother in from Germany to help in the process.
Tickets and more information can be found at www.maidenalleycinema.org
Also, you can purchase tickets for both events with CASH or CHECK ONLY at any of these fine Paducah establishments: Roof Brothers Wine & Spirits (Park Ave. location), Kirchhoff’s Bakery, Dry Ground Brewery, Etcetera & Etcetera Squared, Bricolage Art Collective, Gold Rush Café, Max’s Brick Oven, and of course Maiden Alley Cinema.
Top Five Day Trips from Paducah!
Five fun day trips near the Paducah, KY area.
Paducah is at the center of it all. You just didn't know it.
We sit at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. We are mere miles away from Kentucky Lake and 15 minutes from Illinois. In fact, a two-hour drive can get you to five—count 'em FIVE—states. Sure, we don't have the ocean but who needs it when Superman lives just over the bridge!
So, I'm going to cheat just a bit and break down the Top 5 categories of day trips, instead of specific locations.
The City Museum. Image via Delta Sky Magazine.
1. Big Cities.
Nashville and St. Louis are easy day trips for families aching to get out of town and stare at some skyscrapers. Both cities are great destinations for kids. Nashville has an amazing zoo, and St. Louis's City Museum, which describes itself as an "eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel," is one of the best, most unique children's attractions in the nation.
Mammoth Cave. Image via National Geographic.
2. Outdoor Recreation.
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is only about thirty minutes away and boasts miles of hiking, camping, and fishing area. Above ground recreation isn't your thing? Kentucky also has the world's largest known cave system - appropriately called Mammoth Cave. The Shawnee National Forest and Garden of the Gods are also less than an hour away.
3. Roadside Attractions.
Y'all, Superman is totally my neighbor. Metropolis, IL, is only about 15 minutes away and the Superman statue alone is worth a visit. Up for other wacky locales? How about where Corvettes are made? You could even go to Paris...
4. Cultural Experiences.
Kentucky has one of the fastest growing Amish populations in the nation. Seeing the horse and buggies never gets old. Neither does their amazing food or craftsmanship.
5. History at your back door.
Some of the most famous names in American history lived and died in this area. From Abraham Lincoln to Davy Crockett, this area was the wild, wild west for a significant portion of our country's history and has plenty of amazing stories to tell.
~ Sarah Stewart Holland
Patti's 1880's Settlement
That we have come this far in our journey together and not yet talked about Patti's is either a testament to the restaurant's ubiquity or my failure as a guide to all things Western Kentucky.
Patti's is a DESTINATION. In 1975, it started as a family burger joint attached to a six unit hotel. Over time it has grown to two restaurants, a full size hotel, shops, petting zoo, and park that serve over 350,000 people a year.
Located in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, what made Patti's famous was the pork chop.
It's slap your momma good and when accompanied by Patti's bread in a pot with strawberry butter. Well... wear loose fitting clothes is all I'm saying because THEN there's dessert. A veritable smorgasbord of pies and cakes but, if you're asking an expert (AKA me!), skip it all and go for the world famous Bill's Boat Sinker.
The Boat Sinker a rich, dark double fudge pie topped with coffee ice cream, piled high with whipped cream, "drizzled" with chocolate syrup and topped with a cherry. It is FANTASTIC.
Did I mention that all this delicious food is served to you by waiters and waitresses in "traditional" 1880's garb and they sing "Let me call you sweetheart" to anyone celebrating an anniversary?
Y'all, it's an experience.
If you're planning a visit, summer is always good so you can stop by Kentucky Lake while you're there. However, if you're making a special trip, then Christmas is the time to go. The entire park is strung with more lights and every room in the restaurant is decorated with a different holiday theme.
It, as we say in the South, a SIGHT.
We went to Patti's for my senior prom and I've celebrated many a holiday season there as well. I take my own children there to celebrate birthdays and family occasions. It was the first place I took my best friend when she flew all the way from New York City for a visit.
On the phone with her mother in Connecticut, my friend told her mother, who has never been to the South, she was eating the best pork chop of her life.
"Are you at Patti's?!?" her mother replied.
Word gets around is all I'm saying.
~ Sarah Stewart Holland
My Kentucky: Paducah & Beyond
My Kentucky is the land of my ancestors - generations of people who have inhabited the same hills and streams and towns I call home.
My Kentucky is the place of my birth. It is my roots. It is my past. It is the start of my story.
My Kentucky is the centerpiece of my childhood where every 4th of July was spent on Kentucky Lake and every Christmas downtown at my great-grandmother's house on Jefferson Street.
My Kentucky is the place I couldn't wait to escape from as a teenager when every familiar place and friendly face seemed like a prison.
My Kentucky offered up a new life to me in college, when I drove east along the Western Kentucky Parkway singing Wide Open Spaces at the top of my lungs.
My Kentucky was independence and "big" city living in Lexington as I crossed North Broadway a thousand times and learned who I was during my time at Transy.
My Kentucky wasn't home for five years. Five years spent defending her to anyone who dare insult her good name.
My Kentucky waited patiently for me to return - secretly knowing all along that the only thing my children could or would ever be were Kentuckians.
My Kentucky has opened up a whole new life for me. A life I never dreamed possible.
My Kentucky is the promised land - rolling hills of green and dirt roads and wide open sky that fills you up and make you whole.
My Kentucky is one of the great loves of my life. There always. Supporting me. Loving me. Inspiring me.