It's Not Grant's Tomb; It's His Bar

A Union General's Favorite Haunt Still Pours Cold Brew, History

    Many bars have that local character, the one who comes in all the time and usually can be associated with that particular bar when its name is mentioned.      

    Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War general and President who supposedly frequented many bars in his lifetime, is the patron most often associated with the actual bar in the Whalers Catch Restaurant in Paducah, Ky. 

A Mahogany Masterpiece
    Inside the Whalers Catch Restaurant is a 24-foot-long, solid mahogany bar at which Ulysses S. Grant was rumored to sit while in Cairo, Ill., during the Civil War.

    “There’s a nick in the bar where Grant supposedly dropped something,” says Whalers Catch General Manager Bill Cornille.

    Featuring grand, engraved carvings of Indian heads and traditional hunting scenes, the nine-foot-tall back bar also includes an extravagant service area and a shiny brass foot rail.
“A lot of people come here to the bar itself to look at it,” Cornille says.

    The bar has almost as many miles traveling as does Grant during his military service and presidential term. It originally was shipped up the Mississippi River on a barge from New Orleans to Cairo, Ill., in 1863. After the Civil War, the bar was transported to nearby Brookport, Ill., where it resided at a local roadside tavern. Eventually, the bar moved south across to Kentucky and now has called the Johnson building in downtown Paducah home for nearly 10 years.

    “I was there when we put the bar in,” Cornille says. “We had eight people there to lift the 24-foot-long top bar piece, and we couldn’t lift it. We had to get a fork lift in to lift it.”

The Real Catch
    The famous bar resides in the historic Johnson building and is a part of folklore, receiving national attention, even from magazines such as Maxim.

    “Our building goes back to 1878, and it’s completely remodeled inside,” Cornille says. The building served as a union hall during the 1950s and ‘60s and, later, as a warehouse. “Whalers Catch has a New Orleans atmosphere, with hanging tables and a lot of netting. There’s an outside deck overlooking the Ohio River in open air,” he says.

    The Whalers Catch offers some of the best New Orleans seafood, and it’s the only place in the Paducah area to offer oysters in a half shell.

    “We get fresh seafood in three times a week –– Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Cornille says. “During October, we have an oyster fest, and it’s not unusual to go through 200 dozen oysters on a Friday night.”     

    To complement the food and round out the experience, Whalers Catch offers five beers on tap and an abundance of wines. However, the spirits at the bar are the house specialty. NCB