5 minute read
Over and Under is Thriving and Expanding
by STEPHANIE WATSON
Building Places Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Partners Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun are Constructing Creative Eateries Amid Paducah’s Arts and Apparitions
Owners Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun
T’S A BUSY SATURDAY AT ONE OF DOWNTOWN PADUCAH’S NEWEST bar and eateries. Laughing kids are scrambling over chairs, dropping bites of bacon and fried potatoes. Friends huddle at the bar watching football over Bloody Marys and eggs Benedict. A large group of women gather at high-top tables around an iced bottle of champagne and pint-sized pitchers of orange and cranberry juice. Balloons float from the chair backs of a group celebrating a birthday. I
Over/Under is, at its heart, a gathering place. What was originally an idea for a sports bar has quickly evolved into a downtown staple fit for just about any occasion. “We’ve really had a pretty universal appeal,” Blake Calhoun, co-owner of Over/Under explains. “We thought we knew what we were when we first opened: a sports bar where people would hang out on the weekends and spend late nights. It turns out that we aren’t quite that, or at least we aren’t only that. But if you listen to your customers—what they want and what they show up for—you find out quickly who you really are.”
Co-owners Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun aren’t new to owning a business, but this is their first venture into the restaurant scene. Hardin and Calhoun own CIRCO Construction, a commercial construction and custom homes company located in Paducah. It was while working on the construction of Grill 211 in downtown Paducah that the team decided it was time to try something new. “Being downtown during the day while working on Grill 211 really made us fall in love with this part of the city,” Hardin explains. “There is so much happening downtown, and we got to experience a real sense of community with the business owners, customers, and people who live here.”
After purchasing the property (which previously housed Italian Grill), the pair’s first call was to their friend and now restaurant manager, Chris Johnson. Johnson, who was managing Buffalo Wild Wings at the time, also understood and loved the sports bar scene. Together, the three sat down and made a dream list of everything they wanted in a bar that could serve as a meeting place for friends to spend the day watching the game.
To pull it off, the team hired chef Kevin Dowdy to head the kitchen. From there, a mix of familiar bar food favorites and elevated comfort food combos emerged. Hardin wanted to serve tacos (they now offer six types) and Calhoun wanted to be known for the best burger in town. Appetizers and drinks were also a top priority on their list so sports fans spending extended time at the bar would have plenty of options.
Bringing an elevated brunch experience to downtown was another priority for the constructive team. Customers can enjoy Hardin’s signature Bloody Mary or a habanero Margarita made with his own infused jalapeño vodka and habanero tequila. Unexpected menu items include a funnel cake chicken and waffles with honey garlic drizzle and Tres Tacos with crumbled sausage, applewood smoked bacon, pulled pork, scrambled eggs, and avocado.
“I used to love showing up to a bar on a Saturday and spending the whole day watching sports with other fans,” Hardin says. “I never had to make plans to meet with people because I would already know everybody who showed up there. It’s kind of like Cheers—the place where everybody knows your name. We didn’t really have that in Paducah, and that’s what we hope we’ve created.” Long-term, Hardin and Calhoun hope their presence helps downtown become a place where people regularly spend extended amounts of time. They imagine block parties, more festivals, increased opportunities to hear live music, and families spending the day shopping, playing, and, of course, tapping into the diverse culinary experiences downtown has to offer. “We both just really believe in downtown and want it to be a place that people come to spend the day,” Hardin notes. “We want people to realize that downtown isn’t just a place for birthdays and anniversaries. There is something for everyone here and the more we invest in making this a fun place to spend time, the more we’ll see our city grow.”
Good Eats & Friendly Apparitions
March marks the one-year anniversary of Over/Under. To celebrate the occasion, Hardin and Calhoun are introducing their next downtown project: a new restaurant called Stella’s. Stella’s will be located in the historic building at the corner of Market Street and Broadway. Often referred to as “the Cohen Building,” the structure has housed several businesses since its construction in 1855 and is an iconic piece of downtown architecture.
The first documented resident of the building was a dry goods store called M. Livingston and Company. It was also home to Guthrie’s Clothing Store and Ellis-Rudy Dry Goods before R.L. Peacher Liquor Distillers and Rehkopf Distilling Company took ownership in 1914. The Cohen family bought the building in 1921, running a variety of businesses in the space and living on the second floor. Stella Cohen, the last surviving family member, died on the premises in 1980.
Known as one of the most haunted places in western Kentucky, an abundance of stories describing Stella’s hauntings in the building have emerged over the years. By honoring her with the restaurant’s name, Hardin and Calhoun hope to maintain a friendly relationship with the mysterious specter. Stella’s will offer an upscale, tavern-like atmosphere with a limited core menu of classic American dishes as well as seasonally rotating specials.
