Scott County dining guide: Wagyu meatloaf, street tacos, craft beer and ‘drippy cakes’

It would be ideal if the Legacy Trail extended just a bit further so I could cycle safely all the way to Georgetown, eat a lot of food and then cycle happily home.

As it is, I had to be content on a couple of recent trips to the Scott County seat with eating good food and walking back to my car.

I started my tour at Local Feed where chef/owner Justin Thompson offers new takes on standards like fried chicken and catfish but also pushes the Southern envelope with Wagyu beef meatloaf and specials like the excellent smashed turnips with garlic confit that I tried at lunch one day.

As the name suggests, it’s local, local, local and I found it good, good, good. Those turnips were memorable as was another special, a winter squash soup spiced up with a drizzle of peppery oil.

During the summer months the restaurant partners up with the Georgetown/Scott County Tourism Commission, LM Communications and Kentucky Proud for the monthly Seed to Feed dinner series at different area locations that both showcase local producers and benefit local organizations.

Not far off I-75 north of Georgetown is Babe’s BBQ, a family-owned local place with very good pulled pork (“Where there’s smoke, there’s flavor,” says a notice on the wall) and, I’m told, one of the best hamburgers to be found in its fresh, handmade burgers. Almost the definition of a local place, Babe’s also has posted around the dining room testimonials from near and far. “We met you in April,” one dated October 2019 read in part, “and fell in love. We had to come back down all the way from Mid-Michigan. It was Melissa’s birthday.” Lucky Melissa.

Babe’s has some beautiful and enticing desserts in a cooler but I was hedging my bets to see what I would find at Desserts by Rebecca downtown. For one thing, I found a line. Open since early last year, it’s the retail location of a business that’s been spoiling Georgetown for a decade. Rebecca Maupin became known for her custom cakes but the shop also offers a variety of crepes, lots of cookies, cupcakes, cream horns, brownies and macarons.

Even if you don’t buy one, try to get a look at one of the “drippy cakes,” with extra icing cascading down the sides. Begun as a way to say “sorry” when a birthday or other special occasion had been missed, they’ve now become a standard offering.

Not far down Broadway from Rebecca is Tienda San Juan taqueria where I found the most wonderful street tacos made with quality meat enfolded in soft corn tortillas that made a very nice appetizer for dinner that night. It would be nice to come back on a Saturday when they make tamales or to try some of the other dishes that left their customers happy as they paid their bills with a smile while I waited for my takeout.

To take a break and build up your appetite for the next meal or dessert, visit Yuko-en on the Elkhorn, the Japanese friendship garden, a beautiful respite that features Bluegrass plantings arranged in a Japanese style. It’s free and strolling along the paths provides pleasant, sometimes surprising vistas in a calming atmosphere – something we can all use right now.

There were a number of other places recommended to me that I just didn’t get a chance to try but that would be worth a visit, too. Among them:

▪ Galvin’s on Main, a Georgetown mainstay since 2008, offers a variety of burgers and salads, strombolis and an authentic muffaletta as well as Philly cheese steak sandwhiches and pizza.

▪ The much more venerable Fava’s, begun as a confectionery in 1910, that has passed through several families but is still serving Georgetown today. Breakfast, lunch and dinner include a range of familiar favorites like country-fried steak and some enticing nostalgia items like hand-dipped milkshakes and frickles (I’m assuming fried pickles, a childhood favorite of mine.)

▪ Another highly recommended spot is Sapporo, with a wide array of sushi, tempura and other offerings.

▪ And I would be remiss to leave Georgetown without recommending a visit to Country Boy Brewing. Founded in 2012, Country Boy quickly established itself as a premier local craft brewer from its small Lexington location. But the founders are, after all, country boys and in 2017 built a new, larger tap house in Georgetown with plenty of room for customers inside and out. For some time Country Boy relied on food trucks to accompany their craft beers but not long ago established The Kitchen at Country Boy with a small but intriguing menu of sandwiches, flatbreads and Country Dogs (“Classic, not basic. 100% all beef franks on a bun.”) No need to be thirsty, or hungry, there.

This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 10:29 AM.