Popular restaurant, bar and music venue on Kentucky River is for sale
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Owners Deb Garrison and John Tucker listed Waterfront Grille & Gathering for $531,500.
- Property includes renovated restaurant, full bar, indoor-outdoor dining and an upstairs.
- Owners are retiring to focus on family and a potential campground at nearby ferry site.
A popular music venue, restaurant and bar on the Kentucky River could be yours, for the right price.
The Waterfront Grille & Gathering, located at 220 Athens Boonesboro Rd. in Winchester, has been listed for sale by owners Deb Garrison and John Tucker for $531,500. According to the listing, the property includes a fully renovated restaurant and kitchen, a turnkey business with indoor-outdoor dining, a full bar and “a unique culinary experience with food prepared on Himalayan salt blocks.”
There’s also an apartment upstairs.
The owners are retiring and want to focus on family and other projects, including a potential campground at a nearby property that was Kentucky’s original ferry landing spot, Garrison said.
They hope they can find a buyer who will love the hidden gem and take it even higher.
“A good friend of mine is Tommy Walters, who has Proud Mary’s (nearby on the river in Lexington,)” Tucker said. “We’d like to see it grow to that, but we have other things we want to do, and we want to pass this on and see someone knock it out of the park.”
They bought the property in 2019 and survived subsequent floods, an ice storm and a near-fatal car wreck on Tucker’s part to build a successful business largely just on word of mouth.
“When we built it back, we built it to sustain a flood,” Tucker said. “It works in our floodplain. We dry it out and move right on.”
“We’ve made a go of it, and we’ve loved the restaurant,” Garrison said. “We’re very community-minded, and we’ve developed a good gathering place for the community ... and we want somebody who will keep the community-minded spirit.”
