Meatloaf, music and mom’s cooking at Golden’s Pub & Deli
Written by Kathy Witt
Patrick Golden traded in music for meatloaf. The 30-year veteran Nashville session musician, known for his “chicken-pickin’” artistry, has returned to his old stomping grounds in Georgetown’s rural Newtown neighborhood and opened Golden’s Pub and Deli.
For a guy who grew up in his family’s country store, it felt like coming home. And in many ways that’s exactly what it was. Patrick’s restaurant opened on August 1, 2020, in a building that dates back to 1890 – the same space the store once occupied. It’s where he grew up, pumping gas and making sandwiches for customers, and where he learned to play the guitar, on Christmas day in 1973. Even part of the pub’s theme is a nod to his family.
“I come from a family of moonshiners,” said Patrick, whose family moved from eastern Kentucky to the Georgetown area in 1955. “I have a whole section dedicated to bourbon and all the pub’s lighting is made from bourbon bottles.”
There are also more than 30 bourbons on the menu.
“I can make you about any drink you’d find in downtown New York City – a Manhattan, Cosmopolitan, Old Fashioned, all the classic bourbon drinks,” he said. Golden’s also stocks fine tequilas, gins and vodkas.
Because the restaurant sits in the midst of Kentucky Horse Country, Patrick combined the bourbon theme with that of horses, with famed thoroughbred racehorse Secretariat given special tribute. The restaurant, with its rustic, Kentucky-centric feel, has become a favorite watering hole for those in the horse racing industry.
The “deli” in the restaurant’s name is a bit of a misnomer. A new kitchen was recently installed and food service has expanded beyond sandwiches to feature comfort foods: meatloaf, mac ‘n cheese, open face roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, deep-fried catfish and grilled lemon pepper catfish, hearty soups and chili, pulled pork and corned beef made with the smoker out back and, this being Kentucky, the cheesy-delicious Hot Brown.
“It’s more what mom would fix in the kitchen,” said Patrick. “It’s home-cooked Southern meals.”
With a studio ace at the helm – and one who’s performed with such legends of country music as Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings and the Bellamy Brothers, among others – one would expect Golden’s Pub and Deli to offer live music, and it doesn’t disappoint. Live music happens on Friday and Saturday nights and on Sunday afternoons.
Hours: 4 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday; 4 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 4 a.m.-12 a.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m.-8p.m. Sunday. The pub offers curbside pickup as well as delivery within a limited mileage area and with a minimum order of $25.
As all Georgetown/Scott County restaurants, Golden’s Pub and Deli is abiding by the COVID-19-related safety and health protocols. For more information, visit the restaurant’s Facebook page or call 502-642-5118. Information about all of Georgetown’s restaurants may be found here.
RECIPE: Fiesta Cheese Rolls 
Ingredients:
1 12” tortilla shell
9 oz cream cheese
6 oz shredded cheese
4 oz jalapenos
4 oz bacon bits
4 oz pepperoni
3 oz Ranch dressing
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together except for the tortilla shell and Ranch dressing. Spread the mixture into the tortilla shell, roll it up and slice it into three rolls. Serve with a side of Ranch dressing.
Author: Kathryn Witt
Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.
