A pink tractor and good food in Kentucky
You never know just what you are going to find when you pull off the road. For years traveling past Grand Rivers, Kentucky, we had seen the sign for Patti’s 1880’s Settlement and I was always curious. After looking it up, we decided it would be the perfect lunch stop so I called to make reservations before we winged out way back to Illinois. I was glad I called, Patti’s was full, but we were able to dine in Bill’s, the overflow restaurant. Together both restaurants serve over 350,000 diners a year!
Patti’s began when the Tullar family settled in the Grand Rivers area around 1975, bought a hotel and opened a diner. The good food and home family style atmosphere caused the area to grow and today, Patti’s 1880’s Settlement has several gift shops diners, a 19 hole gold course, hotel and more. We were excited to stop and enjoyed to décor which is a bit like a tea room on steroids. The menu though is man sized.
Keith had a huge pork chop and I tried the chicken fried chicken and we couldn’t pass up a piece of the chocolate meringue pie, although we did split it!
Deciding to walk around and check out the shops, we were quite excited to see a shop called the Pink Tractor complete with a pink tractor out front. Jan Shipley, one of the retail managers said that this is one of the most photographed places onsite. The DC3 Case tractor was painted pink and a whole marketing campaign has grown up around what was once a rusty tractor that was going to be shipped to market prior to being painted. Inside there are T-shirts with the pink tractor (I had to have one of course) and even the bags have the pink tractor theme.
The tractor was found onsite and the shop that the area that the shop is now on was once home to Bill Tullar’s mother. The DC Case was manufactured by J.I. Case in Racine, Wisconsin and 54,924 models were built. The DC3 is the narrow model and the DC4 is the wide front. The D model was manufactured from 1939 until 1953. They originally sold for around $2600.
Patti’s 1880’s Settlement has several agricultural places great for a photo op like the water wheel on the side of the Grist Mill Café and of course the pink tractor. Come eat and stretch for a while and take pictures! Located in Grand Rivers, Kentucky they are at Exit 31 off I-24. There is a hotel and a marina and lots to do. Log onto www.pattis-settlement.com for more information.
