We have told stories of legendary Kentucky food icons like the real man behind the cake mix, Duncan Hines, and Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky fried chicken recipe. Another global restaurant chain got its start in Kentucky nearly 60 years ago, one you likely didn’t expect. Long John Silver’s seafood chain started in Lexington in 1969.
The first Long John Silver’s restaurant opened exactly 56 years ago this week, on August 18, 1969, in Lexington. There are a couple of ways to tackle this story, by baiting our audience with the story of Jim Patterson, the restaurant’s founder. And by going back even further in time to 1883, when author Robert Louis Stevenson released Treasure Island, the book that first introduced us to the fictional pirate character that’s been brought to life across pop culture in movies, TV, other books and radio for over a century.
1960s America was in the throngs of a massive pop culture shift. Not only were the hippies becoming rockers in the long-haired bands of the era, and not only were film and TV becoming more fast-paced and entirely in color. But there was a food shift as well, as the rise of fast food chains was upon us. Chains like Burger Queen were just ramping up. Jim Patterson, a Kentucky-based restauranteur in Lexington, saw the chance to fill a niche market for fast, casual seafood. Long John Silver’s was born. The original architecture was inspired by Cape Cod-style homes with coastal, nautical decorations…