Nightlife in Berea

J.D. Legends nourishes entertainment-hungry families with a massive facility stocked with bowling, a restaurant offering Southern-style fare, a bar, and an arcade. The 24-lane bowling alley features a new-and-improved scoring system to better capture lane-skipping curveballs and light-speed strikes. During open-play hours, shoes gently cradle the feet of their temporary masters as lanes brace themselves for the hurtling of bowling balls down their slender midsections. The lanes frequently host themed parties and events, including cosmic bowling every Friday and Saturday night.

The facility’s art-deco carpeting and citrus-colored decorations invigorate bowlers with game-enhancing visions of early 20th-century French heydays and afternoons spent lazing about under yellowed skies.

The gourmands at Mermaids Bar and Bistro present a menu full of rich New American fare and southern-inspired cuisine against a cozy bistro backdrop replete with partially bricked walls and small, homey tables. Duos and quartets inaugurate feasts with starters including fried green tomatoes (an $8 value) and JR’s tempura cocktail (a $12 value)—jumbo shrimp flanked by sweet thai sauce and spicy wasabi. Popular entrees, such as the seared Atlantic salmon fillet (a $20 value) or the chorizo-anchored creole risotto (a $17 value) tastily exercise long-dormant mouth muscles and heirloom forks brought from home.

Beer Engine Microbrewery & Tap's resident beer buffs conjure signature batches of oat sodas that are brewed in-house. Sip on a quartet of samples from Beer Engine's five microbrews, which range from Freedom Ranger pale and King George's nut brown ale to Kirkner's amber––a quintessentially American brew made purely from waves of grain. Souvenir pint glasses hold aloft foamy fermentations such as virtue porter or czechvar, and half-gallon growlers allow sippers to tote their two favorite potables home and may be returned and refilled later for a fee of $11.

The brick walls of Woody's Sports Bar and Grill showcase large, wall-mounted flat-screen TVs to broadcast multiple sporting events while sheltering burger-bearing wait staff who serve patrons steaming entrees and frosty beverages from the menu. Crackers, crispy celery, and crunchy carrots lounge around a dish of signature beer cheese dip ($3.99) to gossip about the potato skins' designer sour cream purse ($6.75). With the 8-ounce prime rib dinner, choose a cut of tender prime rib and two sides such as a fresh salad or golden fries ($13.95). Slices of roasted turkey, bacon, juicy ham, and tomato cozy up under a rich cream sauce and melted cheese blanket in Woody's hot brown platter ($10.45). The kitchen team exercises one of its most useful assets—patience—to slow cook the pork that bathes in Herschel Walker's #34 barbecue sauce in the pulled-pork barbecue sandwich ($6.25). Meander out to the patio during a pick and jam night, where talented locals tickle eardrums with singing, guitar strumming, and ear-shaped feathers.

In 1783, Captain John Holder established Holder's Tavern along the region's main thoroughfare: the Kentucky River. Now part of Hall's on the River, the site persists some 200-plus years later as a place to gather around food and drinks. Today, visitors dig into classic Southern dishes, ranging from steaks and smoked pork chops to frog legs and a seafood platter stacked with shrimp, oysters, scallops, clams, and fried ocean catfish.

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