One of Hopkinsville’s signature downtown buildings, which has housed several popular restaurants since the early 1980s, will soon be home to an Irish-themed restaurant.
“I want it to be a place where people want to come and hang out. I want it to be like ‘Cheers,’ where everyone knows your name,” said Lisa Hussey, who is opening The Local Irish Pub and Kitchen with her husband, Peter Hussey, a native of Derry, Ireland.
The Local will be in the former Harper House restaurant building at 10thand Main streets. Downtown investors Tyler Young and Taylor Thieke bought the building last fall.
The restaurant is expected to open in early spring and will employ at least 30 people.
Traditional Irish fare and American favorites, including hamburgers, entrees, salads, appetizers, fish and chips, and bangers and mash (which is sausages with mashed potatoes) will be served for dinner Monday through Saturday.
Their Hopkinsville restaurant will be an expansion of the couple’s Princeton business, Black Patch Grille, which will continue. Previously, they owned the Session House Irish Pub in New York City.
The historic Hopkinsville building, constructed in 1894, is an ideal setting for an Irish pub, said Lisa Hussey. The couple plan to make some “minor cosmetic changes” with new furnishings for the dining room and new kitchen equipment.
Lisa Hussey became interested in the building, and in downtown Hopkinsville, after the couple enrolled their sons, ages 5 and 7, at University Heights Academy. She was commuting every weekday from their home in Eddyville and saw an opportunity in the downtown’s ongoing revival.
“I just love the town,” she said, adding the family recently moved to Hopkinsville to be close to the boys’ school and their new restaurant.
Rather than simply competing with other restaurants, The Local’s owners want to be part of an effort to improve business for everyone in the downtown district.
“We want all ships to rise,” Lisa Hussey said.
“We are excited to be expanding in Hopkinsville and open our second location,” Peter Hussey said in a news release. “The Local will offer a similar menu to what our guests enjoy today in Princeton such as our Irish burgers and our selection of wings.”
The Local will have a large beer selection, including Guinness on draft.
Open initially for dinner only, the couple wants to eventually expand to lunch hours. The restaurant will be family-oriented, said Lisa Hussey. Special events will be an option in the building’s private dining room on the second floor.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
