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This year has proved to be a banner one for noteworthy anniversaries, with the most noteworthy, of course, being the 250th birthday of the United States of America.
Colorado celebrates 150 years of statehood in 2026, and America’s most fabled highway, Route 66, turns 100, as does Winchester based Ale-8-One. Fifty years ago, the Apple Computer Company was founded, and 10 years ago, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, ending a 108-year championship drought.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky has an extra special and delicious anniversary to celebrate in 2026—the 100th birthday of its most iconic dish, the Hot Brown.
In 1926, the U.S. legally observed Prohibition and illegally manufactured “bathtub gin” and “white lightning” as quickly as it could. Meanwhile, at The Brown Hotel in Louisville, the Hot Brown, a culinary cousin of Britain’s Welsh rarebit and France’s Croque Monsieur, was born.
Should you be one of the five people in the Commonwealth who has never taken a knife and fork to a Hot Brown, allow me to introduce you to the classic dish. It’s an open-faced sandwich made with sliced turkey, bacon, tomato and cheesy, creamy Mornay sauce atop toast points, preferably crustless.
After it’s composed, it is then placed under a broiler until it bubbles with the intensity of yeast on its way to becoming bourbon. Once it’s removed from the oven, it’s topped off with Pecorino Romano, paprika and parsley, and voilà, you have a dish that has diners licking their lips in such far-flung places as New York City, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C., according to the Food Network’s Layla Khoury-Hanold.
But nowhere else is the Hot Brown done with the panache of the Blue Grass State. If The Brown Hotel is the mother of the Hot Brown, Fred K. Schmidt is the father. Schmidt was the Brown’s chef during the Roaring Twenties, when some 1,200 glamorous guests converged on the hotel nightly to dine and dance. Around midnight when the orchestra took a break, the dancers would retire to the restaurant for a standard late-night meal of ham and eggs.
Schmidt, feeling that this was a bit too plebeian for the ritzy crowd, decided to offer them something more elevated. Scouring his kitchen for whatever ingredients he could find, he came up with an instant classic.
During a typical week, the two eateries in The Brown—J. Graham’s Café and the Lobby Bar & Grill—will sell an average of 800 Hot Browns, with that number rising to 1,000 during the three-day Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby weekend in May.
While The Brown Hotel remains the place to go for the Commonwealth’s most celebrated dish, diners in other parts of the state need not fear going Hot Brown-less.
You might think that other restaurants in the same city where the Hot Brown phenomenon started might be too intimidated to compete, but apparently these spots didn’t get that memo.
Rubbies Southside Grill & Bar often is described as the runner-up to The Brown Hotel for Louisville’s best Hot Brown. It could be the extra thick and creamy Mornay that gives it its edge.
Across from Churchill Downs racetrack, Wagner’s Pharmacy offers a budget-friendly option, and others disguise the Hot Brown as something else—a Hot Brown Pizza at Lou Lou in Middletown; a Hot Brown Burger at Sidebar at Whiskey Row (it includes beer cheese in the mix); a Southwest Hot Brown at Noosh Nosh (this one has turkey, bacon, cheddar cheese and Bechamel sauce, and it adds sourdough, pico de gallo and queso); and even a Hotter Brown at the Village Anchor Pub in Anchorage.
The latter substitutes roasted chicken for turkey, pairing it with candied bacon, grape tomatoes and cheddar-Parmesan Mornay sauce on French bread with a tomato bacon jam dipping sauce.
Best of the Rest
Shelbyville: The Bell House
Cheese also apparently makes the difference for the rave reviews given to the Bell House’s Hot Brown. Executive Chef Brent Evans said that the Mornay sauce is made in-house from eight cheeses. While Chef Evans won’t give away his entire recipe, he said that two of the cheeses are imported Swiss and aged Parmesan imported from Italy. He added that the restaurant serves so many Hot Browns that the kitchen staff preps them before each shift. “And because we’re the Bell House,” he said, “the last ingredient is always the love we put into all our food.”
Bardstown: Old Talbott Tavern
Want a side of history with your Hot Brown? Then stop in for the dish at the oldest coaching inn west of the Allegheny Mountains, dating back to 1779. “What makes our Hot Brown different isn’t just the recipe. It’s the setting,” said Operations Director Tyler Vaughan. “Here, you can find nearly 250 years of Kentucky history served alongside every plate.” The tavern includes sugar-cured baked ham in its Hot Brown recipe.
Grand Rivers: Patti’s 1880s Settlement
In a town of 350 people in Western Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes region, Patti’s serves some 350,000 customers annually, with the Hot Brown being one of the most popular dishes. Made with Patti’s toasted homemade flower-pot bread, it’s layered with Black Forest ham, mesquite-smoked sliced turkey, tomatoes, homemade cheese sauce and applewood smoked bacon. Diners have the option of topping the dish with Patti’s homemade potato chips or enjoying the chips on the side.
Versailles: Wallace Station Deli and Bakery
If you prefer to hold your Hot Brown in your hand, try Ouita Michel’s Inside Out Hot Brown, a sandwich-style version. Make sure to get a good grip on it, as your choice of white, wheat or rye bread, grilled with butter, is piled high with ham, turkey, bacon, tomato and a white cheddar Mornay sauce.
Lexington: Winchell’s Restaurant and Bar
This local favorite gets rave reviews for its Hot Brown and rightly so. According to diners and Winchell’s co-owner Abe Lansdale, consistency is the key to its success. Lansdale said it took a while to get the Mornay sauce the way they wanted it. “We started with cheddar, and when we began looking for a second cheese, we tried cream cheese and white cheddar, and neither was quite right,” he explained.
So, what did he finally decide on? “You’re not going to believe it,” Lansdale said. “Velveeta.”
Fort Mitchell: Greyhound Tavern
This Northern Kentucky outpost has served Southern comfort food for more than 100 years, so it’s not surprising that the Hot Brown is one of the tavern’s specialties. Its version offers a choice of ham or turkey accompanied by the usual bacon, tomato, cheddar cheese and Bechamel.
Winchester: Hall’s on the River
A mainstay of original Kentucky dishes, this rustic spot on the Kentucky River offers Commonwealth favorites from beer cheese tots to biscuits and gravy. Hall’s also has a popular variation of the Hot Brown. The Breakfast Hot Brown is an appetite-pleasing concoction of poached eggs, country ham, bacon, roasted turkey breast, cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes and creamy Mornay sauce served over tater tots in a hot skillet. If you don’t have the appetite of a lumberjack, Hall’s also offers a traditional Hot Brown with the addition of country ham to the recipe.
Jamie Estes in Louisville has been The Brown Hotel’s publicist for 22 years. As such, she has had a front-row seat to the evolution of the hotel’s signature dish over the past two decades.
“Fred Schmidt may have created the Hot Brown 100 years ago,” she said, “but generations of talented chefs have transformed it into one of America’s most iconic dishes, each finding a new way to elevate, celebrate and preserve its legacy.”
In 2005, Executive Chef Joe Castro was at the helm of The Brown’s restaurants when Saveur magazine recognized the Hot Brown as one of the “100 Best Dishes in America.” Castro joined his brother, John, to challenge celebrity chef Bobby Flay to make the perfect Hot Brown on one of Flay’s Food Network shows. The Castro brothers won.
Former ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer, a Louisville native, visited The Brown Hotel in September 2010 as part of the evening news’ “Going Home” series for a discussion with General Manager Brad Walker on the effect of the economic downturn on the hotel. A Hot Brown tasting was part of the visit.
Executive Chef Laurent Géroli didn’t wait for the Hot Brown’s centennial to celebrate the dish. On its 85th anniversary in 2011, he created 85 unique Hot Brown variations.
When the venerable dish turned 90, Executive Chef Joshua Bettis took innovation to the next level when he introduced the ultimate Hot Brown. Dubbed the “Haute Brown,” this indulgent, decadent creation featured foie gras and edible gold flakes and came with a $90 price tag.
So, what will be in store for the centennial celebration? Estes said birthday plans for the Hot Brown’s 100th birthday haven’t been announced yet, but that current Chef de Cuisine Paul Crepey is preparing to debut a new collection of special Hot Brown creations this fall.
Estes said this “will ensure that the next chapter of the legendary dish is every bit as memorable as the first 100 years.”