The Blue Raven Restaurant & Pub

When Matt Corbin left Pike County for college, he wasn’t planning to return. But after learning the culinary trade and working in various Lexington restaurants, marriage and family ties pulled him home and he decided to open the Blue Raven Restaurant and Pub.

Corbin described the menu as pub-style Appalachian cuisine. In winter, the Kentucky hot brown and cheese fries are popular.

“The menu item I’m most proud of is our crab cake,” he said. “It’s a real simple item. The crab cake itself doesn’t have a lot of ingredients, but people really respond well to it.”

The salsa on the crab cake is a favorite from Corbin’s days at culinary school. “It’s Granny Smith apple, red pepper, red onion, with a just little vinaigrette on it, and then the remoulade.”

When it came time to build the restaurant, they had materials on hand. “We tore an old barn down on my grandfather’s farm and reclaimed all the wood,” he said. The tin ceiling from the barn is now the ceiling for the restaurant’s patio.

Corbin is proud to be located in downtown Pikeville. “I wanted to contribute to that, bringing people back downtown.”

This segment is part of Kentucky Life episode #2106, which originally aired on February 6, 2016. Watch the full episode.