Lunch Plus One (Picnic and Painting)

Story and Photos by Melissa Donald

Picnic/Whet Your Palette in Anchorage, Ky

When you want more than lunch: Suggestions for where and what to do with your friends, parents, visitors for a lunch plus one other activity.

Chef Lindsay Hankins with some of her sandwich creations and sides. 

Take yourself out of the city for the day and go on a Picnic. Located in the village of Anchorage, Picnic is situated next to the Village Anchor in the old train depot. As you enter Picnic, the staff and chef Lindsay greet you with a warm welcome. Behind the counter several beautifully designed signs list the menu items.

The Anchorage Country Club with a side of potato salad; the Sloppy Brown (back) is topped with candied bacon; chicken salad on a croissant with a side of their house-made potato chips.

All lunch sandwiches are $10 and include Picnic’s house-made potato chips (made fresh daily). For $1.50 more, choose from three different side items including the potato salad. This is not your ordinary potato salad. Light, fluffy, and creamy with a special dressing and topped with real bacon pieces, the potato salad is my favorite side! For $5 you can get a green side salad. Soup is also available by the cup ($4) or bowl ($6).

Create your own salad at the salad bar. 

Speaking of salad, check out Picnic’s exclusive salad bar ($9 as an entree, $5 as a side). An array of fresh salad fixings, such as spinach, romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers, onions, tomatoes, cheese, pickles, capers, olives, to just name a few, are available to create your own salad. Bowtie pasta with pine nuts and Mediterranean quinoa are specialty items you can add. Additional toppings, such as dried cranberries, nuts, and croutons, are among many more items available.

Counter clockwise: Delightful utensils, Bourbon Ball pound cake, salad with chicken as an added
protein option, example of a Picnic To Go box lunch, caramel latte.

Here is how the salad bar works:

1. Choose to create your own salad
2. A large metal container along with a smaller dish for non tossed items are given to you on a tray for easy transport.
3. Create your salad.
4. Place your tray with your filled containers at the side window and choose a dressing.
5. Your salad creation gets tossed in your chosen dressing and chopped if you wish.
6. Add a protein, such as chicken, salmon, shrimp, tofu, or candied bacon for an additional $4.

Fast, easy, and delicious! Vegetable, chicken tortilla, and creamy french onion are a few of the popular soups that frequent the lunch menu.

Don’t forget about dessert. Cookies, pastries, granola bars, or a caramel latte are just a few offerings. The peanut butter and Nutella cookies are both gluten free. There is also a gluten free granola bar available. Jumbo cookies are $3, small cookies, $1. Looking for a dessert to share? Choose the popular Bourbon Ball Pound Cake, a chocolate pound cake with Four Roses bourbon and drizzled with a white bourbon icing. A decadent treat easily shared with some left over for a snack.

Picnic 
11505 Park Road, Anchorage, Ky.
Hours (for winter):
Tuesday-Friday, 7am-4pm, Saturday & Sunday, 9am-2pm

Friends gather to create their own canvas.

Whet Your Palette
After lunch, head over to Whet Your Palette to create your own piece of art. No painting experience necessary.

Choose from hundreds of inspirations. 

Located behind Picnic and less than half a mile away is Whet Your Palette. A paint-your-own canvas studio with plenty of inspiration cards to help you fashion your masterpiece. Wake up your inner artist in its comfortable, home-like atmosphere. A $10 drop-in fee at Whet Your Palette includes an 8-inch by 10-inch canvas, paints, apron, brushes, inspiration cards, and partial guidance. An additional fee applies if you choose a larger canvas. The perfect activity after your lunch at Picnic and a fun way to spend the day in Anchorage.

Samples of completed canvases.

Whet Your Palette
1415 Evergreen Road
Anchorage, Ky 40223
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10am-10pm
Sunday 12pm-7pm