Kingfish Restaurant

 

The first KingFish Restaurant was opened on Derby Day, 1948, by Russell Austin and Henry Burns. The restaurant was named after the very popular radio program call Amos and Andy. One of the characters on the show was head of that Great Fraternity, The Mystic Knights of the Sea, he was known as KingFish. A refrigerator of fish, two fryers and a cooler of beer was housed in a building that Mr. Austin and Mr. Burns built with their own hands and was located at the foot of Fourth Street and River Road in downtown Louisville. A similar style building was opened on Upper River Road in 1955.The first Paddle-wheel Boat design restaurant opened on Bardstown Road in 1962. Another full service KingFish was opened downtown in 1971 on Sixth Street and River Road. The original unit on Fourth Street was then closed. In 1976, the restaurant now known as Zorn Avenue (Upper River Road) was opened, followed by Poplar Level in 1981.Austin and Burns did venture into franchise business with their concept in the early ’70s, but quickly discontinued the idea. In 1989, Mr. Austin and Mr. Burns sold their Company to two Louisville based land developers, Charles A. Brown, Jr. and Norman V. Noltemeyer. Brown and Noltemeyer opened a new KingFish Restaurant on Dixie Highway in February 1991 and the first Company owned restaurant outside the state of Kentucky was opened in Jeffersonville, Indiana in March of 1998.In recent years we have streamlined our operations to focus on making our two locations on the Ohio River destination spots by adding miniature golf, entertainment and outside dining for Kentuckiana locals.