The Catfish Hotel...

When I told Chris Garrabrant, a former colleague of mine at Montgomery Ward, that we were going to visit the Shiloh National Battlefield Park in Tennessee, he provided me with this road food lead. Many thanks, Chris!

This is Hagy's Catfish Hotel... The Catfish Hotel is one of the oldest family owned restaurants in the USA. The family first settled on this piece of land back in 1825. The restaurant was established over 70 years ago, but the original building was destroyed by fire in 1975. This new building opened for business in 1976.



Of course, the specialty of the house is catfish...but they do have menu that includes chicken, ham, steaks, burgers, and seafood...to include frog legs

When we ordered, we stayed with the house specialty, the reason for the Catfish Hotel's existence and it's success.

The meal started with a nice salad...topped with homemade Blue cheese dressing. Then came the main act...fried catfish! The fillets were huge, thick and juicy and the light cornmeal based
breading was seasoned perfectly! This meal ranked at the top of my list of fried catfish experiences... My better half actually complained that the fillets were hard for her to get used too...they were so thick in comparison with her previous experiences.

There was no disagreement about this basket of golden gems! Laurie is not a hush puppy fan...but we both loved these beauties! Just terrific...


The Catfish Hotel is definitely on a back road... Just north of the Shiloh Battlefield on Tennessee Rte. 22, you have to be looking for Hagy Lane. The restaurant is located at the end of this winding country road, right on the Tennessee River. The address is: 1140 Hagy Lane, Shiloh, TN 38376. Phone: 731-689-3327. Website: http://www.catfishhotel.com/.