History.

When  Col. Bill Landrum retired from the U.S. Army and he had one final mission in mind: re-energize Greensburg’s public square. Bill, who grew up on a Green County farm that has been in his family since the 1850s, wanted to return home to serve his community after serving his country for 30 years.

“I just want to leave Green County better than I found it,” he says. “I want to bring activity to the square.”

His first action was the purchase of a two-story historic building smack in the square—with the goal of opening a nonprofit history museum with a restaurant to complement it. Bill and his wife, Justine, opened Longhunters Coffee and Tea Company, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and boasts trained baristas.

“We wanted it locally owned, not franchised,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people who said they’ve had enough Mexican food and enough pizza and enough Chinese food. They were looking for a place where they can have a nice salad.”

Patrons can get a brief history lesson from the menu, since each sandwich is named for a historical figure important to Green County. These include the “General Nathaniel Greene”—turkey breast, provolone and roasted red peppers on sun-dried tomato swirl bread dressed with herbed oil—and the “Colonel James Knox,” a spicy concoction of salami, pepper jack cheese, pepper rings and mustard on ciabatta bread. But the favorite among diners, Bill says, is the Longhunters Hot Brown, composed of a turkey breast served on a corncake with the required Mornay sauce, tomato and bacon.

“The reason I did a corncake is that we thought that might have been done in the 1700s with the longhunters,” he says.

Entertainment is a regular item on the Longhunters menu. A full stage hosts bands, play productions and tapings of The Country Junction television show. Customers can purchase a souvenir or two while at the establishment. The shoppe within Longhunters sells everything from snacks and candy, clothing, accessories, baby items, Kentucky school spirit items, home decor, seasonal items, to cookbooks and literature.

The Landrums currently are raising money via private donations to open the Green County History Museum. The museum is opening in 2020. “There will be heritage items and artifacts across 11 different categories, from military to schools to cemeteries to agriculture to medicine to early lifestyles.”

— Derived from August 2013 Kentucky Monthly article written by Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley