Where to make a personal connection with American history on Presidents' Day:

        History comes alive when you sit down to eat at a restaurant where a president from the history books once ate. Or even when you realize that the restaurant where you're having a meal opened the year Lincoln was inaugurated, or when Thomas Jefferson, William Howard Taft or Herbert Hoover occupied the White House.

        Here are a few ways to have a brush with the past:

        • Travel up river and eat in a restaurant in a building constructed when George Washington was president. In Washington, Ky., four miles south of Maysville, Marshall Key's Tavern serves lunch in the basement of Washington Hall, which was built in 1795. The original stone foundation forms the wall of the restaurant, though the building burned and was rebuilt in 1825. 2111 Old Main St., (606) 759-5803.

        • A little west of Maysville, in Augusta, the Beehive Tavern is housed in a building that dates to 1796. Originally an apothecary shop, the building overlooking the Ohio River has had many uses over the years. The current owner, Luciano Moral, bought it in 1987 and carefully rehabbed it. 101 W. Riverside Drive. (606) 756-2202.

        • To commemorate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, you could eat dinner in a Cincinnati restaurant that began operating in the year the Great Emancipator began his term. Arnold's Tavern opened on Eighth Street, downtown, in 1861. The tavern, with rooms on three floors, has been serving food and drink in the same location ever since. 210 E. Eighth St., 421-6234.

        • Four years later, Mecklenberg Gardens in Corryville opened as a biergarten, restaurant and important social center for Cincinnati's German immigrant community. It was 1865, the year the Civil War was over and that Abraham Lincoln was tragically assassinated. 302 E. University Ave., 221-5353.

        For historic restaurants of a more recent vintage, eat at Scotti's Italian restaurant downtown. The owners, the DiMarco-Scoleri family, have run a restaurant called Scotti's since Cincinnati's own William Howard Taft was in the White House, but have only been at the Vine Street location since Truman's administration. 919 Vine St., 721-9484.

        • The Maisonette (114 E. Sixth St., downtown, 721-2260) and the first Skyline Chili opened during the Truman years, too. Empress Chili has been around since one of our worst Presidents, Warren Harding, did his damage to the office. Pompilio's Italian restaurant (600 Washingotn St., Newport, 859-581-3065) looks about like it did when it opened during Herbert Hoover's Great Depression.

        • It's the Golden Lamb in Lebanon that gives you the biggest historical bargain, though. It was opened when Thomas Jefferson was in the White House (though it was a much smaller building than it is now.) and since then has hosted 10 U.S. presidents, for dinner and overnight. Many of the guestrooms are named for them. 27 S. Broadway, Lebanon, 621-8373.

        Contact Polly Campbell by phone: 768-8376; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: pcampbell@enquirer.com.

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