Claudia Sanders Dinner House

About Us

While ravished by fire the day after Mother’s Day, 1999 the Dinner House has reopened in an improved facility. We have larger banquet facilities and a state of the art kitchen, but have maintained the country charm of the old dinner house. With the enlarged and updated kitchen we have the space and equipment to prepare you favorite Kentucky dishes the way your grandmother made them.

In 1959, at the age of 69, Colonel Harland Sanders and his wife, Claudia, moved from Southeastern Kentucky to Shelbyville. Prior to this, the Colonel had spent many years in Corbin, Kentucky, developing his now world-famous chicken recipe. His move to Shelbyville was prompted by the opening of Interstate 75 which bypassed Corbin and his restaurant. It was however, from this very building that Kentucky Fried Chicken grew into a world-wide organization.
The one hundred twenty five year old dwelling, Blackwood Hall, which is adjacent to the Dinner House, served as the Sander’s residence and the base of operation for Kentucky Fried Chicken after their move here. The expanding business soon brought a need for office and warehouse space, so they constructed a building, later to become Claudia Sanders Dinner House that burned in May 1999.
In 1964, Colonel Sanders sold Kentucky Fried Chicken and the company offices were moved. Neither this building nor the Sanders were to remain idle for long however. Their knowledge of Southern Recipes and their natural leaning toward the restaurant business soon brought about the creation of this, the Claudia Sanders Dinner House where an air of Southern Hospitality