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From the road, WhaBah's looks like nothing special.
It's actually a warehouse turned into a roadhouse-restaurant.
No frills here -- just good
food & drink, friendly folks and a down-home, kicked-back atmosphere.
There's plenty of motorcycle parking, in both the front lot and the back yard.
The back yard is bucolic here, but on the frequent "Bike Nights" it's filled with up to 200 motorcycles.
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Set back off the road, WhaBah's has everything you need in a good restaurant – steaks to order, waiters and waitresses who move about quicker than you can say "waiter", and an easy-going atmosphere that's welcoming to everyone.
It's a family roadhouse restaurant AND a honky-tonk style biker bar, all in one -- both old-fashioned and high-tech. It's got high ceilings and a horseshoe bar with an assortment of different barstools and wooden tables. The decor runs to old posters & ads. But it's part sports bar too, with wide-screen and projection tvs on every wall.
There's a huge grill set in the center of the great room. In one corner stands a refrigerator with an assortment of steaks, chops, chicken and shrimp. “We usually let the customer decide which steak they want, and then, if they want to, they can grill it themselves" says owner Perky Perruquet.
What does WhaBah mean, you may ask? It isn’t a foreign language, or a child’s cry for a toy. According to Perky, ”WhaBah is the sound a motorcycle makes when you rev it up.”
There’s something going on almost every night: Monday is cruise-in; Tuesday is the Corn-Hole Tournament (Bean-Bag); Wednesday is Bike Night, when area bikers as well as others bring their motorcycles to compare and discuss. Thursday and Fridays there’s usually a live band and dancing.
“We advertised Bike Night when we first started, and we had bikes coming in from all over,” Perky said. “Some of the other places around here started doing it to get the bikers in their places, too, but most of them seem to like it here. We’ve had a couple hundred bikes out in back; that’s where they park.”
In the far corner of the room is a small stage with various instruments. On Friday and Saturday nights after 10 P.M. Whabah is a rockin’ dance hall. “We have summer performances out there in the back,” said Perky. “We had Percy Sledge and Confederate Railroad here last summer. “And a Nashville guy – Josh Thompson – is a regular here with his group.
Donnie Perruquet is the mastermind behind Whabah. A young-looking 47, Perky is in and out all day, every day, chatting with the customers, making sure the stock is current, and overseeing the day-to-day problems that occur. “Perky is a kind of family nickname we have,” he says of his moniker. “My grandfather came from France somewhere; I never knew him, but my dad says he was a real character.” Perky is a former resident of nearby Barren County, where he had a place on Barren River Lake.
At one time, Perky owned a market in Scottsville with a deli on the side, and later he did carpentry, and framing houses. But something was always missing. “My daughter graduated, and I was thinking about trying something different,” he said. “I was visiting a local place here in Bowling Green. It had pretty good service, and the food wasn’t bad, but it just lacked that special spark.
“A friend and I got to batting some ideas around, and we decided we could build a really great place.” “I had thought about starting from ground up; I didn’t really want anything that was already there. But one day I was riding around and I saw this sign advertising a warehouse. I drove over here, just to look around, you know.
The windows were all grimy, and everything was overgrown. “I finally got a clean space in one window, and I’m standing there, my nose pressed up to this dirty window, seeing all this space, and everything just fell into place.” Together with his daughter and two other silent partners, Perky opened WhaBah in late August 2006.
The menu is quite reasonable, with items such as chips and salsa appetizers for $3.99, and kebobs for $15.99 for two, and that includes a salad and potato bar. Whabah has it’s own signature chili, too, as well as some really delectable potato salad. While you’re at the bar, say hello to some of the regulars - Liz, Tony, Vicky, Wendy and Dino. “We’re here almost every weekend,” Liz said. “You get to know a lot of people. Some come for the food, and then they stay for the music.”
“We seem to get better and better every day,” said Perky. Asked about the future, he said, “One day I see a chain of WhaBah from Daytona Beach all the way to the West.” Maybe. But for right now, WhaBah's is unique, and we kinda like it that way.
WhaBah Steel Horse Ranch is outside Bowling Green, KY at 2361 Russellville Road, at the far end of Campbell Lane (#7). They're open seven days a week: 11 A.M. to 10 P.M. Sun-Thurs, and 11 A.M. 'til 2 A.M. Fri. & Sat. You can find them on the Web at www.whabah.com.
Their phone is (270) 782-6400.
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