Louisville

 A first for me, I am visiting Kentucky for a work event. Hopped onto my long flight on United to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. I wasn’t sure what to expect outside of what I see on the news. The downtown area seems very quiet when I checked into the Marriott Courtyard Louisville Downtown. It is an easy walk to the Galt Hotel where my event was being held. The Galt Hotel in comparison to the Courtyard is probably three times larger with two towers. The interesting thing about the Galt is that the towers are connected by an over street pedestrian bridge where a coffee shop and bar is located. You can get some nice views with the river. There is a plethora of hotels in the area and I waffled between many. I ulitmately chose the Courtyard because it was the closest to the Galt Hotel but in hindsight, any of the hotels would do. The only thing is that my final day was the day of a marathon which made getting an airport ride near impossible because the Courtyard was in the center of the race. I ended up walking to another hotel to get a taxi.

Courtyard Louisville

I was sandwiched between the Convention Center, KFC Yum! Center, and Whiskey Row. I didn’t have a lot of down time but what I could spare an hour or two, I was able to get a taste of downtown area between visiting distilleries and museums. I did find it interesting that there was no KFC in the immediate area (maybe it is inside the Yum! Center). I would have liked to have gone to a location. The original KFC (Sander’s Kitchen) is two hours south of Louisville so too far for me to get to.

Activity

Louisville Slugger Museum - Since I was here for work, I didn’t actually opt into the tours. For the most part, I didn’t need to understand how the bat is made but I did find the history fun to learn. 

Evan Williams Experience - I had an opportunity to see the rest of the distillery but was too tired to make it. Instead I opted to hang out at the gift shop and searched for the limited releases. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the 23 year bourbon but a colleague did buy the 12 year bourbon. In the end, it was probably for the best since it was a $400 or $200 bottle and I don’t know if I needed to spend that kind of money. I opted to just buying the lines that are not sold outside of Kentucky.

Old Forester Distillery - I am a fan of the prohibition line especially in old fashioneds. So I spent a lot of time at the gift shop, the tours was actually sold out during the week I was here. It is a very popular tour so I advise to look at booking the tours as soon as you know you’re going to Louisville. The facility is clearly well intentioned for the tours and the gift shop is large. They sell Modjeskas (chocolate or not chocolate covered salted caramels made with bourbon) made by Art Eatables. I would recommend the candies but to buy it from the chocolate shop. It’s down the street and $1 cheaper. Again, I purchased the Old Forester that was either cheaper to buy direct or not sold outside of Kentucky. I wasn’t able to find the limited release but I was happy enough with my purchases.

Justin’s House of Bourbon - I was running out of time and with so many distilleries, it was difficult to find the time. So I opted to visit this bourbon liquor store to see if I can try a number of local bourbons in one spot. I ended up enjoying Peerless Bourbon and bought the toasted line.’

Art Eatables - On my way to the Slugger museum, I spied this chocolate shop with their Food Network badging. Also, I’ve never seen a bourbon chocolate shop. So out of curiosity, I returned to visit the shop and the proprietor was kind enough to show me the chocolate options as well as sample with Four Roses bourbon. Luckily, I had tasted Four Roses during the work event so I knew what it tasted like before eating the chocolate. I ended up buying chocolates from other local distilleries that I couldn’t get to.

Dining

Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen - I visited twice while on this trip. Once dining in and once as takeout. My first visit I had the barnyard burger which was awesome. The cornbread was good when warm and fresh. It needs a little reheating if you take it in a doggy bag. It’s a little dense and more moist than your average cornbread. The second time, I ordered the quarter chicken to go just to see if their fried chicken was good. Since I had leftover cornbread, the chicken only entree was fine. But if I was to visit again, I would stick with the sandwiches. $13 old fashioned was a bargain to me and I like that Old Forester is the bourbon of choice.

Merle's Old Fashioned

Merle's Whiskey Kitchen Burger

Ehrler’s Ice Cream - Local ice cream shop with interesting flavors on the menu. I grabbed a two scoop cup of fluffernutter and bourbon pecan. The flavors were good but a little muted. I was hoping for a richer creamier taste. The interesting thing to me is as the ice cream melted, it seems to have a large dose of emulsifiers because the ice cream was keeping its shape despite being very melted.

Ehrler's Ice Cream

In Season - I had passed this eatery on the way to the Galt Hotel and decided to stop in one morning. I ordered the breakfast sandwich and beignets. One of the best beignets I’ve had is in this little shop for $5. They are only open Monday through Friday so if you’re in the area, stop by if you are here during the week. The breakfast sandwich was OK but there lunch menu seemed really interesting and was packed at mid day that I couldn’t try.

In Season Biegnets

Parlour - After running an errand, I decided to walk down to this pizza restaurant across the street from the Louisville Marriott. BTW, the Marriott is pretty swanky looking. I was met with friendly servers and reasonably priced foods. I had a personal pizza (10 inches) for $14 and old fashioned for $10 with Old Forester! I thought $13 was cheap but to find cheaper and with a little better quality cherries was my cherry on top meal. I ordered six smoked wings with habanero sauce on half and hot honey the other half. Awesome wings, it also came out piping hot. The hot honey pepperoni pizza was also good and came out piping hot.

Parlour Pizza Old Fashioned

Parlour Pizza Spicy Pepperoni

Garage Bar - I decided to check out a new area of Louisville and took a 20 minute walk to Garage Bar. A converted gas station turned pizza restaurant/bourbon bar. I was curious about the bulgogi pizza and wanted to see how that worked out. The service was friendly and quick. I really liked their brand of ginger beer (Barritt’s) and Old Grandad neat. The pizza was good, a little sweeter than expected but overall not bad. I would say Parlour is more my cup of tea for pizza but the wood fired pizza is very good here.

Garage Bar Seasonal Pizza

Louisville Cream - I wanted to compare ice cream shops and stopped at this ice creamery on the way out of Garage Bar. I also wanted to try the ding dongs they showcased in their pastry case. I ended up with a double scooop order of pistachio honeycomb and bourbon pecan. I would say Ehrler’s had a better bourbon pecan, and the pistachio wasn’t very pistachio.

Louisville Cream