Heading up to Louisville on Friday for the weekend. Just me and a buddy and we should get in around 1:00. We were thinking of hitting up a distillery or two (maybe even 3 if we had time or double down on a couple close ones in town). What are the best distilleries to visit and some other things to do and places to eat? We're thinking of touring Louisville Slugger too.
Going to the Louisville Game
- Thread starter fsugrad06
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No clue on the distilleries, but a tour of the bat plant would be cool.
Have fun, be interested to hear how friendly they are as a host.
Have fun, be interested to hear how friendly they are as a host.
I was up there for a trial about 10 years ago. We went to the Louisville Slugger museum. I thought it was interesting cool and it's a pretty quick walk through. We went out to Churchhill Downs to tour it. I thought it was a dump and it wasn't horse racing season. Most of the drinking was back at the hotel...can't help you on distilleries.
We did the Louisville Slugger Museum over the summer with my boys and enjoyed it. Because we had the boys, we didn't get to any distilleries. I hope to make a parents only trip sometime.
We were there over the summer and enjoyed just hanging out at Fourth Street Live. Was disappointed with the Slugger museum.
We were there for the 2016 game. Stayed downtown at the Galt House. It's in easy walking distance to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Fourth Street Live.
We stopped at the Makers Mark distillery on the way up. It was beautiful but well off the interstate. There were some others that were closer. Jim Beam is within a few miles of I-65.
We really enjoyed ourselves other than the 3 hours of the game.
We stopped at the Makers Mark distillery on the way up. It was beautiful but well off the interstate. There were some others that were closer. Jim Beam is within a few miles of I-65.
We really enjoyed ourselves other than the 3 hours of the game.
Great bourbon bar there. The fish swimming in the atrium bar startled me the first time we were sitting there.
As DFS mentioned, if you’re coming up from Atlanta or Tallahassee you won’t be THAT far off the track from visiting both Jack Daniels and George Dickel (it’s maybe a half hour sidetrip). Jack is of course rightfully famous but their tours are like Disney style tours (in a bad way, oversimplified and for people who don’t know how to distil) and you can only sample the mainstream products (I think it was regular Jack, gentleman Jack, honey Jack and that was it). Dickel on the other hand is much less crowded and you get an actual in depth tour and tasting including white dog straight from the tap unaged and can sample their entire line of whiskeys. I liked the Dickel tour better than all but two or three of the bourbon tours.
As far as the Bourbon distillery tours, I’ve been to most of them (I think I’m just missing Kentucky Peerless, Old Forester, Rabbit Hole, and Willett) and all within the past 5 years. The two best tours in my opinion are Makers Mark and Wild Turkey. Makers Mark gives you the most detailed, in depth explanation and goes so far as to have you taste the barley in raw, malted and cooked forms plus try the sour mash as it’s bubbling away in the giant open topped fermenters, plus you get to try (and buy only there unless something has changed) a white whiskey from them plus their entire line of commercially available whiskeys. Plus the grounds are gorgeous and they even have a large Chihuly art installation on their campus. Wild Turkey on the other hand isn’t quite as in depth and the buildings aren’t as magnificent as they are old and large factory in nature BUT the visitor Center is on a cliff overlooking a scenic river, you can taste their entire and truly extensive line of whiskies (rather than the 4 or 5 products at a place like Makers you’re talking a couple dozen including their higher end whiskeys, and one of the original makers is always there chatting and both signing and engraving autographs.
As far as bourbon distilleries to avoid my least favorite was Jim Beam. Unlike the other giant producer with dozens of products Wild Turkey, you can only sample their lowest end commercial products and their tour is the glossy but shallow Disneyfied tour you see at Jack Daniels but minus getting to see the cave source of their water (which is mildly interesting and makes for a decent picture). I did enjoy the tours at Woodford, Bulleit, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace and Angels Envy so once you did Makers and Wild Turkey I’d suggest doing those five next.
As far as places to eat IN Louisville, I haven’t had a lot of luck so far. I’ve eaten at the Brown Hotel, Winchells, and Captain Quarters Yacht Club as they came highly recommended and we tried the local specialty “hot brown” at each and we were never impressed. A local could probably give better advice but the main touristy hot spots (ie the ones I mentioned) were decidedly unimpressive. I don’t judge iconic restaurants harshly, Indy’s St Elmos Steakhouse, Tampa’s Berns and Columbia, OKC Cattlemen’s Steakhouse (not connected to a chain of the same name), New Orleans’ Commanders Palace and Brennan’s, Boston’s Parker House, Memphis’ Rendezvous and Dyers, Amarillo’s Big Texan Steakhouse, etc...are all old school iconic touristy spots that are good and live up to or exceed the hype. So far I haven’t found any iconic restaurants in Louisville that have lived up to the hype, they’re like Miami’s Joes Stone Crab and Versailles, still famous for no discernible reason other than the history. And the “hot brown” is probably the worst iconic food for a city I’ve had other than jellied eel and meat pies in London it’s definitely not on par with Tampa’s Cubans, Philadelphia’s CheeseSteak, Atlantic City’s Submarines, NYC’s bagles, Pizza and pastrami, OKCs Chicken Fried Steak, Maine’s Lobster Rolls etc...
If you find a really good restaurant in Louisville, let me know because I didn’t find one yet. BUT....sidenote, if you want to take a reasonable sidetrip (I think 2-3 hours round trip maybe) Moonlite BBQ in semi-nearby Owensboro really does live up to the hype. It’s in my top 10 BBQ restaurants I’ve been to and I make it a point on my travels to try the iconic and/or currently famous for quality BBQ. It might even be top 5 I’d need to think about it. The chopped and sliced bbq mutton which the region is famous for is FANTASTIC but the other meats were great as well.
Thanks for the info. I've done Jack Daniels before and enjoyed the tour. I've heard it depends on who your guide is. I went probably 7 years ago and they were not doing tastings at the time. Our guide did let us taste the unfiltered mash they use at the beginning of the process.
With the game being at 3:30, we won't have much time, so we're probably staying with the ones closer to Louisville. Angel's Envy requires booking the tour and is already full. Bulleit may be the only one we can hit and add in Jim Beam since it's not far. Wild Turkey is about an hour from the hotel, so, we may try that Saturday morning. Most of the times close up around 3:00 for tours and we'll be getting in around 1:30 on Friday. May be the time crunch and we hit whatever is open in the city.
Moonlite is a 4 hour round trip, hard pass with it just being a weekend trip. A girl in my office is from Kentucky (Lexington area, I think) and she's working on some tips. If anything is memorable, I'll be sure to share.
