New bourbon places in Louisville?

[tanstaafl2]

Looks like I will be making a brief pass through Louisville this Sunday evening the 12th. Anything new in town worth checking out for dinner and/or bourbon or other whiskey? Or should I just stick to the usual suspects?

 

Any suggestions welcome!

[Whiskey Dick]

pm sent

[gmiller598]

I'm interested in this as well. I'm staying in Louisville from 2/17-2/20 and hitting several distilleries. I'm looking for good shops to find stuff or restaurants/bars to hit while I'm there.


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[OldFitzWithTheGoldLabel]

My food recommendation is not a new place, but one that I recommend to everybody. It is Sicilian Pizza. Their meatball pizza is hands down the best that I have ever eaten. The place is a dive, but the pizza is divine. It is on the same block as the Brown Hotel (where you can get great bourbon). I can not recommend any other pizza there, because the meatball is so flawless that I can not order anything else. https://sicilianpizzapasta.net

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[gmiller598]

4 hours ago, OldFitzWithTheGoldLabel said:

My food recommendation is not a new place, but one that I recommend to everybody. It is Sicilian Pizza. Their meatball pizza is hands down the best that I have ever eaten. The place is a dive, but the pizza is divine. It is on the same block as the Brown Hotel (where you can get great bourbon). I can not recommend any other pizza there, because the meatball is so flawless that I can not order anything else. https://sicilianpizzapasta.net

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I my have to consider checking that out since I'm staying at the Brown while I'm there.

[Vosgar]

If you haven't tried Volare, I'd certainly recommend it. Definitely not a new place, but they have excellent Italian cuisine and it's kiddy-corner to Bourbon's Bistro, convenient for before and after dinner drinks

 

http://www.volare-restaurant.com/

 

 

 

 

[CardsandBourbon]

Bourbons Bistro

Gary's on Spring***** (two words LOBSTER BISQUE)

Marketplace Restaurant

North End Cafe

Varanese

Porcini's

Highland Morning (for breakfast)

Bistro 301

Bristol Bar & Grill (if you go get an order of the green chili won tons, don't question me on this, just do it!)

Havana Rumba

Joella's Hot Chicken

Selena's at Willow Lake Tavern

Noosh Nosh

 

There are others but these are all local and source a lot of their food locally and generally have a decent bourbon and wine list.

 

***** My favorite of all of these

 

[Paddy]

Anyone would be well rewarded to stop by Ramsi's Café On The World (Bardstown Road) for their world famous Sunday brunch!

 

http://www.ramsiscafe.com/ramsis-events/

[Kyjd75]

I like "Against the Grain" which is a brewery, bar and restaurant within the RiverBats baseball park on Main Street directly across from the new Angels Envy Distillery.  they have a great selection of bourbons, plenty of good food, and all their beers are brewed on site.  Also, plenty of free parking.  It is one of our favorite places to visit for food and drink when we go to Louisville.

[gmiller598]

29 minutes ago, Kyjd75 said:

I like "Against the Grain" which is a brewery, bar and restaurant within the RiverBats baseball park on Main Street directly across from the new Angels Envy Distillery.  they have a great selection of bourbons, plenty of good food, and all their beers are brewed on site.  Also, plenty of free parking.  It is one of our favorite places to visit for food and drink when we go to Louisville.

Yeah I think we were planning to go there when we get in town Friday night next weekend. They sell some of their beer here in OH and they make some pretty good stuff.

[Kyjd75]

10 hours ago, gmiller598 said:

Yeah I think we were planning to go there when we get in town Friday night next weekend. They sell some of their beer here in OH and they make some pretty good stuff.

If you do go, be sure and try the pork belly on a stick appetizer.  Served with molasses, they are delicious!

[tanstaafl2]

Thanks for the great suggestions! Unfortunately won't be there in time for Sunday brunch and a few places seem to be closed on Sunday evening so that limits the choices a bit but we can no doubt find something!

[Paddy]

We have faith in that you'll do just fine Bruce! 

 

You can always just do a 2 for 1 of the standards, and hit Bourbon's Bistro and the Silver Dollar!  One could always do much worse. 

[tanstaafl2]

Been a busy week! Made it to Louisville and ended up at Volare for dinner Sunday night. Fortunately one of the people I was traveling with made the reservation because he knew someone who knew someone who knew the chef. In any case they must know him pretty well because we were treated to the chef's tasting and it was fantastic! I could barely move afterwards.

 

But we started the evening at Bourbon's Bistro for a pour or three including their latest Four Roses selection (an OBSO I think but who can remember these things and I didn't get a picture to help me), their Makers 46 private barrel (ok but I liked a couple from Liquor Barn better I think) and then I took a chance and tried the latest Jefferson's Pritchard Hill Cabernet cask finished bourbon. It was better than I expected but don't know if it is enough to make me break my Jefferson's moratorium. Really strong red fruit/wine character quality. Not going to be something the bourbon purist would like but I enjoyed it.  

 

 

Then it was down to Four Roses on Monday morning where we are delighted to learn that 1) they were bringing back the OBSV 100 proof barrel pick in limited quantities and 2) we were going to be able to pick one! The five barrels were all 8 years and change but we managed to find one we liked. Then the next surprise was that we could pick not one but two barrels of cask strength bourbon! 10 barrels later we had our haul for the morning by adding an OESK for now and an OBSV for shipment later in the summer. They were the 2 best barrels of what we had available. Ages ranged from 8+ to at least one that was 10+ years  (An OBSO we really wanted to like but quite frankly just wasn't up to the other two. We picked them blind). As you can see I am leaning on the barrel because after tasting 15 barrels I needed the extra support!

 

 

After an obligatory stop at the Cox Creek gift shop where I picked up an Elliot selected OESK that looked to be a close relative of the one we picked it was time for us to stagger on back to Louisville to tour the beautiful Angels Envy distillery. Wes wasn't able to join us but I was able to catch up to him last night as he was in town for the annual AE cask strength event.

 

 

Now a little break is probably in order...

[Paddy]

Good work (and a nice report)!

[Vosgar]

Sounds like you guys had a great time!

 

It's a shame the Four Rose's barrels keep getting younger and younger. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to be in a group that was able to pick from some 10 and 11 yr barrels and they were head and shoulder's better than the 8 and 9 yr old's we were offered last year. It's great their business is so good that this has happened but I think it's taken some of the shine off of the private barrel program.

 

One question. You said "10 barrels later", did they have all 10 recipes available for you?

[flahute]

That's a solid days work Bruce! Thanks for the report.

 

Agree with Vosgar as well.

[tanstaafl2]

12 hours ago, Vosgar said:

Sounds like you guys had a great time!

 

It's a shame the Four Rose's barrels keep getting younger and younger. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to be in a group that was able to pick from some 10 and 11 yr barrels and they were head and shoulder's better than the 8 and 9 yr old's we were offered last year. It's great their business is so good that this has happened but I think it's taken some of the shine off of the private barrel program.

 

One question. You said "10 barrels later", did they have all 10 recipes available for you?

 

No, we weren't able to get either one of the Q's I believe so we had some duplicates. We tried to focus on O, K and F because we had done two V's last time. And yet once again an OBSV was one of the better barrels tasting blind so we went with it. I will have to get the list from my friend to recall what all the barrels were. But it was definitely all 8 and 9yo barrels except for a lone barrel at 10+. Unfortunately that oldest barrel was probably the worst of the bunch!

[Vosgar]

It's a shame you weren't able to taste either of the Q's. The last three years our group picked (blind) an OBSQ as one of our two selections

[tanstaafl2]

5 minutes ago, Vosgar said:

It's a shame you weren't able to taste either of the Q's. The last three years our group picked (blind) an OBSQ as one of our two selections

 

Wasn't for lack of asking! But we were happy with what we ended up with. I thought the OESK was pretty good and I look forward to trying it next to the gift shop OESK that had been resting nearby. Wish I could remember how to read the date off the barrel head but it escapes me at the moment.

[smokinjoe]

4 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

But it was definitely all 8 and 9yo barrels except for a lone barrel at 10+. Unfortunately that oldest barrel was probably the worst of the bunch!

 

Thanks, Bruce.  We all should remember this the next time we feel the need to denigrate distilleries for dropping age statements, or when age stated favorites become less available.  

[flahute]

3 hours ago, smokinjoe said:

 

Thanks, Bruce.  We all should remember this the next time we feel the need to denigrate distilleries for dropping age statements, or when age stated favorites become less available.  

Indeed. At our Elijah Craig pick last fall we wisely tasted blind and our first choice was 8 years and some months old. Clearly the best of the bunch. 

[NightCru]

Maybe I can piggyback on this thread.  There are some good recommendations in here that I plan to check out.  I'm going to be in downtown Louisville briefly from Monday - Wednesday next week.  If I could only go to one or two bars and restaurants in the area what would you guys recommend?  I'm looking for a wide bourbon selection and just plain good food.  Also, I was thinking of checking out the Liquor Barn while I'm down there.  Is that a good idea or is there another store that I would be wiser to check out?  Thanks for the help!

[silverc]

4 hours ago, NightCru said:

Maybe I can piggyback on this thread.  There are some good recommendations in here that I plan to check out.  I'm going to be in downtown Louisville briefly from Monday - Wednesday next week.  If I could only go to one or two bars and restaurants in the area what would you guys recommend?  I'm looking for a wide bourbon selection and just plain good food.  Also, I was thinking of checking out the Liquor Barn while I'm down there.  Is that a good idea or is there another store that I would be wiser to check out?  Thanks for the help!

 

Old Town Liquors in Louisville is also worth a stop aside from Liquor Barn. They have some nice store selects made by people who know good bourbon.

[NightCru]

12 hours ago, silverc said:

 

Old Town Liquors in Louisville is also worth a stop aside from Liquor Barn. They have some nice store selects made by people who know good bourbon.

Thanks for the recommendation!