Then there’s the equally humongous Louisville Slugger outside the baseball bat factory-turned-museum and try-your-skill attraction nearby. Downtown’s Museum Row on Main continues with the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft and yet another museum devoted to the life of local son Muhammad Ali — boxing champ and Vietnam War protester. (You can visit his grave in Cave Hill Cemetery, not far from that of another hometown hero, Col. Sanders, whose Kentucky Fried lives on.)
Exploring it all
Louisville was founded just steps from Main Street’s redbrick sidewalks and iron-pillar facades when George Rogers Clark set foot on land in 1778. Nowadays, the inviting city of 750,000 — the state’s largest, a mere two-hour flight from MSP — sports a circle of distinct neighborhoods worth a wander, aided by the free ZeroBus system that patrols the core. It’s just as well, for downtown’s Whiskey Row now boasts half a dozen distilleries open to tour and sip. Old Louisville is eye candy for fans of super-glam Victorian mansions — the largest such enclave in the entire country, centering around Central Park (designed by Olmsted, who did another one somewhere). The Highlands — sliced by Bardstown Road, aka restaurant row — boasts plenty of unique shopping ops. NuLu is the newly gentrified base for Bohos who live to eat, shop and gawk at galleries. Here, Please & Thank You sells coffee, cookies and vinyl records. Joe Ley has turned an entire redbrick schoolhouse into an eponymous trove of tempting antiques. Muth’s Candies has turned out Bourbon balls since 1921, while Revelry is new at the game of selling handmade local giftware. Butchertown claims honors as the ’hood on the rise, winning points for side-by-side establishments Hi-Five (doughnuts to die for), Stag + Doe (home accessories) and Louabull — sassy gifts like soaps dedicated to the Pope (“wash your sins away”) and Lady Macbeth (cleans damn spots). Butchertown Market is a near-zipcode-size cache of jewelry, accessories and chocolate. Downtown’s Fourth Street Live area sizzles with a marathon of bars we’re all too old for. Instead, head to bars like Check’s Café in Germantown, since 1944 serving fried bologna sandwiches, fried oysters, fried chicken livers and other winners. Or head to Lola’s, a spacious lounge for cosmo cocktails (mine: Lady Midnight). Or Mr. Lee’s — an intimate club with no sign on the door and lighting so low you might not recognize your spouse.
▲▲Gralehaus chef Andy Myers poses with some of his signature dishes. Photo courtesy of Greater Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau
Local delicacies
The national travel magazines are finally touting what I knew about Louisville all along: It’s the dining Mecca of the South. Think classic comfort food with a splash of bourbon and you get the idea. In fact, there’s an Urban Bourbon Trail, with designated stops for such restaurants, and another official crawl for those addicted to the city’s famous sandwich, the Hot Brown — turkey, bacon, tomato and cheese sauce on toast. (Both lists are available at the visitor center.) At Corner Bar in the new Aloft Hotel, we pigged out on pulled pork bourbon tacos. At Goss Avenue Bar in Germantown, it’s burgoo — a traditional beef stew with a shot of heat. Gralehaus, off Bardstown Road, touts Southern icons including a pimiento cheese and sweet-pickle sandwich, plus biscuits with duck-sausage gravy and maple syrup, duck cracklings and a sunny egg. And the best grits for miles around. Proof on Main, in the 21C, also markets killer grits, dolled up with bleu and Gouda, pickled peanuts and jalapenos. Minnesota Good Age / May 2017 / 25