Andrew Delaplaine - Louisville--The Delaplaine 2021 Long Weekend Guide

LOUISVILLE

The Delaplaine

2021

Long Weekend Guide

No business listed in this guide has provided anything free to be included.

Andrew Delaplaine

Louisville Editor

Levi Beckley

Senior Editors

Renee & Sophie Delaplaine

Senior Writer

James Cubby

Copyright by Gramercy Park Press - All rights reserved.

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Chapter 1

WHY LOUISVILLE?

I f you follow the booze industry, or even hang out in semi-fashionable bars and lounges anywhere in the world, you cant have escaped the realization that bourbon has become one of the hottest categories in the spirits business.

Kentucky is the Bourbon Capital of the World, and within the Bluegrass State, the epicenter of all this activity is Louisville. People come here before they go out into the hinterlands to visit the distilleries. (Actually, the town of Bardstown, about 40 minutes from Louisville, trademarked the term Bourbon Capital of the World, but thats hair-splitting.)

The amount of bourbon selling each year goes up greater than any other spirit. Sales will top $5 billion shortly. Production of the liquor has jumped 50% just over the last decade.

If you added up all the barrels currently aging in Louisville distilleries, the number would be greater than the number of people that live in the state, and for that matter, the number of horses, combined!

Now, thats a lot of bourbon.

A great deal of the increase in bourbon shipments has been to foreign countries, places like Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, where a taste for bourbon has become all the rage among the moneyed elites in these countries. The greatest growth has come within the super premium categories.

As sales have soared against other segments of the liquor industry (vodka, tequila, gin, Scotch), the so-called Big Six distilleries (including Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Brown-Forman, Wild Turkey, Four Roses and Diageo) have ramped up production.

T he new keen interest from consumers has proved strong enough to encourage numerous entrepreneurs to launch craft distilleries. And while the Big Six still gobble up sales, accounting for some 90%, theres room enough for these craft distilleries to make a dent because they tend to produce only high-end, handcrafted bourbons that are highly prized.

All these factors have led to an increase in tourism for Louisville and the rest of the state. Tourists visiting distilleries passed the 500,000 mark recently, and the numbers keep rising.

Along with all this attention, the indie foodie scene in Louisville has exploded, with great new restaurants popping up every week.

But its not all about bourbon in Louisville. The city has a fascinating history, made even more notable by what happens the first Saturday in May.

That marks the annual running of the Kentucky Derby, of course. It was conceived in 1872 when Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. (grandson of the Lewis & Clark Expeditions William Clark) returned from a European tour having attended the English Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris at the famous racetrack Longchamps.

Once back home, he put together the Louisville Jockey Club and raised money to build a track. (The track gets its name from brothers Henry and John Churchill, who contributed the land for the track.) Its been run every year since 1875.

Its been called "The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports," and Ive always wondered what brilliant PR guy came up with that stupendous moniker. It sounds like hype, but if youve ever seen the Kentucky Derby, youll realize its not hype at all. It really is the most exciting two minutes in sports. The Derby record is still held by Secretariat, who ran the race in 1:59.

The race is 1 miles long. The Derby is the first race in the Triple Crown. After the Derby, the second leg is the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore (at 1 3/16 miles), following by the Belmont Stakes (at 1 miles).

The city fathers have been trying to create more of a year-round tourist city out of Louisville, and the bourbon industry seems to be aiding this goal. As I said above, the interesting food scene is helping as well.

After the Downtown area, youll want to explore Highlands for its excellent shopping. This is on Bardstown Road (from around Broadway down to the Douglass Loop) where youll find a wide variety of cafs, upscale restaurants, art galleries, lots of bars (some great dives as well).

You hear all kinds of weird pronunciations of the towns name. You even hear the god-awful Lewisville, which is so wrong. Then theres LOOey-vil and LOOuh-vuhl and LU-vuhl .

In my opinion, the best way is: LOOuh-vuhl.

Chapter 2

GETTING ABOUT