The Mountains Are Calling... Part 7

But what of Part 6?

Walking around Louisville!

Since we woke up this Friday morning without a porch to sit on (sad, that), we got dressed and headed out on the town to find some morning grub.  Chris grabbed a coffee at Quills, while I went ahead to find a spot at our breakfast choice, Biscuit Belly.  This turned out to be unnecessary, as they were one of those "order at the counter, then grab a seat" places, and they had plenty of tables at the time.  

A nearby mural

Our morning delights -

all were delicious!

We were, of course, early for our first stop of the day, a tasting flight at Rabbit Hole Distillery, so we took our time wandering the NULU area, seeing what there was to see.  

The story goes that this thoroughfare was

originally used to walk racing goats to their

stalls/fields, hence the name.

More neat street art in NULU

When we were planning this trip, we figured three tasting/tours in one day would work well, so Chris selected three different distilleries, all within walking distance of one another and our hotel.  He picked one of the OGs (Old Forester), one newer distillery that still focused on traditionally styled options (Kentucky Peerless), and a third distillery that made some really interesting pours (Rabbit Hole).

Eventually, Rabbit Hole was ready for us, and we headed up to their tasting area/bar, way up on the fourth floor of their building.  The bourbon was great, and so was the view!

We didn't take the official tour,

but we still nosed around a bit on the way to the bar.

The view from the bar - 

looking toward the Big Four Bridge!

The different label series

created by local artists

Since we weren't doing an official tasting or tour, it didn't take us too long to finish at Rabbit Hole, and after settling up, we headed back down to their gift shop, where we found a bottle to bring home. Rabbit Hole was less than half a mile from our room at the Hancock House, so we stopped to drop our wares before heading out again, this time into downtown Louisville proper.  

Our next stop was for lunch at J. Graham's Cafe, inside the historic Brown Hotel.  Although the Brown Hotel has become well known for several things throughout the years, its most notable claim to fame is being the place that created the Hot Brown sandwich, a turkey and bacon offering smothered in delicious cheese sauce.  We've made our own budget hot brown at home, and while that was good (it's hard to find fault in a sandwich covered in melted cheese, after all), since we were in town, we figured we should stop in and taste the real deal.

This was pretty outstanding.

The salad we had to accompany it was less so,

which was a pretty common thing

we found on this trip.

A shot of downtown Louisville.

Traffic heads across the Clark Memorial Bridge

to Indiana, passing the KFC Yum! Center,

where the University of Louisville basketball teams play

Indeed!

 A lovely older building that's now...

a Spaghetti Factory.

At least it's still standing tall!

Post-lunch, we strolled the little over a mile distance to our second bourbon stop of the day, Old Forester.  Above, I mentioned that Old Forester was Chris' OG choice, and they truly are one of the grand statesmen of this particular game.  They've been producing bourbon whiskey continuously for just over 150 years, even through Prohibition (they were one of only six distilleries in the country granted licenses for medicinal production during that time period), and they're still doing a brisk business today.  Since they had all of that history and were currently entertaining visitors inside their original production facility in downtown Louisville, we figured we should pick this location to take our tour (we didn't plan to take a tour at each place, because, let's face it - after a while, all of these tours are essentially the same); we were really pleased we did.  The tour was only 75 minutes long, but it was comprehensive and interesting, and it included a side by side tasting of four of their spirits at the end (handy for comparing and contrasting the different styles of bourbon made by one distiller).

Chris in front of Big Penny,

the large still/distillation column at Old Forester.

While most of their bourbon is made

at another, much larger facility,

they still produce a bit here,

including some specialty/smaller run items.

The first part of our tour took us past the mash tuns

One of the mash tuns, all emptied out

I didn't realize how deep these guys were -

they went down further than the platform where we were standing,

and ended up being about 20 feet tall

Old Forester was actually named after

the Dr. Forrester shown in this ad,

a real live human

(the ad dates from Prohibition).

Old Forester has a cooperage (where barrels are made)

on site, and we were able to watch the cooper

build a few during our tour

Firing the inside of the barrel -

this allows the spirit that goes inside

to collect all of those yummy flavors and colors

seen in the finished product.

Our tour also included a stop in

the on-site barrel warehouse -

this area contains just a fraction of the barrels

in their larger, off-site facility.

We concluded our tour in the tasting room,

where our outstanding guide walked us through

the options in front of us,

and how they were different from one another.

In addition to a fun pin and other OF swag,

we also each received a modjeska,

a marshmallow and caramel candy covered in chocolate.

I'm not normally a raw marshmallow fan

(I prefer them carbonized in a campfire,

then shoved between a piece of chocolate

and two graham crackers),

but these were delicious.

The bottles that corresponded to our flights

After the tour, we thanked our guide, then headed back through the gift shop to pick up a few items (no bottles - we could buy most of these at home, so no need to shlep them across the country).  As we were heading out, however, we had to stop and watch some of the OF workers bring the newly created barrels down the barrel elevator and roll them across the sidewalk and into the waiting truck.

Heading out to be filled with the good stuff!

Well beyond fortified with spirit, we figured a snack was in order, so we popped next door to Doc Crow's; while I'd read awesome things about it, it was just fine, so no further notes or pictures shall be found here.  Once we settled our bill, it was back out on the town, headed toward our final bourbon destination of the day, Kentucky Peerless Distilling. As mentioned above, Peerless is a newer distiller, having been around since only 2019.  However, it's a very old name in bourbon; the original Peerless started making spirits in 1889.

On our way to Peerless,

we strolled past the Louisville Slugger

Museum and Factory.

We didn't stop here,

since the focus was more on the museum part than the factory,

and we didn't want to spend the dough required

to learn more about baseball,

a sport neither of us really enjoy.

However, I couldn't resist taking a picture with the giant bat.

It is pretty darn big.

The distillery cat

"Honey, I got to pet the cat!"

Instead of taking a tour, at Peerless,

we went through a guided tasting

of four of their offerings.

Our guide was knowledgeable,

but this was the end of the day,

we were sitting on hard, backless stools,

and I was pretty much done.

It was still good bourbon.

When the tasting was over, we skedaddled pretty quickly, stopping to grab a bottle in the gift shop (and a sticker for the beer fridge, of course).  Starting our long-ish stroll back to the hotel (about 1.5 miles, total), we wandered along the river, enjoying the breeze and the sights.

That's where we are!

Eventually, we made it back to the Hancock House, and we relaxed for a bit, starting to round things up for the packing that would eventually need to occur in earnest.  Just minutes before our 6:30 reservation, we wandered the 20 feet from our front door to Everyday Kitchen for our last dinner of the trip.  What a dinner it was!  Everything we had was totally outstanding - the wine and beer list was short but perfect, our server was funny and attentive, and the food was absolutely delicious.  I did not take a single picture, but here's one from the interwebs:

So cute!

The tv on the left behind the bar was showing

Bob Ross reruns while we were there.

After an amazing meal (and dessert!  It was so good I didn't miss the Publix cake!), we crossed the road back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening making as much progress as possible on our packing - we'd be leaving the next day!

On the final blog, we head home, but not before visiting Louisville's arguably most famous landmark.

Later!

Amy