louisville — Jen Ireland

“if bourbon ain’t the answer, you’re asking the wrong question”

- Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen

sunday | july 18

Louisville became the final leg of my nine week road trip for a few reasons: 1) it’s a short two and a half hour drive north from Nashville 2) I recently started enjoying bourbon and 3) I had never been, nor do I know when I would ever visit. So after flying back from my two week trip to Florida to see family and one final weekend in Nashville with Rebecca, I packed my car one last time and drove north on I-65 to visit a new state and new city for a week.

The drive was scenic and I passed a lot of corn fields. I know Nebraska is the “cornhusker” state, but I imagine Kentucky must be second in production of corn, because there’s a lot of it here. After some traffic and backroads, of which I passed a huge Jim Beam factory in the middle of nowhere, I made it to the city of Louisville.

Thankfully, the Airbnb I was staying in had an elevator - the first and only one in my entire trip! I unpacked my car and unfortunately had to figure out parking, since it wasn’t included with the Airbnb. Trying not to go into too many details, I basically had to move my car between a paid lot across the street and metered street parking every evening and day in order to avoid a ticket or being towed - it was annoying. But the actual Airbnb was quite nice - I think my Nashville studio could’ve fit in just the living room of the Louisville apartment. After unloading my car and finding a parking spot, I walked down to the river. It’s a straight shot down to the water from my apartment on 3rd St., just under a mile. The Ohio river is a lot wider than I thought it would be and there are so many bridges that go over it, connecting Kentucky to Indiana.

under the highway bridge to the ohio river

looking towards the i-65 bridge and pedestrian bridge

the kfc yum center where the louisville cardinals play basketball

I walked around the water for a bit and before I knew it, it was 8:00 p.m. I needed to go get some groceries for the week, so I headed back to my car and went to the nearest Kroger. I drove through some of historic Louisville and Germantown, which was a lot of tiny homes that sat very close to each other.
So far, my impression of Louisville as a city was not great. I had seen a lot of trash and just dirty streets on my walk. The houses and buildings I passed on the way to Kroger were very old, a lot of them dilapidated or just rough looking and most of the people I passed looked homeless or on drugs. On my way back from Kroger, I decided I wouldn’t stay out once it was dark in Louisville - which was thankfully not until after 9:00 p.m. I guess because Kentucky is more north, the sun stays up longer in the summer, which made the days seem longer than usual.

On my Sunday walk to the river and throughout the week, I passed a lot of wall art (mostly on 3rd St.). Below are all the murals, I call them “Lou-art”.

monday | july 19

First day of working from Kentucky and I went for a run down to the river on my lunch break. I went more East than I went on Sunday and found a cute little park with a structure by the water. I also saw that apparently the river floods because the entire part of where I ran was built to take on water and there were huge markers on the legs of the bridges to show how deep the water is.

As I walked back to the apartment, I came up 4th St. and stumbled upon “4th Street Live” which is a little area of the street that’s blocked off to cars and has several restaurants and bars and even a dualing piano bar. It seemed like a cool area and it was just 2 blocks from my place, so I made a note to go back later in the week.

I had a dinner reservation at the Brown Hotel to try Louisville’s famed dish - the Hot Brown. In searching for places to eat online, I found that the Hot Brown is a Louisville staple and something that put their food scene on the map. It came to fame when in the 1920’s the chef at the Brown Hotel realized he needed to get some food into the empty bellies of the drinkers and dancers who stayed at the bar into the wee hours of the night. He threw some bread into a cast iron skillet and topped it with big pieces of turkey and Mornay sauce, which is kind of like combination of a gravy and alfredo sauce, but not garlicky. He then topped it with pecorino cheese and put a sliced roma tomato on the side and roasted it until it was bubbly and very hot. Everyone loved it, so the Brown Hotel put it on the menu. I wanted to try the Hot Brown because I like all the things in it and it sounded pretty unusual, so I made a reservation to eat in the bar/lobby (not as fancy as their actual restaurant and a little bit cheaper). The hotel is very old school fancy and this was definitely a fine dining experience. My reservation email even said to dress business casual!

I sat at a table and to my surprise, there were two other tables of single women eating Hot Browns - that made me feel less lonely eating by myself. I ordered their “petite” Hot Brown, which the server said is about 5/8’s of the original size, a Caesar salad and an Old Fashioned. The Old Fashioned was made with Old Forester bourbon and was the best Old Fashioned I’ve had. It was also very large - not only the ice cube, but I think they put more alcohol in the drink than usual. The Caesar salad was good, but this place was so fancy, they put an actual, WHOLE anchovy on top of the salad - barf! I moved the fish off the lettuce and pretended like it wasn’t there. I don’t know if I was imagining this because I saw the fish, but I did think the Caesar dressing was pretty fishy tasting; still good though. And finally, the Hot Brown came out piping hot as ever. I had to wait a while for it cool down and as the server said, “There’s a reason it’s called the ‘Hot’ Brown.” The Mornay sauce was sooo delicious - very creamy, very rich. The turkey was juicy from being buried under the sauce and the cheese gave it a nice saltiness. I couldn’t really find the bread that was buried underneath it all, so I asked for more bread on the side, and they brought out some deliciously toasted and thick bread slices to accompany all the Mornay sauce. I ended up bringing about half of the Hot Brown home with me and ate it for dinner on Tuesday. If you’re ever in Louisville, get a Hot Brown!

tuesday | july 20

I didn’t do much on Tuesday, other than work out at the Orange Theory that was about 2 miles away. I had wanted to work out more often, but with the parking situation at the apartment, I didn’t want to move my car unless it was in the evening/after work. So I took a class at 5:30 p.m. and it was great seeing yet another Orange Theory studio. It was here that I started noticing how everyone I had met in Kentucky so far had been incredibly friendly and nice.

wednesday | july 21

My first day of seeing what Louisville is really made of - bourbon! I had a tasting tour set for Angel’s Envy at 4:30 p.m., so when I wrapped up working for the day, I walked the little over a mile to Angel’s Envy. Although the parking situation wasn’t great, I started immediately regretting walking because I passed by some new areas that were even worse than the ones I’d seen before. Every corner had people on the side asking for money and across from the distillery was an overpass that was littered with tents where people were living. Typically, I feel comfortable walking by myself in a city, such as Nashville, Austin, DC, even Orlando. But I did not feel comfortable walking around Louisville. I just stayed hyperaware of my surroundings the whole time.

wall art next to angel’s envy distillery

Once at the distillery, I went upstairs to do the tasting. Unfortunately, due to COVID, they were not offering tours of the distillery, so we did a tasting of the bourbon and their rye whiskey. Our tasting guide was named Rick and he started off by singing us a little tune that went something like this, “Bourbon in the morning, bourbon in the evening, bourbon at supper time!” He had a surprisingly good voice and set the vibe for the tasting… we knew we would have a good time. Since this was the first bourbon tasting I was doing, I think I learned the most from Rick. I learned the ABC’s of bourbon (A: must be made in America, B: must be aged in a barrel that has never been used and C: the mash must be made of at least 51% corn. Rick rattled off the D, E and F too, but I cant’t remember them. I also learned about “Kentucky Chews” and “Kentucky Hugs”. The Kentucky Chew is the term used for the first proper drink of bourbon. To fully enjoy your bourbon, one should take a small sip and swish it around in your mouth like mouthwash for roughly 10 seconds and then swallow. Rick said this process helps numb the pain receptors in the mouth so that subsequent sips will be more pleasant and have less burn. The Kentucky Hug is that warm feeling you get in your lungs as you swallow the bourbon (although, this can be a term used for any alcohol).

So, we started off by giving our little bourbon taster a Kentucky Chew and a few more sips before unveiling the chocolates to be paired with the drink. With the bourbon, we took a bite of the milk chocolate that had a hint of orange mixed in. The chocolate was surprisingly really good and it helped boost the flavors in the bourbon. In addition to the chocolate, Rick instructed us to pour a few drops of water into the bourbon. This helps the bourbon “open up”, meaning it’s flavors and tannins will come through more. During our sips, we got a little history of Angel’s Envy and learned where the name came from. When making bourbon, there’s a percentage of the liquid that is lost while it sits in the barrel - it’s evaporated and the term used for this product loss is called “Angel’s Share”. It came from people saying that the angel’s took that part of the bourbon and drink it in the heavens. Well, when Lincoln Henderson was making his bourbon, he said “he’ll give something for the Angels to envy” and that’s where the name came from.

After finishing our bourbon, we tried the rye whiskey. Angel’s Envy makes their rye whiskey differently than most other distilleries because they age the whiskey in Caribbean barrels from Puerto Rico. This give the rye a tropical flavor, almost like rum. With the rye whiskey we ate the white chocolate angel. It too paired really well with the tropical flavors of the rye. I really liked both whiskeys, and the rye was something very unique.

bourbon (left), ice cube for the bourbon, water and rye whiskey (right)

the orange chocolate (left) and white chocolate angel (right)

After the tasting was over and I bought a bottle from the gift shop, I walked across the street to Against the Grain Brewery. I had seen it on the map and Rick mentioned they make really good beer and smoke their own BBQ meats. Since it was literally across the street within the Louisville Slugger Baseball field, I figured I’d try it out. I sat at the bar and ordered the Pool Boi Light, which was a light American lager. It was decent, but nothing super special.

When I finished up at Against the Grain, I walked a few blocks to Royal’s Chicken. I found Royal’s listed on Food Networks list of restaurants to try in Louisville and it’s known for it’s hot chicken, so I figured I’d keep that train rolling. I got two strips at “hot” level, a side of macaroni and cheese and two dipping sauces: the Alabama white BBQ and Mississippi Comeback sauce. The chicken was pretty good and the strips were huge… the biggest I’d received yet. They had a good amount of heat on them and were very saucy. I ended up really liking the Alabama white BBQ sauce and wasn’t a huge fan of the MS Comeback. The mac and cheese was also good, but as the cashier described it “it’s not the best macaroni and cheese, but it’s gotten me through some rough nights”, which is what sold it for me.

As I walked to Royal’s I passed several cute little bars and restaurants and decided on my way back, I’d stop at one. I decided to grab a drink at Garage Bar, which was on the corner of a street and had a huge front yard/patio. I got the High Heat cocktail, which was jalapeño infused Old Forester, lemon, sugar and Peychaud’s bitters. The jalapeño was very strong, but really good. It took me a while to finish the drink, but towards the end I had to hurry because the sun was setting and I did not want to be caught this far away from my place at night… I had a long walk ahead of me.

corner of garage bar from where i sat outside

thursday | july 22

My second tasting tour came on Thursday when I visited Old Forester. This was a last minute tour that I booked. I wanted to try it because by now, I had had multiple drinks in Louisville that used Old Forester and I’d never heard of it before. It was also conveniently the closest distillery to where I was staying, so I knew exactly where to go. Old Forester, along with Angel’s Envy, Evan Williams and several others, are all located on one street up from the river on Main St. I walked the almost one mile up to Main an Old Forester is almost on the corner. As I approached the distillery doors, there was a line of about five or six people outside. I asked what they were waiting for and they were in line to get a limited edition, special release of Old Forester’s President Selection bourbon. Upon further inquiry, I found out the bottle sells for $179 a pop, so I went on inside and minded my own business. The tasting tour took place in George’s bar, which is closed due to COVID. There were tastings set up on the tables that included three different bourbons.

Our tasting guide was very knowledgable and passionate about bourbon. She gave us a history of Old Forester and why their claim to fame is that they were the “first bottled bourbon”. Back in the day, bourbon was hard to find and was scarce, so people would find ways of extending the bourbon by adding things like paint thinner, turpentine, gasoline, etc. This is where the term “drinking moonshine will make you go blind” comes from. People were literally going blind and dying from drinking some of the bourbon being sold. The man who started Old Forester was a pharmaceutical salesman and since bourbon was considered medicine prescribed by doctors, he needed the bourbon he was selling to be legit. So, he found a way to bottle the bourbon in a glass bottle and seal it. He also signed every bottle with his signature as a way of showing that he certified the bourbon was safe to drink.

After our history lesson, we tried the three bourbons: OF 1870 Original Batch, OF 1910 Old Fine Whisky and the Bottled in Bond Bourbon. I liked the 1910 bourbon the most - our tasting guide described it as a great bourbon to drink on a summer day with some ice. It was a little less strong and easier to drink straight. The Bottled in Bond was something special because as I would learn, in 1964, Congress passed the Bottled in Bond act which gave certain specifications for bottling bourbon. These include: the bourbon must be aged at least 4 years in a barrel, it must be exactly 100 proof, it must be made by one distiller at a single distillery in one season and then aged in a bonded warehouse. Not all bourbons are Bottled in Bond, so this one was special and it gives the drinker an assurance that the bourbon is of high quality and legit. The funny thing about the Bottled in Bond act is that it was the first piece of legislation to pass regarding food or drink… in fact it was enacted four years before the Food and Drug Administration was founded. So you can see how seriously America takes its National Spirit.

inside the OF gift shop - the brass distillery is an original

After sipping the three bourbons at Old Forester and buying some merchandise from the gift shop, I walked across the street to Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen. Merle’s came up several times when I Googled “places to eat in Louisville” and it was directly across the street from Old Forester. The restaurant reminded me of a place in Austin that’s really big, with several different levels and encompassed by old brick. I found a seat at the bar and admired the fully stocked bourbon and whisky bar in front of me. They even had several different varieties of Pappy Van Winkle. Although I was in town to drink bourbon, I did see that Merle’s had a unique margarita that had won some “Best in Louisville” awards and it happened to be half off at Happy Hour, so I ordered the margarita instead of bourbon. I also got some garlic parmesan fries, a fried chicken taco and a wild mushroom (vegan) taco. All the food was good and I enjoyed watching the bartenders pour exotic glasses of bourbon.

friday | july 23

In searching for different distilleries to try, I found that the only ones with some available reservations fell on Friday, so I decided to take a day off work in order to get my fill of bourbon while in Kentucky. Of all the distilleries there were to try, I wanted to see Bulleit the most because it’s been my bourbon of choice when buying it at the store or as a drink at a bar. Bulleit also has a special place in my heart because I’ll always remember when I first heard of it - I was working as a server at Fifth & Thomas in Tallahassee and a man ordered a Bulleit and coke. I had no idea what he meant so I asked the bartender. I then learned that it was a bourbon and based off the price that we were charging for it, I assumed it was pretty good bourbon. And it is, I’d rank it somewhere in the middle of affordability and taste - better than Jim Beam or Wild Turkey, but not as good as Buffalo Trace.

The only reservation time Bulleit had available was at 10 a.m. on Friday, so I woke up, ate some breakfast and drove the 45 minutes out to Shelbyville to go drink bourbon in the morning, which isn’t that strange when you’re in Kentucky. Once off the highway, the drive to Bulleit was scenic and the facility was gorgeous. They do have several buildings and warehouses, and what I saw was basically just the gift shop and some tasting rooms. The main facility where they make the bourbon is a few miles down the road.

inside barrels people have written their names on

The tasting I signed up for was called a “Sensory Tasting”. I didn’t meant to sign up for this one, but it turned out to be the one that worked best with my schedule. I wasn’t too sure what I was getting into, but learned once I sat down that the experience is around the five senses. With each sample, the lights would change to different dimness or color, the music would change and we would sniff different canisters that accompanied the bourbon. As we went down the line, we would smell and tasting the bourbon first and talk about what we smelled/tasted. Then, we would take the canister that matched it and smell what was inside. Smells varied between one with dried citrus and vanilla to one with nutmeg, cinnamon and all-spice. After smelling the canister, we’d then take another sip of the bourbon and notice the difference in flavor. It was almost like magic how the bourbon would have a totally different flavor after smelling the scents beforehand. This wasn’t like any tasting I’d done before, but I learned a lot and really enjoyed the science behind how our senses work.

After trying the bourbons, I bought a bottle of their Single Barrel bourbon from the gift shop and sat outside on their beautiful patio. I was needing to kill some time before heading to the next distillery.

From Bulleit I headed back towards Louisville and stopped along the way at Jeptha Creed. I had never heard of Jeptha Creed before, but it showed up on the official map of the Bourbon Trail, so I thought I’d tried it since it was on my way back to town and not far from Bulleit.

Jeptha Creed offered a free tasting of their different spirits, so I signed up for that and am glad I did. They actually specialize (right now) in making vodka. They had different flavors of vodka, like coffee, honey, apple, blueberry and hot pepper & garlic vodka. Because they are a young distillery, they only have one bourbon and it’s aged 3.5 years. In the tasting, I tried the blueberry vodka, coffee vodka, honey vodka, hot pepper vodka and the bourbon. I did not like the bourbon at all and the blueberry vodka burned a lot. I really liked the honey, coffee and hot pepper vodka and ended up buying a bottle of the hot pepper vodka. They said it goes well in Bloody Marys and people often cook with it to make sauces. I stuck around after the tasting and ordered a Bloody Mary that they make with the hot pepper vodka and sat outside. It was a beautiful, sunny summer day and I enjoyed just relaxing on their gorgeous and spacious patio.

my samples from the tasting at the bar - (l-r) blueberry vodka, honey vodka, coffee vodka, bourbon and the hot pepper & garlic vodka

I finished my delicious Bloody and sat outside in the warm Kentucky for a bit before heading back to town. Since I wasn’t about to leave a $75 bottle and several other bottles of craft liquor in my car, I ran up to the apartment to put everything up and freshen up a bit. I then strolled around the block to try a Sefier Mediterranean. This was a little restaurant that always showed up on my maps when I was Googling where I was. It had a really high rating, with lots of reviews and only one dollar sign, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was definitely a “no-frills” place, but the food was amazing and so inexpensive. I ordered a falafel plate, which came with a side salad and saffron rice and a side of tahini and garlic white sauce. I sat down at a table in front of a huge, loud fan that blew directly on me as I buzzingly ate my entire box of food. The falafel was really good, super crunchy on the outside and still moist on the inside. The rice was also really good and I always enjoy the garlic sauce that Mediterranean and Middle Eastern place include in their meals.

After being completely glutinous on the falafel, I walked the mile to Main St. and took a left to make my way to Evan Williams - the final distillery of my tour. I hadn’t heard much of Evan Williams before, but based off the bottle I inferred that it was not very expensive bourbon. However, this was not just a tasting or a tour, this was the “Evan Williams Experience”. After checking in, I joined the tour group and our guide through many different rooms of the building as an interactive movie played the history of Evan Williams. Evan was a local of Louisville and was made the commander of the wharf way back in the 1800’s. He oversaw the boats coming in and out of the river and made bourbon on the side. Eventually, his bourbon became very popular and through other owners, it is what it is today. We also saw some huge vats of mash being boiled before making our way to the tasting room.

The “bar” where our tasting took place was upstairs and in an exact replica of what Main St. resembled in the 1800’s. We took our seats at the bar with four tastings in front of us and a bourbon ball for dessert. I don’t recall any of the bourbons tasting distinctly different from one another, but they all differed in shade of brown and the last one was definitely the best - I believe it was a single barrel. The bourbon ball was also delicious and paired very nicely with the last taste.

After the tasting, I made my way through the gift shop, bought a Christmas tree ornament and was eventually back on Main St. with no place to be. I walked a few blocks west since I hadn’t been this far west yet and found a giant gold statue of David on the corner of Main and 7th. I have no idea why it’s there, but it’s there and I took a picture.

I decided since I’d had such an early start to my bourbon drinking and a fairly late lunch, I’d walk back to the apartment and stay in for the night.

saturday | july 24

After an easy night in and a good night’s sleep, I woke up Saturday to go have some fun in the sun on the Ohio River. When I booked my Airbnb, I found this experience on Airbnb hosted by a woman named Mimi who owned a coffee shop and did paddleboarding on the side. I headed over to our meeting spot, at dock E at the Marina, but grabbed a breakfast sandwich from her coffee shop, Endless Summer Coffee.

Mimi was very friendly and peppy (as was everyone in Louisville) and took myself and three others out for a group paddle at 10:30 a.m. We would paddle out of the docks and marina and between the land and Towhead Island until we got to the opening of the Ohio River. She estimated in total, it was about a mile and a half distance. Mimi was clearly on the water a lot, as everyone we passed on their boats or the shore said hello to her and they had little chit-chatty conversations across the water. We were out on the water for an hour and a half and made it back to the docks at noon.

paddling between the docks and towhead island

out on the ohio river, next to the big four bridge

out on the ohio river, past the big four pedestrian bridge

view from my board, with some others from our paddling group

After saying bye to Mimi and the other paddlers, I drove back towards town and stopped off to go on the Big Four Bridge - the pedestrian bridge that goes from Kentucky to Indiana across the water. Mimi said that the bridge used to be a train track, and it still looks like one, with it’s huge iron legs and covering. I walked up the step spiral to the top of the bridge and after about 10 minutes was on the other side of the water, officially in Indiana. I took a lot of pictures while up there and then walked back to my car. The whole day I was amazed at how great the weather had been that day, and the entire week I had been there. It never seemed to get about 85 degrees and even then, there was usually a breeze that cooled things down. The air was also pretty dry, which made it seem cooler.

view from the kentucky side of the big four bridge

the big four pedestrian bridge, looking like a true old railroad

view from the indiana side of the bridge, looking out to downtown louisville

facing the east side of kentucky (right) and indiana (left) - towhead island on the right

view of the west side of the river, looking out to downtown (left) and indian (right)

I went home to wash up and change clothes before heading to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum and spending my last day in the city. The Louisville Slugger Factory is actually just one block west from the Evan Williams Experience, so I knew exactly where I needed to go. I got there and it was like an amusement park - so many people and there didn’t seem to be much organization. There was a gift shop, a wall of signatures by all those who were endorsed by Louisville Slugger and a museum. I walked around the museum some and saw a bat that Babe Ruth used, along with some notes from him. I also read some baseball history and learned who players were. Unfortunately, my baseball knowledge is very limited, so I’m sure I didn’t enjoy the museum as much as others would.

Once it was 3:30, it was time for my tour group to start. We gathered at the entrance and walked into the factory. Each stop along the way was about five minutes in length where they showed us a step in the bat making process. There was a wall of names of professional baseball players and their billets (a billet is the wood that’s been made into a cylinder from the tree) that were reserved for them, which I thought was really cool and showed how the bats are actually being used and who they’re made for. We moved on to see how the billets are shaved down into their bat shape, how they are painted, dipped and engraved. At the end, we all got our own mini bat. The mini bats were all a deep blue color and have an engraving on the end that says it’s their 25th anniversary. I learned later, that the bats are usually just wood, and therefore I got a very special bat.

the largest baseball bat in the world (literally, it holds a guiness world record)

major league players’ billets getting preppared to be turned into bats

With my mini bat in hand, I walked down Main St. back to an area I was familiar with - there were a few more places I wanted to check off my list. First, was the Bluegrass Brewery on the corner of Main and 3rd. I had walked by it everyday and wanted to try a beer, since their slogan was “Beer is Food”. I sat at the bar and ordered the Summer Wheat beer. It was pretty good for a wheat beer and this is where I learned how unique my mini bat was, as a server started asking me why it was blue and said it must be special.

the front structure of the buildings remains, with a art/skate park in the back - i thought it looked cool

After drinking my beer at Bluegrass, I headed across the street to Bearno’s pizza - another place I had passed by multiple times and wanted to try. Earlier while paddleboarding, Mimi has asked if I’d eaten anywhere good while in Louisville. I told her about the Hot Brown and how I wanted to try a place near the water called Bearno’s, which advertised “Louisville-style pizza”. She told me that Bearno’s is good, but they put A LOT of toppings on their pizza - I guess that’s what makes it “Louisville-style”. Bearno’s was on the next corner from Bluegrass Brewing, so after I drank my beer, I walked over and got a table for one to enjoy some pizza. I ordered an individual size of the Veggie Special pizza, which came packed with mushrooms, green and black olives, diced tomatoes and green peppers and lots of cheese. Mimi was right, the pizza was absolutely stuffed with the toppings and were underneath the cheese, not on top. It was really good though and I enjoyed every bite. I even had leftovers to bring with me to eat later.

Walking back to the apartment, I didn’t want to stay in on my last evening in Louisville, so I put my pizza in the fridge and headed back downstairs for one last hoorah. I wanted to try the rooftop bar, EightUp, at the Hilton that was on the same block as my place. I had tried to go on Monday, but it was closed to a private party. This time, literally as I was walking up about to step through the sliding glass doors, an attendant at the hotel was taping a sign up on the doors that said EightUp was closed to walk-ins and only accepting those with reservations… two strikes and I was out. After my failed attempt of seeing Louisville from high up, I walked to Fourth St. Live! to a place I’d passed many times by now called Whiskey Row. It was exactly what it sounds like - a bar that served almost entirely whiskey. Since I’d tried five different whiskeys from the source, I wanted to try one that I hadn’t had the chance to visit, so I ordered the Four Roses Single Barrel - straight. I didn’t realize when I said “straight” that it meant no ice, but it was fine. I pretended I was back at a tasting and followed it with nosing and my Kentucky Chew, Kentucky Hug. Since it was a Saturday and my last night, I wanted to end things on an Old Fashioned, so I ordered one of those too and it was a great way to close out my week in the city. I walked back to my apartment one last time as the sun was setting and began to pack my belongings one last time.

four roses singl barrel straight at whiskey row

sunday | june 25

It was finally time to pack my car and head back south to the place I call home. I think the stress of having to drive 10+ hours is what woke me up before my alarm at 6:45 a.m. I took the chance of early rising to eat my leftover Bearno’s and lug my things down to my car. Thankfully, this was the first place I’d stayed on my trip that had an elevator, so it could’ve been worse. After the last bag and bottle of bourbon were packed away, I started my car and headed for interstate 65.

epilogue

Two and a half hours later, I stopped in Nashville for a bio break and to get some Five Daughters Donuts to bring home to Aron. I went to the location in L + L Market and ordered the Parent Trap (peanut butter buttercream and oreo and peanuts on top), two mini pink lemonade and a mini chocolate frosting donut. I also got an iced coffee from local roaster, Honest Coffee to help with the long trip.

louisville.

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